Lighting for live rock

[cchung718]

Okay, at first, my live rocks had all sorts of plants and stuff on it but now they're all gone. Is it too little lighting? I have a 18" and 24" 50/50 on my 29 FO tank and that comes out to about 1.2 watts per gallon. Thanx!

 

[krazzydart]

at minimun you need 3-5 per gallon.....

 

[saltwater marauder]

I am not sure about the 3-5 wpg for liverock. I have 1.2 wpg in my 37 gal and my liverock is doing great. Polyps, coraline etc. all thriving. I do add calcium via a two part supplement that balances alk and ca. I have read that if the liverock was kept in a higher wpg environment at the lfs, or wherever you got it, that there will be die off but once it is "acclimated" to your light spectrum that the rock growth will slowly return. Not sure if there is any truth tho this statment and to be honest I dont even know where i read it, so please take that statement with a grain of salt.

 

[jacrmill]

this answers a question i had too. i have about the same amount of lighting, im going to start adding calcium and hopefully it will start to look better.

 

[b_ball12_99]

I have 1.6wpg. I have coraline growing and don't add calcium. I'm thinking of adding it for me inverts.

 

[justlooking]

can it be just regular florescent light or do you need special 50/50's or coraline or whatever

 

[cchung718]

Thanks everyone for all the replies. I heard that the florescent light bulbs (i have corallife 50/50s)should be changed about every 6 months. Is that true? If so, is it a important factor? Thanks so much.