Coral life without all the lighting?

[FxdupCobra]

I would like to know if there is any type of coral that I can put into my tank without having to buy all the lights that I need just yet. Presently I have a 40 watt (48 inch) florescent bulb that is right on top of my live rocks. Someone told me I can put some kinds of mushrooms? Is this true? Anything else?

[Scuba Oz]

some shrooms are very low light, so its true, but I do not know what kinds are "low" light compared to others. 40watts though is really low and I am sure with hardly any penetration even those "low' light ones might suffer?? Hopefully a shroom expert will chime in

[DrBDC]

An 80 gallon tank with only 40 lbs of live rock can't have the rock up to the top of the tank. 160 lbs of live rock can get close. I'd wait, add ALOT more live rock and then work on lighting. You're best to have 2 lbs rock per gallon and 1 lb sand per gallon. Then you can do away with the wet/dry and convert it to a plain sump. You may want to work on that skimmer too. Build it slow and you'll get there. Nothing good happens fast with salt except rust on your quarter panels.
Lighting wise, You can always set 2- 2 bulb shop lights on top with 6500K $5 bulbs from home depot and be at 2 wpg for under 40 bucks including the fixtures. Then you could grow xenia and some shrooms. Maybe some gsp's and yellow star polyps.

[astronaut]

yeah. thats only 0.5 watts per gallon, and 0.5 lb.s of rock per gallon. there are non photosynthetic corals like sun corals (tubastrea species,) but they are not for beginners and require special care and target feeding. i say, just wait until you get more rock and lighting. 5 watts per gallon is low light for some corals.

[FxdupCobra]

I went to the LFS and they told me that some dark colored mushrooms should work fine and some feather dusters, is this true?

[giants4pc]

no-they are trying to make a buck. 40 watts is not enough. spend the money that you want to spend on corals to upgrading your light.

[FxdupCobra]

How much Power do I need for my 80 gallon. What kind of lights how many watts?

[DrBDC]

Originally posted by DrBDC

Lighting wise, You can always set 2- 2 bulb shop lights on top with 6500K $5 bulbs from home depot and be at 2 wpg for under 40 bucks including the fixtures. Then you could grow xenia and some shrooms. Maybe some gsp's and yellow star polyps.

Would be a start anyways. Or maybe a 2X96 w PC kit.

[reeferkid]

actually they sort of told you the truth cos you can keep feather dusters with not much light but you cant keep any corals with what you got.

[bkiba]

If your system is truley up to snuff (chemically) you could keep non-photosynthetics corals (gorg, suncorals, etc) keeping in mind that you have to FEED them a specific diet regularly. They require zero light tho.

[STACKER]

Pandora's box you hath opened!

For the money Std. or HO flourescents are a moderate start but are poo-poo'd by 97.5% of all reefers. (under $75 for 200 watts)

Add a few more bucks for a cheap VHO ballast and a 3- 48" VHO's and endcaps ($150 for 330 watts)

Add a few more yet and get and Icecap 660 retro kit of 440 watts.
($200-275 or more)

Same price for PC lighting of 200 watts or so.

Add another bit and have 2 metal halides of moderate wattage and 2 vho's or PC's (pushing $400)

Go bigtime for $700 + for a honkin' lighting setup)

There are alot of choices and all have their goods and bads. The flavor of the minute seems to be PC and T-5 lighting for size, and halides for horsepower. Many of use a combination or go for good lighting for a good price and cheaper replacement with VHO.

I'd suggest atleast 300 watts over your 80 gal. You should be able to do this efficiently for $50-75 per 100 watts.

[FxdupCobra]

This was brought to my attention by my GF:

All Pacific clown anemones are shallow water tropical invertebrates. They all require bright lighting in order to thrive. A few species (E. quadricolor, Stichodactyla haddoni ) will do well even under bright fluorescent lighting, but they are the exception.

Thanks for all the advice above. What do you guys think about the info above and will I need to add the lighting recommended above?

[GregM779]

I would never put 6500k lights on my tank unless I want to pull out algae all day, does anyone actually use those??

I would start with some suncorals and feather dusters and save for nice lights rather than spending money now and then again in a month when you realize it's not what you want. What's the length of your tank?

[FxdupCobra]

Originally posted by GregM779
I would never put 6500k lights on my tank unless I want to pull out algae all day, does anyone actually use those??

I would start with some suncorals and feather dusters and save for nice lights rather than spending money now and then again in a month when you realize it's not what you want. What's the length of your tank?

Thanks, the length is 48 inches, what do you recommend exactly because I am not familiar with the brands and models of these lights?

[Texas Dolly]

Originally posted by GregM779
I would never put 6500k lights on my tank unless I want to pull out algae all day, does anyone actually use those??

I would start with some suncorals and feather dusters and save for nice lights rather than spending money now and then again in a month when you realize it's not what you want. What's the length of your tank?

