Corals suitable for T5 lighting??

[chuckdallas]

I have an Aqualight T5 retrofit kit, which I installed into the canopy of my 120 gallon tank. Got 2 anemones, and about 8 fish (see signature line below for details). The retrofit kits has two 10,000K 65 watt white bulbs and 2 Actinic 03 Blue 65 watt bulbs. My wife wants some coral. Are there any soft corals that will survive (and maybe grow) with T5 lighting?

 

[thegrun]

Most soft corals would be fine (xenia, polyps, zoas, mushrooms...) and even LPS corals like frogspawn and bubble coral. You are likely to have long term problems with your anemones however, they have high light requirements. I know some reeferes have had success with as little light as you have, but in general they require intense lighting. Regular once or twice a week feeding of sliversides will help them.

 

[cody6766]

If the light has individual reflectors around each bulb there really isnt anything you can't keep. A bulb upgrade would put you in a little better situation too, but probably isn't essential right now. ATI bulbs are great looking (better than the stock bulbs you have) and crank out more PAR as well. It's a win on both fronts.

Your tank depth could be a smal issue, but it's nothing I'd lose sleep over. I'm burning 4 T5s over my 18" deep tank and it's honestly a little intense for some of my LPS on the bottom. I have a TEK light and ATI bulbs. I have sofites, LPS, SPS and a Maxima clam in my tank, none of which are showing a need for more light.

 

[mike_cmu04]

You will be able to keep any soft coral or lps. You can probably even keep sps at the top. You will just need new bulbs the ones that came with it arent very good.

 

[RcToners]

How long is your tank? How long are your T5's?
You can have just about anything with t5's its just a matter of coral placement and what type of t5's.

 

[Snookster]

I have 4 bulbs in my setup (75g). I have 6 sps, several lps and lots of zoas. The only real slow growing sps is a tort that I have, but it's maintaining color. The rest grow like weeds. All the sps are at the top, the lps is mid or bottom.

I'm sure there are other factors that might be unique to my setup that affect the growth, but to answer the question, I'm growing coral under 4 t5s in a 75.

I'm running 3 ati (2 blue+ & 1 12k bulb), and 1 aquasun 10k bulb.

 

[IslandCrow]

If you have enough light to keep those carpet anemones happy, I daresay you should have plenty for even the most light demanding corals. I'm not familiar with that particular T5 setup, though. 4x65 is probably a bit on the low side for a tank your size, but since it's a retrofit, is there any chance you can add a couple more bulbs? 4 may be enough, but with a 6-bulb T5 and good quality individual reflectors, I would have no doubt that you can keep most any coral (assuming everything else is in order).