Light requirements for soft coral?

[sayn3ver]

On a 90g, will a 4x54w t5 tek fixture be enough to grow soft coral?

Also, does anyone have a picture of a tank that looks like a "sea" of soft coral, not sure what type or types they are, but basically looking like a field of grain swaying in the current.

 

[onecrzyboi4u]

i have a nova extreme t5 4x39 watts.. on my 29 gal with soft and hard corals.. there growing i even have a clam thats doubled in size so id say your ok

 

[Dave VG]

More than enough being LPS are a lower light coral. I also have a nova extreme t5. It's the 4x54 watts version tho, and I have really good growth on my LPS and SPS with it on my 90. All LPS are on the bottom ½ of my tank SPS towards the top. You will be all right with that light. Just do not put them to high up. As for you’re second question. There are many soft corals that fit the bill like pumping Xenia, Green star polyps some long polyp toad stools and the list goes on. Just look around in here at posts with pics. Maybe someone will post pics here for you.

 

[onecrzyboi4u]

dave vg- what bulbs you using on yours?

 

[Dave VG]

I'm using the bulbs that came with the light. When I need to change them in 6 months from now I think I will experiment with some different ones for both coloration and growth purposes. But right now I’m getting real good growth like every day noticeable and want to keep it that way. Besides by then they will have had a years worth of growth to judge by. I have only had the light and been Reef keeping seriously for about 4 months now. Another thing I can attribute to the good growth is that I do dose Randy’s two part and soon I will start with kalk drip also. A double whammy IMO. Good light and good supplementations equal good growth.

2 10,000k Daylight Bulbs
2 460 NM Actinic Bulbs

 

[dendro982]

Yes, you can. I have half of your light on my 90g tank:


What can be kept on the bottom:
non-photosynthetic corals, like sun coral and gorgonians, if your tank can handle bioload, kenya tree - the brown kind, gsp.

1/3 from the bottom - middle of the tank (in my tank):
same, plus green hairy mushroom, bright red mushrooms (this kind like light), anthelia, white xenia,

top 1/3:
all are doing better in the light, especially frogspawns and hammers (LPS), waiving softies - anthelia, white xenia and GSP - will be gorgeous, yellow polyps.

There different kinds of xenia, including the iridescent blue xenia, and different kinds of GSP - by proportions and color intensity of polyps, you can make a collection.

 

[onecrzyboi4u]

kool.. on mine i'm running

blueplus
10k
super antinic
10k

 

[dendro982]

Here is link to the related thread - photos of the tanks with less than 3W/gal.

 

[thor32766]

just to give you an idea I hav 8x54 watt t5's on my 220 with tons of zoos and leathers and they are doing great.

 

[sayn3ver]

cool. I am liking this feed back. I knew softies had less of a requirement of SPS, but wasn't sure how much was enough, yah know.

DO mushrooms fall under this category as well or are they LPS?

 

[PiXieCath]

Re: Light requirements for soft coral?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10868353#post10868353 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sayn3ver
On a 90g, will a 4x54w t5 tek fixture be enough to grow soft coral?

Largely enough IMHO...I've recently changed my MH for 4x80watt T5 HO on my 125gal softies only and all my softies are doing fine...they are growing crazy and are beautiful like they never be under MH!

Psitt! Mushroom are colonial anemone but they are considered as softies since they have approximately the same requirement...