Enough light?

[hamiltonguy]

Ok so I'm just wondering if a 10k bulb and a 460nm actinic setup in a 2 bulb T5 strip light over a 20g enough light to grow a bird's nest coral?

 

[heaton]

What wattage is the 10k bulb. I would suggest 250w

 

[sedorusc]

I grow it with a 150 watt MH 10k over my 36" 30 gallon

 

[hamiltonguy]

well my tank is only about 14" deep, the coral's maybe about 10-12" away from the light and the 10k bulb is 24w.

 

[hamiltonguy]

Not to rush or seem rude or anything so would that be a yes or a no?

 

[mike_cmu04]

Yes it will grow just keep it up top

 

[franklypre]

What color birdsnest, the green needs less light the pink needs the most. All would probably do OK but the green or green with purple polyps would do best.

 

[hamiltonguy]

Thanks for quick replies and the one I was looking at getting is brown in with brown polyps. Does that mean it's unhealthy or just a different species?

 

[sedorusc]

different species. I bought one like that from an online vendor

 

[hamiltonguy]

Alright sounds good, I'll go pick mine up tomorrow and hopefully all goes well. This is actually my first SPS coral

 

[sslak]

What wattage is the 10k bulb. I would suggest 250w

It's a T5....they don't come in 250watt.

Furthermore a 250watt halide on a 20 gal tank is complete overkill.

48 watts is not all that much light for SPS coral...you may be able to keep it but you might not get the best growth.

 

[franklypre]

If the birdsnest is brown you can tell what kind it is by the shape of the branches. I would put it on the bottom for atleast a few days, move it up and just see what it likes.

 

[hamiltonguy]

Well I've had the coral for about 2 days now and it started off fine, within 30 minutes of placing it in the tank, all the polyps were open and it looked healthy as ever but a couple hours after that, the polyps completely closed up and today it seems as if it's lost a little bit of color as well with no polyps extended.

I checked my levels and got Mg: 12-300, cal: 440.