[ry77]

I'm working on a lighting set up for my ten gallon nano. I know that light intensity is important but because of a nanos smaller size I would think that there is less loss of intensity so fluorescent lighting would be alright as far as intensity goes right? anyone know if my reasoning is correct?

my plan is to wire up 4 or 5, 15 watt 18" tubes(T8 I think) to have either 6 or 7.5 watts per gallon.

thanks, any advice would be great.

[mestupidcat]

I believe your idea will work for soft corals, but if you want hard corals that need more light I'm not too sure.

[poccoe61]

i've got a 96 watt with a 10K bulb and 50/50 actinic for my nano. works well, keeps everything growing pretty well. i think anything above 5watts per gallon is sufficient...

[ry77]

Thanks,
what kind of fixture do you have?

[poccoe61]

i use a power compact fixture by coral life (it was about $119). i could have probably gone DIY but just lacked a decent enough hardware store in the area and the fixture was readily available at my LFS. if i get a bigger tank i'll ebay a 175 watt MH retrofit system for about the same price.

[ry77]

119 isn't bad, I just saw an 80 watt for closer to 200..

[poccoe61]

yea and i get damn near 10 watts to the gallon. pretty spicy, although i could live without the algae.

[ry77]

would it help to raise the lights up a little?

[poccoe61]

i suppose it would lower the intensity a bit. ill give it a try...

[ry77]

can't hurt to try

[ry77]

did that work out for you at all?