How much light?

[kksg2000]

My current system is maxspect g2 110w + 2 x 3ft t5 + 2 x 2ft t5 . Is this too much for a 3ft tank?

[gymbvolka]

Depend on what you are keeping (mainly sps?) and what is your height of your 3ft tank.

The T5 wattage also make a difference.

Have to give more information before anyone can advise.

Example if you keeping sofies and lps in 3x2x2 tank , it should support enough light.

My 2 cents.

[kksg2000]

tank is L36 x W24 x H27. currently keeping softies and LPS.. will be moving to SPS at a later time..

I thought the standard watt for 3ft T5 tube is 39w and 2ft T5 is 24w?

[Clement_jr]

many guidelines i read, is suggesting 3-5watts per gallon.,

[kksg2000]

many guidelines i read, is suggesting 3-5watts per gallon.,

my tank is about 100 gallon .. I need about 3-500 watts which means i need more light?? I am using less than 300w currently

[Clement_jr]

my tank also about 100gallon, I'm using total of 240watt. also underrated. but, so far still ok. I'm keeping lps.

[dnsfpl]

many guidelines i read, is suggesting 3-5watts per gallon.,

imo 2w per g for softies & LPS, 3w per g for mix reef, 4w per g for sps dominant

take 4x2x2 for eg

120 x 60 x 60 / 4000 = 108g

108g x 2w / 54w = 4 tubes

108g x 4w / 54w = 8 tubes

cheers

[chiya]

Hi, just my opinion..

The 3-5wpg is just a general guide.. Depending on the height of the tank, your lighting requirement can vary..

For example, if you have a 4 x 2 x 2, your lighting requirement can defer from a 5 x 3 x 1 (I know this is a strange shape, but I'm trying to illustrate that depth is the issue more than the volume of the tank).

The same amount of light can 'burn' corals in a shallow tank and yet be insufficient for a deep tank..

tank is L36 x W24 x H27. currently keeping softies and LPS.. will be moving to SPS at a later time..

I thought the standard watt for 3ft T5 tube is 39w and 2ft T5 is 24w?

If you are doing just softies and LPS, your current lighting is sufficient for your tank of 27"..

I'm curious for a picture of your tank - where are the softies and LPS currently positioned now?

Should you decide to do SPS, instead of adding more light, try positioning the SPS higher in the tank?

Probably put them in the top 1ft of the tank so your effective height is 1ft instead of 2ft.

Don't rush to buy more lights just for SPS when you can work around the light requirement via re-positioning.

I'd rather spend more money on filtration / water circulation, these are more important to coral & fish health than lighting..

Again, try it out and let us know..

We can shorten the learning curve if we share all our experiences and learn from one another..

[kksg2000]

i'm trying out a SPS frag, placed on top and see how it goes. Thanks Bro.