Coralline light requirements

[ryansholl]

Does anyone know what coralline algae demands for lighting requirements?
Situation: I have a 75 gallon reef and an empty 55. I built my stand for the 55 to sit under the 75, and would like to just have live rock and sand in the 55, water cycling between the two, simply for producing live rock from bare reef rock. Everything is worked out, except: I need lighting for the 55, and would just like a baseline for determining what I need to buy. I'll probably end up going a bit overboard, anyway, but for curiousity's sake...

 

[pontius]

so the 75 and 55 are 2 different systems not connected, right?
I have had no problem whatsoever with growing coralline. a cheap dual strip powercompact should do it. just get a little LR that has some coralline already. also, I use C Balance and Kalkwasser.
you have to use the Kalwasser AS DIRECTED. but if you use Kalk, your Coralline will spread like wildfire! everytime I use kalk, I am scraping coralline off the glass the next day.

 

[mudplayerx]

Coraline algae doesn't need much light. Medium lighting would be more than enough to grow it. In fact, I think my 10k MH lights slow the grow of my coraline due to the intensity.

 

[ryansholl]

No, the 75 and 55 are connected. Think of the 55 as a sump.
I have 800 watts on the 75 (10k MH) for 10 hours a day and a crummy, pretty 38w actinic T5 for an additional 4 hours, and am seeing a bit of coralline growth on my base rock (uncured reef rock). Would like to see more, but I have a year, at least, to get it going.
What do you mean by medium (kind of vague) lighting? I've looked over at that big auction site and seen ~220 watt PCs in my price range, I can only assume that 4 watts/gallon would qualify in the "medium" category.
Thanks for your input! Just need some clarification...

 

[harndog]

My coralline grew like crazy under 260w cl pc half atinic half 10,000k. then i replaced the bulbs and the brightness of the new bulbs seems to have bleached a little of it. and now I have MH but moved the 260 to my 175 new set up to try and get some growth in it. So the cheap coralife pc 2x65 would be plenty for good coraline growth just use 50/50 bulbs in it.

 

[dragonboy]

800watt of light is a lot but coralline seem to do well under VHO and PC not much light is really needed for them to grow.

 

[ryansholl]

I suppose I'll probably go with a ~220 watt setup on my 10 hour cycle. Can at least see if I can grow some soft corals as well that way, unless I hear any objections.

 

[guppy slayer]

I have 2x96. One 10K and one actinic 03. I put the first 20 lb.s of LR in tword the end of August. (I have a 50 gal.) I didn't see much growth, but about two weeks ago I started using PurpleUp and I am seeing a quicker change now.
Don't people say that you've got to wait 6 months before you see any real change w/ LR :notsure:

 

[pontius]

Ryan, kalkwasser is the best thing I could suggest. it is by far the best thing I've ever put in my tank. there's no question that it's why my coralline grows, because after I use it, there is more coralline the next day. good stuff, just use as instructed.