Reef Tank Lighting Question.?

Question

I used to have a 150 gallon reef tank about 10 yrs ago and had metal halide's on it. anyways, my buddy is giving me a 50 gallon for free and i'm thinking of starting another reef tank now. the tank has a wet/dry that is built in to the back of the tank, and the tank doesn't have a hood, so i don't know how i'd mount metal halides on it. i guess my question is, 1) is there an advantage/disadvantage to having the built it wet/dry; and 2) it's been a long time for me, so what kind of lights could/should i use on this tank that would work without a hood on the tank?

Answer 1

Well, the specific lighting you want will depend on the corals you keep, obviously. Either way, though, you can suspend the lights from the ceiling, or clamp them to the sides of the tank, à la Coralife Compact Fluorescent (http://www.azgardens.com/images/Coralife-Fixture.gif).
I think the ceiling-mounted lighting is your best bet.

As for the wet/dry, well, there's nothing wrong with them, but there are better options available. Wet/drys are big, and they can be noisy. You'd be far better off getting investing LR to be your primary filtration, and then getting a good skimmer. You could still use the W/D, there's nothing wrong with it and plenty of people use them, but skimmer + LR is by far my prefered method.

Answer 2

Wet drys have somewhat faded in popularity over the years to newer methods of filtration including the berlin method which uses live rock, live sand and a protein skimmer.

For the hood you can simply use a glass top and mount the MH lights above the tank. Many people suspend them from the ceiling above the tank, but without knowing more about the lights you have I don't know if that is an option.

I suggest you stop by the marine forums at FishGeeks and the folks there will be more than happy to help you get this tank up and running.

Answer 3

For planted tank we do hang MH lights above the open tank. The issue is, I am not sure if the spectrum will be right for you reef tank especially if you have corals.