New to corals

[Betaktical]

I have a 55 gal with 2 clowns 1 Cardinal and one fairy wrasse. My corals include a Kenya tree, pulsing Xenia, GSP, couple different kinds of basic Zoas, some kind of green montipora, and a pocillopora birdsnest. Everything is doing great except the birdsnest. I have HO t5 with what I believe is a 10k fluorescent and blue actinic light. If I turn both lights on the birdsnest will come out but if I just run one or the other it retracts. I have been reading about the combination 14k and actinic bulbs and wondering if that may help. What would be the best combo. I only have a 2 bulb fixture. I know the leathers don't really matter much but I would like to start keeping more difficult corals. Any help is appreciated


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[2smokes]

You would need 4 T5HO tubes ,and is important that each has its own individual reflector.Most people go with 14 000K plus actinics 50/50 lit at the same time.

 

[kurt_n]

... I have HO t5 with what I believe is a 10k fluorescent and blue actinic light. If I turn both lights on the birdsnest will come out but if I just run one or the other it retracts. I have been reading about the combination 14k and actinic bulbs and wondering if that may help. What would be the best combo. I only have a 2 bulb fixture. I know the leathers don't really matter much but I would like to start keeping more difficult corals. Any help is appreciated

While I agree that a two bulb combo will probably not be good enough for more light demanding corals, your current fixture should be fine for a birdsnest... assuming the birdsnest is fairly high up in the tank. 10k/actinic or 14k/actinic combos will be fine - it just depends on how blue you want your tank to look. The 14k combo will look bluer to you... but your birdnest most likely won't care.

I'd say the coral isn't doing well when you only have one light on because it wants more light than just the one bulb. You should be running both bulbs together to give it adequate light. One bulb by itself just isn't enough.