Lighting for LR?

[keith_cook]

I have 50 lbs of LR and I want to promote a GOOD amount of corraline algea growth. I am in the cycling process atm. It will be a FO tank, no inverts, or corals. I have a 30 watt NO light right now. What kind of light, and how many watts should I get to promote good growth in my tank?
Thanks for the help.
~Keith

 

[beth]

You will need to upgrade to power compact lighting, at the very least. Better would be VHO, however, that will be more money...the lighting, though, will really show off the coraline.

 

[dsa_mom]

Hopefully, you will receive several replies to this topic because I am not 100% sure, but I think the calcium level and good water circulation are more critical to coralline growth than lighting. We only have NO fluorescent and have had slow but steady growth on live rock.
Hope this helps!

 

[fishtails]

I only have a 15w NO bulb over my 20gal. and coralline(purple,light-purple)are growing at a good rate on my lr and its also growing on my glass and filter.Your lighting would be o.k. if you just want fowlr and you'll get a good growth of lr.Also my tank has been running for 2mths. now.Alex

 

[jacksonpt]

You can do it with NO lights... you just have to make sure you have proper calcium levels and lots of water flow. Higher output lights will help though. I had NO lights over my 75g tank and had purple/maroon coraline growing on my LR. I moved the rock into my 44g tank under 500w MH lighting and in about a month I had coraline growing on my glass too.