lighting question

[wolfsbettas]

OK i have found a way to modify the top of my eclipse hood... question is..
is 96w too much for 12 gallons?
This is the light and fixture I am thinking about getting. Thanks Shaz
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=3779&rel=1

 

[HeavyHittah]

that fixture would give you 8watts per gallon. And i think you can keep mostly anything you want with 5watts per gallon. But if its 'too much', i dont know the answer.

 

[wolfsbettas]

I am thinking soft corals, maybe a few zoo's and mushrooms. Shaz

 

[XxKnuckleheadxX]

i think its too much for what you want.

 

[daugherty]

that will be too much for mushrooms. with that much light you will be looking more at lps corals than softies. in my old 50 i had almost 12wpg and zoas did good as well as most softies but you will more than likly have some heat issues

 

[daugherty]

the other thing about that light is that it is not plug any play it will need a different ballast to fire it

 

[wolfsbettas]

we already figured that out... We are getting the fixture that goes with it...and I believe it has a built in fan. It is going to sit about an inch off of the top of the aquarium so if it does get hot I will just get a fan for cooling computure processors, or use one of my small fans for cooling off animal carriers. The modifications we are doing to the hood are extreeme. I dont want to completly get rid of the hood and the filter system, so we figured out a way to cut the hood in half and replce it with plexi glass or an acrylic cut to the original shape of the bow front, this will go from the filter all the way forwards. So the filter box will still be in the original hood.I was worried about heat too, but was told that that kind of cp bulb doesnt heat up that much.
I will still have a few shaded spots in the tank, like in the back under the filter, and since my live rock is raised up I have space under it as well. Shaz

 

[daugherty]

that should work good.

 

[wolfsbettas]

so 96 isnt going to be too much?
Currently since the eclipse only has 13 watts and my Xenia was haveing issues...see thread. I added a floor lamp with a flourescent bulb with 27 watts shineing right through the front of the tank onto the xenia. Seems to be doing better...getting brown algea though.
So I looked everywhere to see if eclipse makes a higher wattage bulb for the system 12..and there is not one out there anywhere. I wanna know why not, you can get higher watts for all the rest of the eclipses.. I should write them...since they sell these things for nano tanks they should say somewhere you will have to rip the hood apart for it to be succesful. Shaz

 

[daugherty]

alot of them were never made for salt reef tanks, they first cameout as fresh tanks 10 or 12 years ago. but now some compainies make really good ones for the nano tanks. as far as your light it is going to be a lot for that little of a tank but the light is not over all of the tank just part of it. so some areas will be shaded which will still should provide good light for things like xenia and mushrooms zoas and the front part under the light will be good for maybe a couple lps. or you going to have some kind of reflector for the light? a reflector will give you more usuable light if no reflector you will loose a lot of light if not more than half of it.

 

[wolfsbettas]

The fixture I am looking at for this has a reflector...it is also from foster n smith I will see if I can find a pic of it again. Maybe I should back off to a 40 watt...or wont that be enough? Shaz