how long can acropora stand PC lighting?

[kypatriot]

I just posted essentially the same thread on Reef Discussion, but this might be a better place for it....

I picked up some frags at a swap yesterday, including a small acropora and a candy cane. Wouldn't you know that my MH ballast would decide to stop working at the most inopportune time.

It's an Icecap 250 ballast, and I would like to send it to them for repair, but I don't know if I my new acquisitions can tolerate the time it would take for turnaround.

I don't have another ballast here, but I do have some PC lights I could use. The tank is a 40g with a DIY 29g sump, and I could put a 96w and a 65w PC on the tank until my ballast could get back to me.

So my question is whether the acropora could stand being under 160w PC lighting, if it's only 3 inches from the surface, long enough to get my MH back in service again.

 

[BLKTANG]

IMO it will survive,but probably not unscathed.Maybe brown out.Dont u have a buddy close by that would b willing to coral sit until your ballast it repaired.

 

[duec22]

I think the acro would live under those conditions....the main problem I see would to try aclimating to the MH when you get it back. But like Expediton said if you have someone that can coral sit it for you that would probably be the best option.

 

[nekomi]

I'm also curious about this same issue... I have a 20 gal long QT tank with 65watts of PC lighting. I'm going to build removable eggcrate "shelves" to hold corals while in QT, but I'm concerned about using it for SPS. I'm adamant about quarantining all my fish and corals for a month - even if my SPS do brown out while in QT, will they return to normal after being placed into the main tank (running MH)?

 

[BLKTANG]

they should color back up over time.

 

[fish lad]

it will do for now

any color loss can come back over time

 

[derekman]

high up in the tank, the sps will dull slightly but they will live indefinately granted there is enough flow, I grew SPS on just PC for 2 years with great growth (had an A. Yongei that went from 1' frag to 10' tall and wide in a little over a year before a dino outbreak did it in) before getting my new halide lamp (wanted to expand my possibilities)

 

[dreaminmel]

I had sps in my 72 bowfront w/ 260 watts of PCs from January to August. They all turned brown but still had good PE and growth was still slightly visible. When I upgraded to my 125 tall w/ two 400w 20k XMs and two 5ft VHOs (one blue act, one white act), I used 3 layers of screen gradually removed one by one over 2 weeks. Within a month of the new lighting all of them (except 2) have regained full color. The two stragglers are my yellow w/ blue polyp nasuta and my red mille.

 

[Ti]

it'll live, but turn brown

 

[kypatriot]

Thanks for the responses everybody. I shipped it out and moved the rocks around, so my corals are now only about 1 inch deep.

The idea of having a friend coral-sit would certainly be best, but I just don't know anybody around here with MH (not yet anyway). Med school has consumed so much of my life that I've lost more friends than I've gained in the last couple years.