Please Help--lighting For Low Light Corals ???

[cb]

I have a friend who is ready to try corals. She has had a FOWLR tank since 1998 so the tank is well established. She would like to start out with a few mushrooms and maybe a polyp or two. Now she has been told that she has enough light for low light corals and then told she does not She has a 30g tank with a 10,000k and a acitinic blue on it, a total of about 49w which the way I figure is about 1.5w per gal.How many watts per gallon do you need for low light corals? The other question is on VHO lights do you need special fixtures? They look like flouresent bulbs.( as you can see lighting is not my best subject )

 

[jumpfrog]

Depending on the coral and the placement in the tank your friend might be able to keep a few corals. Some mushrooms and perhaps a leather.
But, keeping a coral alive shouldn't be the goal. Letting a coral "flourish" should be. A 30 gallon tank is not that hard to light. A single fixture with 2 65watt pcs would work great and allow for a wide variety of corals.
My recommendation is to add lighting before corals.
And yes, a special ballast is needed for VHO bulbs.

 

[flamingkingofhe]

i wouldnt recommend she put anything under her current lights unless they are non-photosynthetic but that is jmo it may or may not work

 

[darbronnoco]

I have a 20 gallon with a 10K and atinic florsent light and I have enough light for several types of mushrooms, some Xenas, a leather, and some polipy guys. They all have been doing great and spreading like crazy. My tank is a bit smaller than your friends 30 though. I would start with mushrooms and see how they go in the tank. Their cheap and pretty impossible to kill. Maybe you could find another friend to give you some.

 

[reefnut]

I have a 20 gallon with a 10K and atinic florsent light
That tells us nothing about how much light you have... what wattage and what kind of fluorescents??
She has a 30g tank with a 10,000k and a acitinic blue on it, a total of about 49w which the way I figure is about 1.5w per gal.
Are they normal output fluorescents?? If so I'd say she needs to wait until she can upgrade. No reason to set someone up for failure... but if she does decide to get something mushrooms or zoa polyps placed HIGH in the tank would be the best to try.
The other question is on VHO lights do you need special fixtures? They look like flouresent bulbs.
VHOs do need special ballasts and endcaps... they will not work in a normal output fluorescent fixture.

 

[dfox]

CB,
I am in the same boat. I have a 55 gal with about ~100w total light right now (2w per gal). I have a 48" flourescent fixture with 40w 10,000 and 40w actinic. I also have a 15w 18,000. This is good enought to get the coraline algae growing, but I have been hesitant to spend the money on corals so far. I have been told the same thing that the others above are saying. Try a mushroom, leather, or perhaps a xenia placed high in the tank.
Has your friend looked into the Satellite Sunpaq Compact Flourescent fixtures. They are pretty cheap. You can get a 24" Satellite with 2 x 65w (130w total) for $125.
I am planning to upgrade my lighting to the 48" Satellite 2x65w in May before venturing into corals. It's only $99! Together with my existing 48" dual strip, should give me ~210w.
Sooners!

 

[blitz99]

dfox, skip that pc stage... i went through it and what comes with PC lights is all sorts of algea in my opinion... for THE SAME EXACT PRICE you can get 175 watt or a 250 watt halide set up off the auction site or one of the numerous classified ads on the net and be able to keep about anything you want under it, and if you wanted you could keep lower light corals further away from it (depending on your tank size)...
i have ONE on my 60 and have SPS and clams, something i could never have tried with a PC light... also, did i mention EXACT SAME PRICE. i plan on upgrading slightly in the next couple of weeks and will be selling my 175 watt MH for less then the orbit stuff costs.
as for the original poster, a sun coral is a bit more difficult then shrooms but would do well in that setting with the low light... shrooms will do fine under N.O. lighting, but i wouldnt attempt too much of anything else, not even xenia.