Recommend some low light acros for me

[Avast Marine]

I am at the impass where I either need to make a jump in my lighting or find some lower light loving acros for my tank. Currently my tank is a 54 corner with 150w 10k and 2x55w dual actinics.
I have good growth, not the best color (it is ok not bad).
Water conditions are very stable and nutrient levels are well in check, this is why I feel I have been successful with a lower light setup to begin with. This is my fear with a lighting jump, I don't want to rock the system. I am very close to making the decision to jump up to a single 400w 20k bulb on the tank but, thought I should consider all of my options first. So I am looking for advice on lowering the light output on the tank by switching to a higher kelven bulb, thus lowering par even more but hopefully obtaining better color.
So in order for this to work and keep me spending money on coral rather than equipment please "show and tell" some colorful lower light acros .

 

[Amphiprion]

Many staghorn types, especially 'green slimers', 'fuzzy' Acropora species...those are the only ones that come to mind, at the moment.

 

[BLKTANG]

Digi,s,& caps also IMO.

 

[Avast Marine]

Yep, monti's do well in my tank. I guess I should have said lower light acros rather than just low . What grows good in the bottom of your guys tanks?

 

[NuclearReefs]

Coral Algea in Plating formation..

BB tank here
I do have a Acan Lord down there as well....

 

[Sk8r]

That's a pretty good list. There are also some lps's like bubble that prefer low light.b

 

[Lobster]

My 30G SPS tank is only 14" high (~50G system volume), but I have a 150W 10K MH about 4" off the water and I'm able to keep pretty much anything so far. I've got seven types of mille, a couple torts, two poccis, three monti caps, three digis, some a. valida, two types of seriatopora, a. tenius, etc. This tank is mainly a fancy "growout display", and once they become small colonies I plan to upgrade to a large tank.

Growth is great, but I'm still working on squeezing the best colors possible out of them. I believe the lack of colors is due to a lack of a nitrogen source (ammonium, food) and not carbon (light) mostly due to the sterility of my way overskimmed BB system and the fact that I was fishless until a few days ago. I'm adding fish, working towards a heavy fish load, and feeding golden pearls, cyclopeeze, and oyster eggs for the coral along with the rest of the normal fish food. I'm already seeing results daily.

I have an Outer Orbit MH fixture and currently Im using the PowerPaq 10K bulb it came with, but a CoralVue Reeflux 10K is in the mail, so I'm hoping for better colors with that bulb. Still, after reading a lot of articles lately, I'm more convinced color is often more nutrient-related and less light-related than we like to believe.

Just something to think about before you put that 400W heating lamp over your tank and start paying a higher light bill.

 

[Avast Marine]

I've been reading quite a bit on the poor color through low nutrient issues as well. I added my first fish after being fishless for 4months and the second is in qt right now. I think I am ging to try the higher food/poop routine for a little bit and see if that helps things color up a bit. That is the reason I am trying to get some of your alls experience with lower light species. I keep mainly LPS on the bottom portion of the tank right now but, if I can I would like that to change .

 

[Lobster]

Sounds like our tanks are pretty similar. Drop me a line if you come across anything that works particularly well for you (so I can try it).

 

[dots]

I just upped from the 150's and got tired of what you are dealing with......

It comes down to the fact that you can keep SPS, and they will survive and grow, but the grow rates are non existent even at the top, and coloration is twice as hard to achieve. And I don't have to worry about the rare stuff not growing or coloring up, which is that last thing you want to deal with when buying the expensive stuff.

I upped to the 250W DEs with 14K Ushio and could not be happier....Within a few weeks everything had colored up and getting them to color up was "easy".......I suggest quit fighting it and if you are going to go SPS up the lights.......IMO the 150's make a great LPS light, but not SPS........

You can get the greens.....and "browns" to grow with the 150's....stags, caps, millis....nothing slow growing normally...because will not in yours.......I always joked about not being a frag farmer when I had 150's......