What can I do with my new 130w?

[vanquish]

How ambitious with corals can i get with 130w total light in a 20g tall? (65w 10k and 65w atinic) Im wondering if thats enough to keep any hard corals or clams/scallops? I know you need a lot of light with those guys. Ive had good success with softies under my older weaker lighting, but im wondering what will this stronger lighting buy me?

 

[hot883]

Originally Posted by Vanquish
How ambitious with corals can i get with 130w total light in a 20g tall? (65w 10k and 65w atinic) Im wondering if thats enough to keep any hard corals or clams/scallops? I know you need a lot of light with those guys. Ive had good success with softies under my older weaker lighting, but im wondering what will this stronger lighting buy me?
You are at 6.5w per gallon. Not enough for a clam or most hard corals IMO.

 

[rainfishy]

some LPS's would do fine, try frogspawn, that was my favorite first LPS :jumping:
Start it near the top of the tank, close to the lights. I have a 29g with 130watt pc and I have success with numerous LPS corals. Good Luck

 

[murph145]

You are at 6.5w per gallon. Not enough for a clam or most hard corals IMO.
its not so much about the wpg thingy it just depends on ur lighting itself
i have a 180g tank with 3.5 wpg over it and keep all corals from sps to lps to softies to anemone to clams and all do great.....
the reason mine do good is that i have Metal Halide lights with good reflectors which puts out alot more light than PC or VHO can do and penetrates deeper into the water
IMO ur good to keep lps, softies, maybe an easier anemone but if i were u id stay away from sps and clams.... those would be hard to maintain in a small tank anyways since they are very sensative to water cleanliness

 

[promisetbg]

No anemones either. It's not how many watts you have, it's the PAR ... spectrum. Scallops do not do well long term in aquariums.

 

[vanquish]

what does sps and lps stand for? Im guessing stony and soft corals?

 

[murph145]

sps is small polyps stony coral and lps is large polyps stony coral....
examples of sps are.... staghorn acro all acros for that matter lol thinkg that look like sticks with lil polyps and bright colors
lps would be things like ur bubble coral ur frogspawn ur candy canes etc....

 

[vanquish]

So its not just hard/soft its polyp size? interesting.

 

[whitey_028]

i have hard corals THRIVING and PROPOGATING under 5 watts per gallon. Its all about the light spectrum not wpg. In my opinion it is wrong that some people are way overdoing the lighting on their tanks. Ive seen some that will just give you a sunburn within 5 minutes. I know I dont own a power company and am here to enjoy my tanks without spending a million dollars on lights...