can any coral survive in this.
- Thread starter fditty
- Start date
overanalyzer
Active Member
not too much - you could look into a sun coral - which is non-photosyntehtic (is that the right word) and also there are gorgonians that do not have lighting requirements .... otherwise I'd say no
kelly
Member
By using the word survive, sure alot can survive, but thrive is a different story. Mushrooms, button polyps, some gorgonians, (as mentioned above), green star polyps, sponges, and frogspawn. Some of the singularia will also survive. If you decide to do so, I would recommend the you use a trition 10K bulb and a good actinic, like a blue moon.
Although it is not recommended, I have keep all of the above in an 80 gallon tank for a few years before I upgraded to PC lighting. Christmas tree rock, and feather duster will do well too.
Make sure you have high water quality, and add lots of live rock. Lavender rock, (a frilly mushroom) will also survive. Some of the encrusting corals or should I say false corals will also live. If you can wait for better lighting it would be better for your livestock, but with the above mentioned bulbs, it offers you the best solution for 40W bulbs.
I may get "condemned" for these suggestions, but none the less they will survive, and some will even flourish, I know this from experience.
Although it is not recommended, I have keep all of the above in an 80 gallon tank for a few years before I upgraded to PC lighting. Christmas tree rock, and feather duster will do well too.
Make sure you have high water quality, and add lots of live rock. Lavender rock, (a frilly mushroom) will also survive. Some of the encrusting corals or should I say false corals will also live. If you can wait for better lighting it would be better for your livestock, but with the above mentioned bulbs, it offers you the best solution for 40W bulbs.
I may get "condemned" for these suggestions, but none the less they will survive, and some will even flourish, I know this from experience.
bigmac
Member
Let's hold off and do this right. If you don't have any live rock, save you money and get 40-100 pounds. If you have LR then lets save for some lights. If you look around (I can help you) you'll find 2x250 watt MH's for about 300.00 (everything you need). After that you can add a few corals. Then you'll want to get a good skimmer. At this point your asking for a lot. You might be able to add a few shrooms but don't you think it would be better to save the cash for better stuff?
fditty
Member
in reply to bigmac. i have about 100lbs of live rock and i also have a marineland protein skimmer. where can i mind mh lights for $300? email me FDitty@yahoo.comsquishy what kind of lighting would you suggest? and where can i get them. what does pc light stand for? i was told by someone to go with a compact flourescent. someone else told me to go with vho retrofit kit. im not sure what the differences are can anyone help?
jlem
Active Member
You can get VHO for around 300.00 shipped and have 440 watts and keep lots of stuff. I had 2-110Watt 10K VHO and 2-40Watt actinic over my 90 Gal and kept quite a few soft corals with no problem at all. Depending on your hood, PC's can create quite a bit of heat where VHO runs much cooler and the bulbs are less expensive.
Here are some picts of my 90 Gallon that had VHO and NO bulbs
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/72342/90-gallon-reef
Here are some picts of my 90 Gallon that had VHO and NO bulbs
https://forums.saltwaterfish.com/t/72342/90-gallon-reef
jlem
Active Member
In a 90 gallon you can keep almost anything with 440 watts of VHO and you will be alot less likely to have the heat issue. You probably will need fans even with straight VHO but unless you have a really tall canopy with tons of airflow you will definately need a chiller if you go MH and then you are talking about some real money there. I new a guy a couple years back that had hard corrals with just VHO's on his 100 gal.