is my light ballast good enough

[Veronica]

hello everyone 1st post :) i just bought my new tank today it was a 29 gallon starter kit. my cousin purchased a zoomed ho but it was too long and i dont have the reciept. i noticed coralife has a reg t5 that wil fit in the stock ballast that came with the starter package, but will this be good enough for coral its 6700k actinic. i really dont want to buy another ho fixture. also i think they have a 10000k at the fish store but not sure if its reg t5. if it is good enough why do they even sell high outputs. sorry for all the questions iv never done this before and you guys seem to know what your talking about.

[reefreak]

Welcome to maast! I think you would be better off running a single 150watt metalhalide I am running one ATM on my 20 gallon I think teeb has one for sale for 50$ you might want to pm him

[Veronica]

thanks but a new zoomed the right size is 60 and i dont want to spend that much really just wanna know if the coralife will work, it does afterall say its for coral

[Zack]

6700k is more of a yellowish white daylight bulb. Actinic is 20,000k and it's a blue colored light. The 6700k will more than likely grow coral but at the expense of an unattractive yellowish tint. Reefreak is right, there are actually some good deals on the forsale thread on Metal halides right now. I'm also not exactly sure what you mean by is my ballast good enough? Do you mean powerful enough to light the bulb?

[Veronica]

but the 6700 says blue actinic. i guess i meant will that bulb grow coral, sorry

[reefreak]

It's a freshwater light and how many watts is it and the general rule is 3 watts per gallon

[Veronica]

i dont think its for freshwater its coralife it says for coral just thought it was prob false advertisement since its a petco but il check out the wattage thanks

[Veronica]

holy cow guys just googled petcos return policy it says if i dont have receipt as long as they sell the product i can get full credit .problem solved :)

[Zack]

I think the rule of 3 watts per gallon is a good starting place but not one that should really dictate what you can and can't keep.

[Big_Pun]

I think the rule of 3 watts per gallon is a good starting place but not one that should really dictate what you can and can't keep.

actually with t5 the rule is 1 bulb per 3 inches of width. now depth is another factor, as you get past 24in deep tank MH are better. the 3 watt rule goes out the window when you get into leds so its really not something to go by. the best way to measure is to get a par meter and get values at diff depths with your lighting. also knowing what kind of coral you plan to do or clams is also helpful when planning lighting

[Veronica]

went ahead and returned everything and got the right size plus with the price dif got a gift card for 67 bucks so im gonna buy a reef mastery kit and the supplements i need. thanks for the info too