Lights for my new 90 gal

[chiqui bb]

I just got my new 90 gal:bounce: and wonder if the lights I have on the 55 will be ok. They are AquaticLife T5 HO (I have two fixtures). Each fixture has 1 - 48" T5 HO 54W 420/460 lamp and 1 - 48" T5 HO 54W 10,000K lamp. Total watts for both fixtures is 216. It is great on the 55 gal but I do notice now that the weather has warmed up I need to watch the water temp.

I plan to move all inhabitants from the 55 to the 90. Here is a list:

1 blue damsel
1 regal tang
1 yellow watchman goby
1 engineer goby
1 sandsifting starfish
1 emerald crab
1 cleaner shrimp
10 nassarius snails
4 blue leg hermit crabs
2 small frags of zoanthids

Will the above lights be enough for the 90 gal?

 

[coolhandgoose]

You'll definately want to upgrade if you plan on having corals later. For now you should be fine with just the fish.

 

[reeffreak]

The 90g. is deeper,right?

Maybe okay for some soft corals and a few LPS near the top and directly under the lights.You will definitely be limited in where to place those corals.I would look into upgrading in the near future.Six to eight bulbs preferably with individual reflectors.

 

[chiqui bb]

Yes, the 90 is 24" tall and the 55 is 18". Sorry, I'm still learning the acronyms for things. Are zoas considered LPS or SPS?

 

[daugherty]

zoas are zoas. they are softies

 

[reeffreak]

Zoanthids are soft corals like Daugherty said.

 

[fastrd400]

You will want to up-grade unless you are planning on just fish and low light softies. Biff and I ran that same set up on our tanks as a kind of experiment. We both ended up having to upgrade to keep any sort of coral we liked.

 

[Bifferwine]

You will want to up-grade unless you are planning on just fish and low light softies. Biff and I ran that same set up on our tanks as a kind of experiment. We both ended up having to upgrade to keep any sort of coral we liked.

Yep, Fast is right. When I started my 90, I was using the same lights that I had over my old 55 -- 4 bulbs of T5 without individual reflectors. I wasn't even able to keep LPS under such low light. Mushrooms and zoanthids did fine, but everything else struggled.