Lighting question

[zombiefetus]

I'd really like to keep a bunch of mushrooms and zoas in my 100 gallon tank when I get it to full saltwater. Right now my lighting is 2x 40 watt florescent bulbs. From what I can gather I need 2-3 watts per gallon. I don't have a whole lot of money to devote to lighting, so I'm trying to kind of ghetto-rig it, haha.
At the hardware store today I noticed 120 watt bulbs for plants. If I positioned all my coral under the blubs and put one bulb on each side of the tank would that work? My tank is acrylic.. would it melt it?

The bulbs are like this:
http://www.plumbersurplus.com/Prod/Gene ... 3035363632

[Pufferpunk]

I'm not sure that will put out the right color light. See if you can find a cheap power contact fixture. I just mailed one out to JaxPuffer.

[Nick]

Those won't work at all - they're incandescent spotlights, mean for supplemental lighting of houseplants in winter months. Your 40 watt florescent bulbs are actually quite a bit brighter than they are.

[FTF]

You need a high Kelvin rating for your corals, tropical tanks use more of the white spectrum whereas marine tanks require more of the blue spectrum

[Mek0ng]

Well I was going to say get two VHO ballasts and retrofit some shop lights, that use to be the cheapest option, but these days you can pick up a 4x55/65watt Powercompact fixture for around $100 new.

[FTF]

Myself I would use 4 tubes, two blues and two marine whites. The blues need to come on for an hour before the whites and stay on for an hour after the whites switch off. This will encourage the corals to open up better.

[zombiefetus]

Can anyone link to some inexpensive bulbs that would work? Not necessarily the fixture to go with it, but just the light itself? Thanks.

[Mek0ng]

For the 40watt florescent light you have?

Even with 4x40watt florsecent you are not going to have enough light really. Save the $ for a powercompact 4x65/55 watt or better setup.

[Pufferpunk]

+1 on the PCs or forget about keeping corals.

[zombiefetus]

boo. I don't want to spend that much on lighting I may not even need if the puffers end up eating my mushrooms. :/ Guess it can't be helped though.

Would this one work okay?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 868wt_1165

[Pufferpunk]

That will work.