Choosing The Best Reef Aquarium Lighting
Reef Aquarium Lighting
Choosing the best reef aquarium lighting for reef tanks can be a minefield of confusion if you don’t know what you are doing. If you get the wrong type of lighting, your coral or marine life within your reef tank simply will not thrive. Get it right, and you will have a reef tank that is alive with color and an abundance of activity.
Before choosing the right reef aquarium lighting for your tank, it is a really good idea to choose a system of lights that is based on the marine life that you want to keep. For example: Marine life such as Leather coral, Cabbage coral, Baha snails, Hawaiian black and white hermit crabs, Colt coral, Elephant ear Coral and many types of sponges all survive, and indeed thrive pretty well, in low light situations. However brightly colored corals such as pink birds nest, cactus corals and yellow tonga corals all require much more reef aquarium light. As a general rule of thumb, the brighter the color of the coral, the more light it will require.
There is much debate on the type of lighting as they all have their advantages and indeed disadvantages, so I will run through a few to explain…
Aquarium Florescent Reef Aquarium Lighting
There are two main types within this category: normal output (N.O.) and very high output (V.H.O.) N.O. lights are more easily sourced but they don’t produce a very intense light, so you may require some form of additional reef aquarium lighting. Whereas V.H.O lights produce a much more even light throughout the tank but require a VHO ballast pack to operate, which can be very costly. You may also need a cooling fan.
Florescent Combinations
This
reef aquarium lighting fixture provides a combination of lighting in the form of a lighting pack and there are 3 types, these are: Daylight, actinic and daylight, and actinic.
Daylight is highly recommended for soft polyp stony (SPS) corals or any type of clam tank as they require lots of light.
A mixture of actinic and daylight lighting is great for soft coral and large polyp stony (LPS) coral
Actinic fish tank lights is often used solely as a way to give off a glowing appearance to green and blue coral, however it is mainly used in a light combination.
Power Compact Tubes
these are similar to the VHO tubes, however instead of being long they are folded like a “U”shape. This allows more wattage in a much smaller space. However these do get very hot so you will need a cooling fan
Metal Halide Fish Tank Lights
Most people who own reef tanks use these. They are one of the best reef aquarium lighting fixtures for your tank. With the metal halide you have plenty of wattages to choose from along with great color spectrum choices. The bulbs are very bright (spotlight proportions) and are great if you want to mimic natural sunlight. However again, they give off a tremendous amount of heat and will require cooling and ventilation systems around the aquarium.
T5 Aquarium Fish Tank Lights
This is fairly new to the world of aquariums and is great if you want a really good light source without the heat. T5 florescent lighting does just this.
As you can see, I have tried to guide you through the complicated processes of choosing the best reef aquarium lighting, by showing you what is out there. I would suggest a combination of several of the above with a timer system as there are pros and cons for each type. Also if you know someone who is keeping a successful reef tank, then ask if you can go around and have a look, let them tell you about the type of reef aquarium lighting they use. Another good idea would be to seek advice from specialist shops and online forums.
At the end of the day, reef tank aquatics is an expensive hobby, so get the right lighting for your marine life and enjoy them for many years to come.