Malu/SPS lighting

[fermentedhiker]

I recently decided to convert a 29 gallon cichlid tank to a reef. I had ended up with all males and my mixed reef is overcrowded with frags(and the sexy shrimp are killing all my sps). So I decided to let my apex run this tank as well and make a separate setup for a pair of occe clowns(either darwin or maine mocha but undecided at this point). The entire build is using stuff I already had lying around since most of my fish money is going toward a 125 freshwater setup currently.

My question is about my light. It a reef radiance(chinese box). Doesn't seem super bright to me, but par isn't what my eyes are for right. What intensity would you recommend and how long a photoperiod for a Malu to thrive?

 

[ThRoewer]

Sexy shrimp are killing SPS?!?!?

 

[fermentedhiker]

It's crazy I know but they are on them every night until they are nothing more than skeletons and then they move on to the next one. Very strange. I'd heard they could do damage if they weren't well fed but they do it no matter how heavily I feed.

 

[ThRoewer]

I guess it is about time that I move my marine bettas to the SPS system...

 

[fermentedhiker]

Well it might not be an issue if the sps were full size colonies, but these were just frags. A larger coral might have been able to deal with the irritation(I think they are eating the mucus not the actual polyps).

 

[blackgate]

NOPE..I had sexy shrimp devastate entire colonies of sps. Never again will I have sexy shrimp in a tank of mine. I could not believe my eyes after seeing this listed as reef safe for so long

 

[ThRoewer]

Mine haven't done much, at least I think, but I have them with anemones and feed a crapload.

 

[fermentedhiker]

I have rock flowers, maxi minis in mine. They spend the days in the nems and the nights torturing my sps.

 

[davocean]

Weird I've never experienced problems like that w/ sexy's, and usually they keep to nems or euphyllia I normally have.
As for your actual question Malu's do not seem too light needy, moderate light and flow, and in sand bed.
Only issue I see is I don't think it is a natural host for occs, they may not take to it, something to consider.

 

[ThRoewer]

Juvenile A. clarkii are the only clownfish that are found in malus in the wild.

I have a pair of percula that accepted one but when I tried to hand it over to another pair they didn't take it.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Yeah that could be an issue. Then again they might not decide to bond with anything. But with a tank this size a Malu is really the only thing I would try(other than a condy and they are even less likely of a match as they don't normally host any fish). I've got plenty of time to reconsider(a few months at least before I'll try a nem) but I don't see any other good options as BTA's get too large.

 

[davocean]

Most almost will certainly bond to a natural host match, and if you are lucky sometimes an alternative.
My last picasso's/percs did accept a Malu no problem, in fact they accepted a number of nems over the years, but they would never go into a hadonni I had, and would even attack it if it stuck on my hand, which I found welts on later pretty much every time it touched me.
They know when something is up more than us, that's for sure.

 

[zooman72]

My purple malu seems to prefer a good amount of light - when I switched from a Kessil 350N to an Ecotech Radion xr30 gen-3 pro, the nem looked much better (not just the color, although that got better too), opening up to its max size. Now it is on the bottom of my 50g cube, so it is about 25" from the light (running the Radion at 65% intensity at its peak). It definitely does not like powerful direct flow however, so I had to "fiddle" with my flow regime quite a bit to get it so that it would open up fully, although YMMV...

 

[fermentedhiker]

Thanks for the info. My lights are about 21.5" off the sand bed. I'm guessing I'll have to run my reef radiance light at a higher percentage than your radion.