Helping a friend Start a Fish Only SW Tank

[cathym1078]

I am trying to help a friend start a salt water fish tank. He is not interested in having corals for now. He is upgrading from fresh water to salt water tank, so he is using most of his old equipments, including the cheap lights that came with his tank. I tried to search in google, but I can't seem to find an answer. Is it okay to use this type of light for his tank since he's not trying to grow corals?

 

[redfishbluefish]

Yes! Fish don't have the light requirements, like most corals do.

 

[reeferwanabe]

ditto

 

[RichT]

For aesthetic reasons, you may want to suggest T5's. Not only will the rocks and fish look much better, they will encourage coralline algae growth as well.

 

[Phyl]

I'd worry that those bulbs from the stock lights would encourage algae growth, but I've never run a FO/FOWLR.

 

[NikkiT]

I ran a fish only with live rock tack for four years (in the 90s mind you) with stock lights on a 20g nano tank. i did not have a ton of algae, but had almost no coraline growth. i had two damsels, 1 camelback shrimp, and a maroon clown, and was running it with a hob filter and no skimmer.

 

[reeferwanabe]

It's true the inhabitants look great under t5 lighting. I'm basically using the same set up for my LRWFO tank as I am the reef. minus the halide lighting.