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An Introduction to Marine Aquarium Lighting

The question of what type of lighting to use for your saltwater tank is one that comes up quite often. While it may seem like a rather straightforward question, the answer is anything but simple. Before deciding on what approach to take with lighting your aquarium, it helps to have a basic understanding of the various types of lighting and spectrums, and what they mean to you.

Lighting Options

The most common type of lighting used in most aquariums is fluorescent. More often than not, the aquarium hood and bulbs included with your tank utilize this type of lighting system. They are efficient, cool-running and give you a lot of bang for your buck. There are at least three different types of fluorescent lighting that are commonly found in the hobby:

Normal output fluorescent: these are your standard aquarium lights. Generally low output, though they are inexpensive to install and run and there are a wide variety of bulbs spectrums available.

There are also different sizes of normal output fluorescent available, marked in various "T" sizes. The larger the number that accompanies the T, the larger the diameter of the bulb (for example, a T12 bulb is 1.5" in diameter; a T8 bulb is 1" in diameter). Smaller diameter bulbs are more efficient at emitting light. A 48" T8 bulb (32 watts) puts out over 50% more lumens than a 48" T12 bulb.

Compact fluorescent: these are single-ended bulbs that pack more wattage into a smaller area than your standard fluorescent lighting system. On one end of the bulb is a 4-pack of connector pins (available in 4-pin square and 4-pin horizontal) attached to essentially two tubes. These range in power from about 8w to 96w (36").

Very High Output (VHO): at first glance, these may appear to be standard fluorescent tubes, though they are very different. VHO bulbs have built-in internal reflectors that intensify the output and minimize the need for a high-quality reflector. A standard 48" VHO tube is 110 watts, whereas a standard output 48" fluorescent tube is 40 watts.

Above and beyond fluorescent lighting are metal halide fixtures. Metal halides are usually considered to be considered the best option for high-output requirements. They are more expensive to purchase and run than fluorescent setups, but may be required by some higher-light organisms. Which brings us to the question: what type of lighting is right for you.

The most important thing with the various lighting systems is that each

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