Lighting Your Aquarium - Flourescents to Metal Halide

Lighting is one of the most important elements to your aquarium if you have corals. It is important that you make the investment in a quality fixutre if you plan to have more than just mushrooms and a few other softies.

1. Flourescent lighting

Flourescent lighting is only good for fish only tanks. Do not use it for corals. You will find though that in order to get the look of a reef you will at least want compact flourescent to give your tank the blue look to it.

2. Compact Flourescent

Compact flourescent is a great choice for a tank on a budget. Under this type of lighting you can have some softies such as muchrooms, zoos and frogspawn. If you have enough wattage you can even try some Acans and other much coolers corals.

3. T-5

T-5 lighting should only be considered if it has individual reflectors. This makes the fixture much more powerful. A fan will also greatly improve the performance and bulb life of the unit. A T-5 unit can be just as powerful as metal halides without giving up as much heat making them a great alternative. They are not well suited for deep tanks however. If you are looking to keep any coral in your nano then I would suggest going with T-5s because of heat issues.

4. Metal Halide

Metal halide is the best for deep tanks. They come in various wattages such as 70,150,175,250, and 400. These fixtures are excellent for keeping all kinds of corals and clams. Be aware that they are not well suited for nano tanks because of evaporation and heat issues. All lights produce some heat which will encourage evaporation, be sure that you can keep that under control when choosing a light.

5. Combination of T-5 and Metal Halide

A combination fixture is the best choice, in my opinion, for a reef tank. They will however be the most expensive. These fixtures usually have T-5 bulbs on the outside and metal halide bulbs in the middle. This allows you do simulate dusk and dawn by having the T-5 bulbs come on before the metal halides do. This helps your corals to adjust to the sudden change in light. With the T-5 bulbs you will also not have to have a extremely blue metal halide bulb to get a nice color. The T-5 bulbs will do the job well enough.

Bulb colorations are also an important component for those choosing a T-5 or Metal Halide fixture. More to come on that topic.