One of the most important things you can do to be successful in keeping a reef is to provide proper lighting. In fact, lighting your aquarium properly is second only to providing good water quality.
Most of the corals you will be keeping are photosynthetic and require intense lighting. Without providing them with the proper lights you will be giving your corals a death sentence. Clams and desirable coralline algae also require intense lighting.
There are three things to consider when thinking about lights; duration, intensity, and color.
Duration is the easiest to control. Most reefs will require from 10 to 14 hours of light. This can be easily controlled by connecting your lights to a timer or getting your ballast with a built in timer. Just plug the lights into the timer and set the times for them to come on and go off. Turning your lights on and off manually is not recommended. Your animals will become accustomed to having a consistent lighting schedule and timers are the perfect way to make sure you don't forget your lights.
Light intensity is of extreme importance. In general, higher wattage lights produce higher intensity levels. Corals and clams are usually photosynthetic and will require a high intensity light to survive. As a rough guideline, a low to medium light system uses 2-5 watts of light per gallon, and a medium to high light system uses 5-10 watts per gallon. Corals requiring low light can be kept in high light systems, but may have to be positioned accordingly.
The color of your lights is also important. In order to keep healthy animals you will need a light that produces mostly white to blue light. Color for lights is usually measured in the Kelvin scale. Typically, the lower the number the more yellow the light is and the higher the number the more blue.
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We're pleased to offer an extensive selection of dependable, brand name lamps from Venture, Radium, Eye, Ushio and IceCap.

5.5k American made/10K German made

Product #

Brand

Description

Base

Kelvin Temp

Price
250500 Venture MH175 Mogul 10K $104.95

250505 Venture MH250 Mogul 10K $109.95

250510 Venture MH400 Mogul 10K $119.95

901765 Venture MH175 Mogul 5.5K $79.95

901770 Venture MH250 Mogul 5.5K $79.95

901775 Venture MH400 Mogul 5.5K $79.95

901800 Venture (Sunmaster) MH400 Mogul 6.5K $119.95

901805 Venture (Sunmaster) MH1000 Mogul 6.5K $116.95

 
German made
Product # Brand Description Base Kelvin Temp Price  
510030 Radium MH250W Mogul 20K $109.95

510040 Radium MH400W Mogul 20K $109.95

510020 Radium MH1000W Mogul 20K

$289.95


510050 Radium MH150WHQI Dbl Ended 20K $129.95

 
Japanese made
Product # Brand Description Base Kelvin Temp Price  
010217 Eye MT150/Aqua Med 15K $109.95

010218 Eye MTD150/Aqua Dbl Ended 15K $109.95

901785 Eye MT250/DL Mogul 6.5K $99.95

901790 Eye MT400/DL/BH Mogul 6.5K
$99.95

 
German made
Product # Brand Description Base Kelvin Temp Price  
530050 Ushio/BLV MH175 Mogul 10K $109.95

530110 Ushio/BLV MH250 Mogul 10K $139.95

530040 Ushio/BLV MH400 Mogul 10K $139.95

530100 Ushio/BLV MH400 Mogul Blue/20K $134.95

530090 Ushio/BLV MH1000 Mogul 10K $289.95

530030 Ushio/BLV MH150HQI Dbl Ended 10K $99.95

530070 Ushio/BLV MH150HQI Dbl Ended Blue/20K $99.95

530060 Ushio/BLV MH250HQI Dbl Ended 10K $129.95

 
German made (coming soon)

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