Reef Aquarium Lighting

Saltwater Tank Lighting Systems Explained In Detail. In this educational video, I discuss the importance of saltwater and reef aquarium lighting for your live rock and corals. Covered in the video is Standard Fluorescent Lighting, Power Compact Fluorescents, T5, Metal Halides and LED systems. By NewYorkSteelo. www.newyorksteelo.com

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Reef
• Aquarium
• Lighting
• system
• MH
• Metal
• Halide
• Power
• Compact
• Florescent
• T5
• Standard
• LED
• Moon
• Light
• Lights
• Intensity
• Spectrum
• Lumens
• UV
• Color
• 6700K
• 10000K
• 14000K
• 20000K
• Tank
• Marine
• Saltwater
• SW
• Setup
• howto
• diy
• newyorksteelo

[superelephant36]

hey steelo, I need some help choosing what type of light I should use for my new 72 gallon bowfront saltwater tank. It is not set up yet and I want to do a reef tank, could you possibly tell me what lighting I should look at? I would prefer one with a price that is not going to put me in the red and is at a maximum 300$. Help would be GREATLY appreciated!:)

[newyorksteelo]

@superelephant36 Research will set you free buddy :)

[Khloe04Men]

I apologize for not being clear. What I would like to know is what is the purpose of actinics? Aren't the metal hilides suffix.?

Or is it just to imitate the night cycle in the ocean.?

Thx

[newyorksteelo]

@Khloe04Men Got ya. Metal Halides are enough for any reef tank, and Acinics are not entirely needed, however Actinics will bring out some nice fluorescent colors out of Corals and Fish. My tank basically looks the way it does today because of using this combination on my fixture. I can certainly do without the Actinics but it just wont look as nice and the corals wont pop in color like they do :)

[Khloe04Men]

How do I use actinics and metal hilides?.

Thx

[newyorksteelo]

@Khloe04Men Not sure I understand your question here. If your fixture comes with power compacts and metal halides, simply use the actinics as power compacts, and the metal halides can be either 10K, 14K or maybe even 20K. Do know however that the higher the Kelvin, the bluer the light and the less the par, hence your corals may grow slower. Good luck.

[newyorksteelo]

@184445 420 makes the corals pop the most, whit the higher ones offer more par. I use 420 on mines because of the strong halides. The choice is yours.

[184445]

Hi steelo great video. Just had a question on atinic lighting. Which atinic do u prefer, 420nm or 460nm or both 460/420? Thanks!

[newyorksteelo]

@XXAZTEZXx101 The most inexpensive lights out there today are power compact florescents, but cheap and this hobby just don't go together :)

[XXAZTEZXx101]

I just bought a tank it's ten gallon should I just get high output flourescent lighting or what do you recommend that's cheap