Pico lighting

[slinky]

Hi, I have a Pico 2.5 (or 3) gallon tank. (got a few zoas and shroom).
Also got a 18 watt florescent light (those corallife light fixture).

would it be too much for mushroom?
would it be too little for SPS? (any SPS can be happy with those lights?)

Thanks

 

[brianjfinn]

No and yes. Should be fine for almost all softies, but not enough for sps. There are a few people selling lighting that would be perfect for your tank if you want to keep sps. Look for a clip on metal halide fixture or an LED fixture.

 

[bdesper311]

if you want sps look at evil 66's par 38 lamp on nanocustoms.com, had one and loved it!

 

[slinky]

I kept them at work so I can be reefing 18 hours a day, hehe. might look into LED ones (how many watts should I get for SPS). right now, the tank temperature is 80 at night, 82 with the lights on. I have a pair of goby and shrimp, MH would jackup the temparature even higher, right?

 

[brianjfinn]

A 70 watt metal halide about six inches above the water shouldn't have much of an effect on tempurature.

 

[bdesper311]

If you use LED's you will have no issue with heat, the fixture I had emits the same amount of light as a 150 W metal halide, but only uses 21 W and burns for up to 50,000 hours without loosing intensity... I wish my metal halides could do that. Here is the link to the one I had.

 

[slinky]

Thanks for the help, I love nanos, especially on the maintanence side.

 

[xzypholo]

Go with LED. You will love it!

 

[alpharetta]

Led all the way!