Power compacts enough?
- Thread starter jsdean
- Start date
anthony812
Member
hey by no means am i a expert but i think you can get away with soft corals and bubble tip anemones but for sure soft corals i mean that is just barely enough about 3.4 watts a gallon is ok
grayne
Member
I agree with the above posts that soft corals would probably be fine. One intersting point I would like to bring up is on the wonderful anemone article that is in this months Aquarium Fish Magazine. There is a wonderful article on anemones by Ronald L. Shimek. In this article he comes out and says that light may not be as important factor to anemone heath as regular feedings are. He says the following: "...anemones obtain most of their nutrition by eating. Although they have zooxanthellae, these provide them with only the biological equivilent of junk food -- mostly sugars. Food with higher nutritional value is necessary for the anemone's heath," and "Fortunately, they [anemones] don't need exceptionally bright light. As long as they are well fed, most will do well in a moderately illuminated aquarium." I know this will not sit well with many people, but it is a very good article.
wrassecal
Active Member
I was glad to read the Shimek article as I've had a bubble tip under 30 watts NO, 1 48" blue actinic and 1 30 watt 48"vho for 7 months now. It split about 4 months ago and both have been doing well, keeping my tomato clown busy. It was given to me as a gift and I would have never bought it as my tank was only 2 months old at the time and I don't have near the light I've heard they require.
ags
Member
JSDEAN,
I have about the same setup and have had no trouble with my mushrooms, button polyps, star polyps, finger leather, toadstool leather and pearl bubble. Of course all these, except the pearl bubble, are soft corals. I do know people who have kept hammer corals with roughly the same amount of light and a good friend of mine has an anenome in a 30g tall with 30watts NO of light. Not sure what type of anenome but nothing exotic.
I have about the same setup and have had no trouble with my mushrooms, button polyps, star polyps, finger leather, toadstool leather and pearl bubble. Of course all these, except the pearl bubble, are soft corals. I do know people who have kept hammer corals with roughly the same amount of light and a good friend of mine has an anenome in a 30g tall with 30watts NO of light. Not sure what type of anenome but nothing exotic.
saltyrich
Active Member
I here what you are saying aileena, but what size tank do you have? I think that the amount of lighting on the 56 gallon is fine with what he's got, but it TYPICALLY should limit the kinds of corals he can keep to softies and mushrooms. Maybe some lower light hard corals, but not all hard corals. But hey, maybe that's enough.
fishfreek
Active Member
I would say you could keep any softie you wanted and maybe even a few lower light LPS corals. For LPS corals i'd go with something like short tenticle plate, red open brain or bubble coral. These all along with softies will do just fine with your lighting, IMO. I've keep all i mentioned in my 45g for over a year with 1-96w smartlite and 1-30w NO actinic. All are doing great and rapidly growing & spreading. Wish i had pics.
joe's reefer
Member
power compacts havent done me wrong