Corals that do not require special lighting

[smpross]

Are there any Corals, Mushrooms, Anenomes, Etc. that do not require special lighting. I would like to try them in a tank to learn about them before investing in a lighting system. Thanks. Scott

 

[spicyballs]

what kind of light to you have on your 90 gallon tank? if under 3 watts per gallon, i would suggest, as you stated, mushrooms.. possibly some zoanthids.. anemones need strong lighting and very good water quality. if you have 3 watts or more, i would suggest some of the easier LPS corals... like bubbles, favites, hammers, you could also do some softies.. like toadstool (sarcophyton) or the cauliflower.. fairly easy softies.. stear clear of SPS corals..

 

[jedininja]

We really need to know more about your system before making recomdations.
Many of the less/non photosynthetic corals are much harder to care for than photosynthetic ones. So I'm not sure if you are asking for lower lights corals, or no light corals.

 

[smpross]

I just have a double flouresent light fixture. It is made by all glass and is probably typical for a freshwater tank.
For Filters I have:
Ehiem Canister
Wet Dry
UV Sterilizer
Berlin Protein Skimmer.
Thanks. Scott

 

[spicyballs]

hmm.. that'd might be a lil tough then... i'm guessing around 60-80 watts of lighting? which equates to less than a watt per gallon... you need at least 2 watts if not 3 watts for most corals.. i'm afraid you won't be able to do much.. mushrooms, maybe.... there's other corals that don't require light, like sun corals.. but you have to feed each polyp one by one... there are other corals that don't require intense lighting, like the carnation softies, but hard to care for.. sea rods/fans, sponges, but again, harder to care for...

 

[viper_930]

The double-flo fixture is normal output, right? Or is it the high output compact lights that they sell? If it is the normal output lights, you cannot keep any photosynthetic corals.

 

[smpross]

I believe they are regular output. What kind of lights would I need for Photosynthetic Corals? Scott

 

[viper_930]

You can use power compact lights. With those you can keep leathers, shrooms, xenias, and zoos. But metal halide is the best kind of lighting, and you can keep anything with that, clams, sps, lps, etc.