LoW Light corals

hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
paintball, I'm wondering if you know about other light sources such as PC (power compact), VHO (very high output) and MH (metal halide) lights. Your NO (normal output) lights are not as powerful as these others. If you aren't familiar with these other light sources you should probably do a search on the boards for this info before you make a final decision.
It may be possible to take the ballast out of your NO hood and fit two bulbs in each hood (or make your own hood). Mushrooms and Zoo's can live with 2-3 watts/gallon of NO light in my experience. Although some may lose color in especially low light. If you leave them toward the top that will help. But I would skip that and at least get some PC lights. If you have the money, go for MH lights.
Also, there are and similar creatures that require no light, but are still very colorful. I know Sun Corals and Tube Anemone's do not require light for photosynthesis. Both can look really good. There are others as well you'll be able to find them with some research if you like.
 
paintball

paintball

Member
my hood has 2 holes with glass on the buttom were light can go the holes are 20 in by 3 in the hile hood is a pendagon and the 3 front sides are about 1 foot each and the 2 back sides are about 2 feet each.
 
moray345

moray345

Active Member
Originally posted by Blemmy_Guy
Originally posted by ophiura
They are not considered SPS corals....similar to you I've done relatively well (not great but OK) with candy corals and frogspawn...but these are LPS.
My bad, sorry, i got them backwards!!! :notsure: sorry bout that. and thanx Ophiura for gettin me straight on that. Todd
SORRY FOR BLOWING UP
Click to expand...
 
jenn-e

jenn-e

Member
Search around for some light fixtures that are the same length as your tank. You can take those hoods off, you don't need them, you can either leave the top of the tank open with the lights sitting on top or if you have jumping fish you can cover the top of the tank with eggcrate. But i don't think you are going to find any lights for $50 that will be good for corals. Maybe look in the classified section here for something used.
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
If you can afford $50 and some low light corals, then you could probably just put the money that you wanted to put into the corals into the light for now and get the corals a little later. You should be able to get something for even $50 although it may have to be used. Jebo sells 24" pc lights for about $60 on ----.
 
paintball

paintball

Member
are these jumpers? clownfish, coral banded shrimp, damsels(probably gettin rid of them soon), hippo tang, royal gramma?
 
jenn-e

jenn-e

Member
I don't think any of your fish are jumpers. Not sure about the royal gramma tho. Maybe someone else knows about them. But keep in mind that any fish could jump out, just some aren't as likley to do it as others.
Yup you can cut eggcrate to whatever size you need.
I think for your fixture you would need one instead of two if you decide to ditch the hoods. Not sure but from the way i'm reading what you're saying i don't think a 24 inch will be long enough. What is the length of your tank?
 
jenn-e

jenn-e

Member
Well that gives you about 2.5 watts per gallon. You should be able to keep low light corals like shrooms and zoos. But prolly not any anemones.
 
hagfish

hagfish

Active Member
If you really want an anemone, but don't mind one that won't host a clown, you could get a tube anemone. They are not photosynthetic and some are very colorful.
 
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