Suggestions? new lighting, strg current inhabitants for 55 gal?

I'm enjoying learning everything I can on the reef ecosystem.
I now have a Kordalia Magnum 5 kickin' up at 1650 gph in 55 gal beginner reef tank! The condy isn't real thrilled about the new action but so far seems to be tolerating it. Sand barely stays in its place. Are there particular inhabitants that like that stronger current better?

The CP lighting I got with tank is needing to be replaced and I want as small a carbon footprint behind me as possible. Can anyone feel me on this and give me some suggestions?
Thanks

if you are having problems with the current and sand moving try going w a smaller power head or redirecting it i have cd that gives all species and the current type what were you looking at i can look it up for u

Wow you have alot of flow in that tank I would say try a smaller power head

I dont follow you with the carbon footprint?

Power consumption Garrett. The opposite of Tim Taylor's "more power argh argh argh".

Well if money is no object you could go with LED's. They are literally the wave of the future in many products. The new Televisions, copiers, printers, I saw some thread in self contained jobs at Walmart for $40 bucks each. Poor P.A.R. (when you want your head to fall off ask about PAR) But when the lawsuit is finally settled and the Asian manufacturing begins mass production of the "CREE" LED then the price will come down. As with the Christmas lights the LED's consume a fraction of the power, very little heat, and last for years. The opposite of metal halides. But if you don't want to wait years, and you don't have 1200 bucks now. T-5's are the next best thing. I have a 55 and I am looking at some lights on Ebay, 4 tubes (I would prefer 6) for $150.

Any chance your pump has a flow adjustment dial? Oh you said power head. Did it come with a grill guard to keep fish out? That would slow things down a little. You could McGuiver a grill guard that would deflect or block some of the flow. "Hey Lady, stick a sock in it" just kidding, but anything that breaks up the flow would help. If I think of anything I will write.

hahaha thx Nanook u little greenie u, so love sugs so far but it's a NEW powerhead so I'm keeping it,,,gonna work with high flow but need sugs for who likes all that turbulance!!! I have it at one end and angled up against wall so flow is a bit diffused and has the whole length of tank. It is a top notch Koralia, so I am assuming there will be no problem with sucking up critters!!
So far with the research I have done that T-5 ho is the best choice, but what brand, there are dozens of them!!!!!! The LED lighting I have read about doesn't kick out the wattage or am I not understanding their capabilities,,,
Ebay, of course, silly me, great price!! I would want the six bulbs too, better to have too much wattage than not enough, right?
Nanook u don't support *%#@* WALMART do u? I can hear the soapbox hollering at me...
Inhabitant suggestions people??

Nano, tell me what u know mon, sounds like u got some info I need!!

Are you trying to find out fish or corals inverts ect .

Everything please.

It might take couple days but rite now ive found that blue coarls like high flows and that most sea anemones also. as farr as fish it will be diffacult for them to eat if the flow is to strong. And as far as the lighting goes if you have to much you can bleach out your tank. causing things to turn colorless.

I know that you just bought the power head . If you put somthing in it to restrict the flow it will collect the food you put in your tank. spend the 45 and get new power head you will be happy. cause you wont have to plan your tank around high flows.

Do you have a budget? Canapy? Or looking for a fixture? This will help eveyone give suggeastions. For retro's 4x 54 watt tek would be about the ceapest if seen, found a couple places for $109 for a 2x. The powerhead may make it kinda hard to place some corals. I started with the cheap easy stuff, mushrooms, leathers, candycanes. Do tou have a nem? Is so I would keep a close eye on it as I changed powerheads and had my lta decide it was going for a stroll, all is good now but was a stressful night. Fish shouln't mind the strong current, think of it as a tredmill for the fish. The lighting you will need to aclimate corals to, either place everything on sand and move up slowly of raise your light up and bring it down slow over a couple weeks. I'm pretty sure you won't find any t5ho's that you can fit more than 4 over a 55. I turn powerheads off while I feed. Softies are generaly low flow low light, lps are med flow med light, and sps are generaly high flow high light. Most strat with softies and work their way up, just so you can get the hang of things, like testing, keeping pars in order, stuff like that. Sps are a little more touchy if something isn't rightand costs more so better to wait with them.

Most leathers, gorgs, sps would love the flow. Fluffy lps, mushrooms, frogspawn, etc will not. That does seem like a ton of power though, I have 2 k4s in my 135 but was going to upgrade to k5 (stupid magnums came out AFTER I'd already bought the others, grr). Fish, I would say just nothing too small. That was one of my concerns with upgrading flow already, both of my hawkfish can take the koralia no problem but both have almost gotten sucked into my modded maxijet, that thing is just too powerful apparently. Good thing my powerheads are all hooked into a light switch or they would be goners.

My anemones do not like much flow. And like Tink mine went walk about till they found a slow area that did not ruffle their skirts. Good information on this thread. Thank you all.

P.S. the t-5's are very easy on power use. But many of the Ebay lights come with throw down bulbs that are not very good. IF I could find one I would prefer to buy without bulbs and custom order bulbs separately.

P.P.S. Did you hear about the eskimo that got cold, built a fire in his boat to warm up. Burned a hole in the bottom and it sank. The moral of the story is: {drum roll} you can't have your kayak and heat it too. ahahahahahhahahaha sorry I can't resist a bad pun.

Wow, great info response, sorry I did not mention that the fixture is OTD too, so I'm open to a whole new setup.
Pump stays, initially I wanted (2) 850 gph but now glad have one bigger one. Don't want to limit self on inhabitants though because of flow. Soft corals are beautiful (small polyps, mushrooms and zoanthids) and what I have started with thanks to a couple of members, so hope I can continue with these in this current for now as I learn. Anemone has found a comfortable (less current) crevise now and is waving her skirts rather assertively in the current-seems to be going with the flow!! LOL, that is the best I can do Nanook!!
For retro's 4x 54 watt tek would be about the ceapest if seen, found a couple places for $109 for a 2x. **I don't understand this, ;please explain.
So what I can gather is that it sounds like the T5ho are best on the green scale and for me starting off. T5ho max wattage is (2) 10k, (2) actinic and the moon lights, right, so if I wanted more wattage (which I don't) I would have to go to another lighting type, correct...
OK now all, BRAND, which brand has been shown to be the best in T5ho.
Whew, thanks!!

Not sure what otd is? As for green scale and t5ho I guess ya they would least energy used and most amount of par. If money is no object and want the best ati and aquatinic I've read are some of the best as far as t5ho go http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/catalog/index.php?cPath=28. as for the retro you would need a canapy and 2 retro kits heres a link so you can see http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=1369
The retro's you assemble in a top you make basicly your custum making a light fixture. With the tek you can add a couple fans and increase the bulb life and get alittle more par out of them. If the powerhead is working great if you do start having problems placing coral 2 would be better not so much linier flow. And yes if you wanted more light than you can get out of 4 t5ho's you would need to move up to halides, at least on the 55 gal. From what I've been reading 4 t5ho's are the same as 150 w halides, and 6 t5ho's would be the same as 250 w halides.