Help on picking out lighting?

[Aquarist123]

Hello everyone. I'm going to set up a 20L SW setup in the very near future, I have most the details with filtration, parameters, stand, canopy and LR ironed out, but I'm still not sure on lighting. I'm planning on keeping easy stuff once the tank gets matured and stable, stuff like zoas and shrooms. I know I won't ever get into the advanced stuff.

I would like to mount the fixture into the canopy somehow. There are so many choices to make in sw compared to fw, I wish lighting was just clearcut. T5? PC? MH? Since I'm just beginning I would like to spend as little possible ( I know you did not want to hear that). So in short, whats the most inexpensive lighting I can use for a 20L that would still sustain easy/intermediate corals? Thanks for your time.

 

[Wolf3101]

PC would be your best option IMO. your tanks too small for MH to be workable and T5's would need several tubes, restricting access to the tank.

 

[tunerX]

yeah power compact. Get a retrofit kit and you can mount that in your canopy. Check to see what your corals like. You can get 50/50 pc bulbs to get a different mix of 6700/10k/actinic.

 

[Aquarist123]

Ok, I'm going to make an order from bigals to start off, so I was browsing on there for lighting. Is this something that I'm looking for?
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...l0/coralifeaqualightretrofitkit241x65watt5050
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsU...life24aqualightpowercompactstriplight1x36watt
or am I missing something here...

 

[Wolf3101]

Yes...thats what your looking for.

 

[Aquarist123]

Ah, thanks. BTW Wolf, I like your sig

 

[Wolf3101]

Thanks...post some pics of the tank when it's set up. We have 12 tanks up and running and so far all of them are fresh. All of my salt expierance comes from when I ran a tank set-up and maintance servace a few years back.

 

[Aquarist123]

Oh yeah, I know how much MFK likes pics. Hopefully I will have 12+ tanks someday...I can't wait to get this project started!

 

[jmitchell]

I know this is old, but I disagree with the assumption that a 20L is too small for metal halide. I have a 20L right now with metal halide and it does wonderfully. The light was used previously on a 10g tank and the corals grew like weeds with the metal halide. I believe metal halide can be used in anything 10g or larger. Just my .02!

-LJ

 

[ShadowBass]

I know this is old, but I disagree with the assumption that a 20L is too small for metal halide. I have a 20L right now with metal halide and it does wonderfully. The light was used previously on a 10g tank and the corals grew like weeds with the metal halide. I believe metal halide can be used in anything 10g or larger. Just my .02!

-LJ

There's no need for it on a 20L with some polyps and shrooms though. I have 124 watts of CF on my 20L. Everything looks great and grows so fast it's ridiculous. When I had 96 watts on there everything still looked good and grew fast but not quite as much.
Halides just aren't necessary for normal purposes on such a low tank *shrug*. Maybe with hard corals, but I think it would be way overkill with some simple zoas and shrooms, lol. You'd probably be scraping them off the sides of your glass.

This is the one I have on my 20L http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+9654+13734&pcatid=13734, plus a 28watt that I had laying around from a previously planted 10g (just switched the 6500k out)