Added 48w of Actinic 03 to the cube, ~21wpg update

[cpreefguy]

Well, I finally got around to ordering an actinic PC retro for my nano cube. Its 2x24w of Actinic 03, along with 1x70w 10k and 1x70w 20k DE Halides bringing the watt per gallon count to ~21
I just retrofitted it tonight, so Ill take pics tomorrow when the lights come on!

[GaryP]

Did you provide sunglasses for your fish?

[GaryP]

How may watts per square foot does that work out to?

[cbianco]

How may watts per square foot does that work out to?

Lol, you would ask that Gary

Christopher

[GaryP]

Chris,

IMO watts/sq. ft. is a little better measure of light intensity because of the varying depth of different tanks. Obviously you would still want to use more light in a deep tank. There is no perfect measure, but I have have found that watts/sq. ft. is better. 21 watts/gal. is probably equal to 42 watts in a deeper tank. As you probably know, intensity falls off in a ratio to the square of the distance from the source.

That means that if the light you see at 2 ft. from a bulb is 1/4 what you see at 1 ft. from the same bulb. At 3 ft. its 1/9 as intense.

Here is a pretty good resource:

http://www.fishdomain.com/lighting.shtml

[JimD]

If I put a 100 watt light bulb over a 1 gallon tank, does that mean I have 100 watts per gallon? lol... Whered you get the halide settups?

[Ross]

I'm about to have 150w halide and 72w of pc over my 12g.

[cpreefguy]

Hey Gary, the display is about 11"Hx12"Dx14.5"L, Im not so good at math, so watt/sqft is up to you
Also, I went to RC's tank volume calculator and apparently my display is only 8.3 gallons, which means I have ~22.7 wpg

[GaryP]

Hey Gary, the display is about 11"Hx12"Dx14.5"L, Im not so good at math, so watt/sqft is up to you
Also, I went to RC's tank volume calculator and apparently my display is only 8.3 gallons, which means I have ~22.7 wpg

12 X 14.5"/144 = 1.20 sq. ft.

188 watts/1.2 sq. ft. = 156 watts sq. ft.

100 watts/sq. ft. is normally recommended as a minimum for a "typical" SPS type reef tank (21-25" deep). I'd say you are a bit over the miniumum for a 12" deep tank. Probably over double that.

[cpreefguy]

Cool, thanks Gary