Lighting on reef aquarium??

[aileena]

I recently ungraded my lighting on my 29 gallon tank. I had a single 20 watt florecent light 24inch long. I now have 2 30watts 29inchs long, for a total of 60watts. One white light one aquitic blue. Can this support some types of soft corals like anemonies or other types?? Obviously no hard corals!!!

 

[ed r]

Definitely not anemonees, but you might get away with some mushrooms and polyp rocks. That is still a pretty low light level. Good luck with it.

 

[donkeykong]

Anenomes need lots of light and are suppose to be very difficult to keep alive, depending on who you talk to. With your light that only comes out to a little over 2watt per gal. Usaully the recomended for even low lights is 3watts you might try mushrooms they are really hardy. You could get some feather dusters they dont need lots of light.

 

[aileena]

I am very skeptical about this needing hundreds of watts of lights. I spoke to a few electricians about lighting and its effects. The 60 watt hood I recently bought with 2 30watt lights should be able to sustain some type of soft corals. Even with that lame 20 watt bulb I had before small polyops where growing after 3 months.
I guess I am somewhat upset because although I only paid 30$ for this new 60watt hood with two used 30watt lights I thought this was more than adaquate for small anemonies, mushrooms and other smaller soft corals. I just have a hard time spending 250$ on 130watt JBJ powercompact. If anything I would rather purchase another used 30$ 60watt hood with 2 used bulbs. I'll have 2 60 watt hoods then for 120watts for only 60$!!! I have looked at the lights in the pc's and the regular florecent hood strips and they are identical except that pc are able to accomodate 2-65watts or 2-95watts. I'll just have 4-30watts then? How does all this sound??? I am interested in responses.

 

[m1rodrig]

I currently have a 32 w pc on a 15 gallon it is half actinic and half 10000 k Smartlamp This puts me somewhere around 2 w per gallon,However some will debate that pc's put out twice the intensity of NO bulbs.I keep mushrooms and yellow polyps that are multiplying a bubble coral that is doing great,Green star polyps doing great.But you can definately not keep any kind of anemone,not enough light.

 

[kelly]

Aileena,
Most people will promote more watts per gallon. I ran a 80 gallon tank for several years on 80 watts of lighting with soft corals and 1 LPS. That is 1 WPG and it did fine. One light was a 10,000K 40W triton, the other a 40W actinic.
I was/am able to keep yellow polyps, green star polyps, 2 types of gorgonians, button polyps, branching frogspawn, mushrooms, and some leathers like Sinularia and devils hand, and other encrusting corals. I also have lots of coralline algae.
The only anenomes that I have tried due to the lack of lighting are a flower & curlique, which have done well for years now. I had 2 condys in there, but I did not like them (they were given to me.) I now have them in a 20 long with 2 55W PC lights.
I also have lavendar rock, which is like a hairy mushroom and feather dusters.
There are others which do not require much lighting like orange cup (sun) coral - Tubastraea species these are a high maintenance coral that requires constant feeding.
Corals may not "thrive" according to others under these lighting conditions, but will survive, and even reproduce. My branching frogspawn has split and produced new heads/polyps. My mushrooms do well and one gorgonian has grown to a point that the top of it is bent to stay in the water. It could actually use a taller tank and will need cut back and start a few new ones.
I recently add another 40 watt bulb, moving me up to a whopping 1.5 watts per gallon.
I would suggest using 10,000K and actinic bulbs if you do not want to upgrade any more. Have fun and the best of luck.

 

[aileena]

Thank you for the informative reply Kelly! Right now I am using the 2 30watt bulbs and one is aquitic and one is 10,000K. Like you observed this gives me 2wpg which should be more than adequate like you said for some soft corals. I am working on increasing my calcium levels, yesterday they were at 350, in order to grow more coraline algae. I am using the Kent liquid KH and Calcium stuff. Once I get back to around 450 I will add some mushrooms and polyops.
I cannot see adding anymore light than I already have on there now. I will however go and buy new bulbs since the hood was used and it came with 2 old bulbs, new ones are probably in order. Thanks for the replies.

 

[spider crab]

Just to add another data point: I have 29 gallon with 2 17 watt bulbs, one actinic, one 5700K. I have kept an condylactus for the past 3 months and it seems to be doing well so far. That's barely over 1Watt/gallon. I also have several mushroom rocks, 1 green star polyp and one green polyp and they all seem to be surviving. The green star and green polyp rocks are actually growing. I have also noted a small amount (Several round patches about a centimeter in diameter) of purple coraline algea starting to grow on my filter intake tube. I can't speak from a huge amount of experience here, but for what its worth, it seems to be working so far.
I do keep a window open not far from the tank during the day, so some amount of indirect sun light is probably augmenting my lighting.

 

[u235a4]

just my two pennies for what its worth i only run four 20watt bulbs over my 29G tank and i have several anemones and a bubble, two mushroons, polyps and another that I forget at the moment here is a link for a live feed of it use it in win media player <a href="http://www.engtechs.com:3334" target="_blank">http://www.engtechs.com:3334</a>

 

[aileena]

Thanks for the responses....I have recently purchased several types of mushrooms to add to the tank with a few polyps. I am using the Kent calcium Part A and B to help grow coraline algae. Hopefully the 2 watts per gallon will be enough to let them grow too...I want to try and get an anemonne for my clowns any suggestions???

 

[m1rodrig]

You do not have enough light for an anemone.

 

[rhomer]

This is not a flame, but
there are a lot of comments here about what you can do. The question is what should you do. I have had a few different tanks, and I've never seen any propagation out of any of my corals under lower lighting. Most of the time I have noticed that if the coral isn't growing it tends to reced over time. I think that your present purchases will be fine, but I wouldn't expect a lot of growth out of mushrooms or polups under this lighting.
I would be very picky about the corals you put in your tank. One other recommendation would be an open brain. I had very good luck with my open brain. They tend to eat meaty foods, are low light corals, and are very bright color.
Good luck, but please investigate any coral before you get it.
Rob

 

[aileena]

It has been a few days since I added my mushrooms and they seems to be doing fine.
I am going to get some polyps next and maybe some bubble corals. I am going to attempt some experiments with a low light annemone. Let you know how it goes...