36 watts over 20g long enough

[dustin323]

Hey everyone I've got a 20g long I'm thinking of setting up into a SW tank. I've got the Coralife dual T5 fixture for it right, but it is the FW style lights. But I could replace them with an atinic & 10k.

Would 36 watts of T5 over a 20 gallon long tank be enough for some mushrooms? The tank is right under 13" tall so pretty shallow. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[kiknchikn]

I'm not an expert, so I'm not even going to try to tell you what you can and can't keep with that. If it were me I'd try buying one cheap discosoma mushroom and place it as close to the light as you can and see how it does over the course of a couple months. If it opens fully and seems content try a few more. I don't think you'll be able to keep much of anything photosynthetic in there though. 36 watts for 20 gallons is horribly low -- for comparison My 20L tank has two 65W PC lights (6,700K/10,000K Daylight and 420nm/460nm Actinic), and that's considered somewhat low for lighting by many people.

 

[dustin323]

Yeah I knew that it is low I just thought maybe mushrooms. I'm probally gonna set it up & will try how you said by testing out one. I also have a 130 watt PC light I could use for it, but I dunno why I just thought doing something different would be cool.

 

[BigScott]

I have the same as kiknchikn on my 20 L..MY Rics love it..but they will be moving to T5s soon...

scott

 

[kiknchikn]

Let me know how those T5s work for you.. i might consider upgrading in the future

 

[BigScott]

well do, but ive found that some kinds of zoas hate them..i know this is for mushrooms ..so if i broke any rules , deleate this..

SCOTT

 

[mr_miagi32]

That would be fine for Mushrooms. Ive got 'shrooms growing/propagating under 1 x 30W T8 flouro on a 30G. That lighting would be ample IME.