lighting question...

[EllisColes]

i have a 90 gallon bowfront tank with 4 125watt vho bulbs and just curious becuase im kinda new to corals, are there any corals i cant put in my tank...i understand that most of the light intense corals require 3-4 watts per gallon and i believe i have that covered....any input will be greatly appreciated...Thanks

Ellis

 

[zeusfc]

Hi Ellis, welcome to our obsession!
500wt of lighting will certainly be enough for most softies, but without knowing your water parameters or flow rate, it's hard to recommend specific corals. Many softies are hardier than the fish you're likely to buy, and ANY decent magazine, website or book will be able to give you species requirements so you can match the species to your tank's conditions.
I've had superb success with "cabbage" corals and "Kenyan trees", with both species thriving on healthy neglect and light alone, cloning themselves by division all the time.

One proviso; have you ever added any medication to the tank? many are copper based, and act as an algaecide to the photosynthetic algae within the coral, resulting in bleaching and probable death. if so you need a 100% water change to start afresh, and run a polyfilter for a week or so to take care of and copper leaching out of the rocks (the polyfilter turns blue-green with copper, so you'll know it's there before you buy your corals!)

 

[InsaneClownFish]

Hi Ellis, welcome to our obsession!
500wt of lighting will certainly be enough for most softies, but without knowing your water parameters or flow rate, it's hard to recommend specific corals. Many softies are hardier than the fish you're likely to buy, and ANY decent magazine, website or book will be able to give you species requirements so you can match the species to your tank's conditions.
I've had superb success with "cabbage" corals and "Kenyan trees", with both species thriving on healthy neglect and light alone, cloning themselves by division all the time.

One proviso; have you ever added any medication to the tank? many are copper based, and act as an algaecide to the photosynthetic algae within the coral, resulting in bleaching and probable death. if so you need a 100% water change to start afresh, and run a polyfilter for a week or so to take care of and copper leaching out of the rocks (the polyfilter turns blue-green with copper, so you'll know it's there before you buy your corals!)

+1 :thumbsup: Well said. I have 296 watts of HO T5s on my 8ft Reef. Granted it's a shallow tank, but it gets the job done.