Corals grows best under 6500k lighting. They do not cause algae to grow. The algae is growing becase you water has some sort of P04/NO3 or heavy metals. I have also heard people say that the sun will make algae grow but it will not. Some (like I) have spent thousands to replicate the sun, so how can the real thing be bad?


You can go to HD and buy the NO 6500K bulbs and overdrive them with a VHO ballast. They will only last 6 months but are 2.50 each.

[GregM779]

Texas Dolly, I have absolutey zero algae in my tank, you can check my gallery, but only use 6700k bulbs in my refugium where I want algae to grow. Does that k make the tank look yellow, I've just never seen an actual tank with those bulbs.

FxdupCobra, here's a link to a smaller version of the fixture I have, Light It may seem expensive at first but has 3 types of bulbs, runs cool, and will save you some electricity. You can buy all of the stuff seperate if you want to build a canopy and do all of the wiring yourself but I don't know if it's worth it.

[STACKER]

Brands. Oh lawdy!

Icecap is the best readily available electronic ballast for my money

Coralife are Ok but wimpy in comparison to Icecaps

Fulham ballasts work, they'er cheap, but generate a ton of heat so I dumped 'em!

URI makes fantastic VHO tubes w/ built in reflectors but are not cheap!

API cheap alternative andlast about 1/2 to 2/3 effectively

Pc's are fine, I just went with VHO's for more Watts per buck and HUGE savings on replacement tubes.

I prefer 10000K, 12000K, 50/50 Actinic , and .03 Actinic in combo.
10K's are yellow, 12's are white, 50/50 and ,.03 are bluish to blue
I can live without 10000K's for my eye but I like to give the tank a full load of spectrum!

I recently fitted a 90 reef (not mine) with 2 Fulhams, 8 caps, and 4- 48" URI and Coralife VHO's for about $170.

I'd upgrade by adding 2 halides is I felt it was necessary. right now I'm just cruising (floating as it were)

[Texas Dolly]

Greg,
Yes the light is pretty yellow. However a Saki' 6500k halide is much whiter, especially when ran on a EYE ballast (mercury). 6500k is the optium spectrum to grow coral (I said grow not color up) The most important advantage of 6500K is PAR. No matter what type of light we talk about (T5, PC,VHO,MH) 6500k will deliver the most PAR, ie light penetration. I will use an example, most 10K bulbs has 30% less PAR than a 6500k, and most 20k bulbs have 50% less than a 10k. This guy wants to light his tank as cheap as possable. IMO 6500K will allow you do do this. Basically 2 6500k bulbs will put off as much light as 3 or 4 bulbs in a higher spectrum..

[crossedsabres]

Second that thought, I use 6500k on my tank where I raise the anemone clones. They multipy very good under that light. I have some actinic no's for colour. I did this on Anthony Calfo's advice and it works gtreat.

[FxdupCobra]

Originally posted by Texas Dolly
Corals grows best under 6500k lighting. They do not cause algae to grow. The algae is growing becase you water has some sort of P04/NO3 or heavy metals. I have also heard people say that the sun will make algae grow but it will not. Some (like I) have spent thousands to replicate the sun, so how can the real thing be bad?


You can go to HD and buy the NO 6500K bulbs and overdrive them with a VHO ballast. They will only last 6 months but are 2.50 each.

If I take that route my tank will look more yellow? And what kind of ballasts would I need? How many?
Do I need any fans?

[FxdupCobra]

This was recommended to me, what do you guys think? Good or bad? What can grow and what cant grow?

http://www.aquatraders.com/index.asp...PROD&ProdID=13

[xcreonx]

Doesn't look too bad, although still not alot of light. you could keep a few things, mostly mushroom corals.

are you very handy with tools? there are alot of retrofits out there that you have to assemble that are great prices.

for example: http://www.marinedepot.com/aquarium_...it.asp?CartId=

[FxdupCobra]

I can be handy with the tools; however I don’t want anything put into my canopy so a unit that sits on the tank works best for what I want. Can I keep anemonies and xenias and some other soft corals?

[Dragonmaster]

Originally posted by Texas Dolly
Corals grows best under 6500k lighting. They do not cause algae to grow. The algae is growing becase you water has some sort of P04/NO3 or heavy metals. I have also heard people say that the sun will make algae grow but it will not. Some (like I) have spent thousands to replicate the sun, so how can the real thing be bad?


You can go to HD and buy the NO 6500K bulbs and overdrive them with a VHO ballast. They will only last 6 months but are 2.50 each.

"so how can the real thing be bad?"


The sun in a natural setting dose not have to pass through 2 or maybe 3 pains of glass to reach the water, unlike our homes which cause a spectrum shift!

[CitCat21]

i had some purple speckled shrooms and some frilly shrooms with only 30W over my 40gal stretch hex which is a little taller than a normal 40

They did fine but they do enjoy the 192W i have over them know