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Do you HAVE to buy a special lighting for a fish aquarium?

Hello im wondering for a salt water fish aquarium do you HAVE to buy a special lighting? will they still live without it? i know they need light but does it have to be like a special bulb?

Public Comments

1. Only corals and plants and things like that need special lights and that is because they use photosynthesis to eat but fish don't need a light at all. Special lights do look nice but they're about $500 for a light.
2. I have salt water fish and I use a regular refrigerator light...but I have an aquarium were it already has a lamp holder.... The lights are supposed to help warm the water(for tropical fish) but if you have an aquarium heater I don't think you need one.
3. the most expensive lights are called metal halides. only corals require special lighting. metal halides are powerful and are made to simulate the lighting of the sun. mainly stony corals need these lights. power compacts are popular for soft corals. tube lighting is also a custom popular choice. halides are only recommended if your going to buy a lot of corals.
4. Only corals and plants (and other plantlike organisms) need light.
5. You don't need expensive lights for fish only but you do need good lights. SW reef tanks need high light so need the more expensive lighting systems. There are different lighting needs for SW tanks in general.. Planted tanks use lights that are more red where as SW lighting is more on the blue side. You might want to read this article on lighting by a good friend and fellow reefer http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/lighting/a/aa022800.htm A refrigerator bulb ain't gonna cut it
6. SW fish couldn't give a rat's a$$ if you don't give them lights. However, WE would enjoy their colors a lot more if you used lights with a color temperature similar to that of natural sunlight which is about 6000k. Some colors are further enhanced if you add on an actinic light source which is a fancy name for blue light with a wavelength of 420nm.