What corals under 4x96W?

[xhaust50]

In my 45G I have 2x65W 50/50 lighting. The tank has some mushrooms which have spread, zoa's which have spread, and xenia which has grown slightly in a couple of months. I am picking up 4x96W 50/50 lights second hand, and was wondering what other types of corals I could keep.

I know mushrooms, zoas, button polyps, ricordias. How about brain corals, bubble corals? Any sps or lps?

Also, what are acans considered and what are their lighting requirements?

[ScubaDiver93]

I have kept LPS under 4x96w. I would not keep sps. People have done it before, but what you lack in one thing you make up w/ something else. You would have to constantly feed them.

[DaveG99]

I have LPS in my 46 gallon bow front with 2x96watt PC and its growing pretty quickly. I have a 5 head frog spawn and a 15 head candy cane coral. I think with that much wattage you may be able to keep certain SPS corals.

[xhaust50]

I'll probably be keeping the 2x65 on it too, so thats 514W of 50/50 lighting.

[lark]

Reports seem to be that caulastrea would be fine. I think they are fantastic looking corals too.

I bet you could keep an open brain without much problem. They say the reds need less light. Not sure if there is science on that.

I have a red open brain that seems to be thriving under 3x110 VHO.

[m2434]

The issue with PC's is they are inefficient, but lets be realistic even if MH's are twice as efficient, thats 257W of MH's. I don't think MH's are twice as efficient - it's a lot of light regardless...

People label PC's as "no light" but thats not really true, the issue is more, that due to their shape, it is difficult to build a good reflector and harness the light.

The only real difference is that your electricity bill will be cheaper with the MH's...

[ACBlinky]

Originally posted by m2434
People label PC's as "no light" but thats not really true...

I think you may be confusing something here - the phrase NO fluorescent (usually in reference to T8s) stands for 'normal output', as opposed to HO (high output)

PCs will work well for LPS - I had 5x96W PC on my 65g and had lots - brain, frogspawn, hammer, bubble, fox, candycane (caulastrea), acan, as well as zoas, shrooms, leathers, GSP, yellow polyps - you can keep loads of stuff with a good amount of PC lighting.

I converted from PC to MH with T5s when I upgraded, and I'm happier now - the lights run cooler (PCs run hotter than other fluorescents, and with the entire 18" x 36" top of my 65g covered, I had major overheating issues) and the tank looks better. I love shimmer, as well as the way MH turn on gradually, and my softies grow like crazy. Nothing wrong with PCs, but many former PC users eventually convert to MH or T5s and wonder why we took so long to do it

[m2434]

Originally posted by ACBlinky
I think you may be confusing something here - the phrase NO fluorescent (usually in reference to T8s) stands for 'normal output', as opposed to HO (high output)

PCs will work well for LPS - I had 5x96W PC on my 65g and had lots - brain, frogspawn, hammer, bubble, fox, candycane (caulastrea), acan, as well as zoas, shrooms, leathers, GSP, yellow polyps - you can keep loads of stuff with a good amount of PC lighting.

I converted from PC to MH with T5s when I upgraded, and I'm happier now - the lights run cooler (PCs run hotter than other fluorescents, and with the entire 18" x 36" top of my 65g covered, I had major overheating issues) and the tank looks better. I love shimmer, as well as the way MH turn on gradually, and my softies grow like crazy. Nothing wrong with PCs, but many former PC users eventually convert to MH or T5s and wonder why we took so long to do it

I've been in this hobby over 6 years, I'm very aware of the difference between NO, HO, VHO, PC, MH etc..

On more than one occasion, I've heard people on these forums comment that PC's provide little to no light - obviously they were being over-dramatic... My comment was that they can provide plenty light, they are just not the most efficient method availible. If you use enough of them however, you can keep jsut about anything.

[illal]

you should be fine with some of the easier lps like frogspawn you havnt mentioned any leathers how bout them?

[cobra2326]

I've heard lots of mention of tank size, but none of tank depth.

[lark]

you havnt mentioned any leathers how bout them? [/B]

Leathers should be easily kept. In a 45 gallon, you're likely to end up having other corals in close proximity to a leather, though. Do a bit of reading on sinularia toxicity -- there are no small number of opinions on the subject. I think it's a good idea when considering leathers to take a bit of time to make an overall plan of what corals you wish to keep and where before buying a leather.

[Swanwillow]

Originally posted by cobra2326
I've heard lots of mention of tank size, but none of tank depth.

IME anything deeper than 2 ft really needs MH lighting. If you are keeping under 20 inches, PC are okay-but you need to keep high light lovers in the top 15 inches or so of the tank.

[nterry]

I have 4x96 in a 120. I have candy canes, acans, pulsing xenia, blastos, yellow pollyps. I also have zoos. I also have to colines of monti caps, a brain coral and a scroll coral. I've had them for a few months and they seem to be doing fine...

[DaveG99]

I will have T5's or MH when I start a n ew tank but for now my PC's are fine. I think the reason why people use PC is because of $