shaving brush

[uglyamericanV1]

i have a shaving brush (actually 4 of them)

also a little mushroom coral popped out a rock i bought from the store.........alriiiiiiiiiiight

anyway, all water parameters are 0, with ph being 8.0-8.1
salinity at 1.024

soooooooooooo
got a 30 gal, 24 inch hood light
with another add on hood light...

1st flouro is 20 watt 10K (F20-T12-BP)
2nd actinic 18 watt(F18-T5-BP)
in the add on hood there is a space for another thin flouro (half the diameter of a "normal" one)

to make the brushes happy! (and hopefully the coral) should i add another 20 watt 10 k? or should i just go ahead and bite the bullet and get more wattage (i wanna grow polyps too!)

is this wattage system good for my anemone (pink tip)

any help, as i am a noob, would be helpful

 

[ClamIAm]

That's pretty weak lighting, especially for coral. I'd add more if you could.

 

[uglyamericanV1]

what can i do with the current setup?
how far should i go?

 

[paca444]

I'm not sure exactly what your "add on hood" looks like but I can fit three standard size hoods on my 29 gallon (same width) tank.

Currently I have two daylight bulbs (20w, 15w) and one 20w actinic. The only reason for the one 15w instead of 20w is to provide space for my automatic feeder.
With this set up I support zoos, mushrooms, hydnophora, and macro algae. I really think that the third (15w) only illuminates the back three inches of the tank and does little for the rest. So I think you could get away with the two longer lights and still have at least everything that I have. And you have a shallower tank which means even more light will get to the bottom- but then again I have a 4" deep sand bed, you might not.

As far as the anemone, I think that with this particular species it will have to rely mostly on feeding (small pieces of shrimp etc) opposed to it's photosynthetic abilities. So you could have it under those lights. I know someone that currently has it in a 55 with two strip NO lights.

PS. Watch out for the shaving brush falling apart. I had a number of hermit crabs which likely contributed, but every shaving brush plant completely fell apart- which just led to even more nitrates.

 

[lancer99]

ugly, I would recommend that you upgrade your lights. Watts per gallon is only a rough measure, but still...1.5 wpg probably isn't enough for Penicillus (shaving brush).

They don't need huge amounts of light, but IMHO that's not enough.

paca, your Penicillus might have done better under more light, as well. And I don't think they contributed much to your nitrates...they are calcareous, more likely it's some other source.

And I hate to sound an even more negative note, but I don't think a Condylactis will survive long-term on that much light. I had one many years ago, and tried that....it was okay for a couple of months, then gradually shriveled and died, even though it got fed regularly.

Sorry to be negative...that's just my experience!

-R

 

[uglyamericanV1]

thank you...

upgrading to 130 power compact (actinic and 14K)
+ add on strip with about 28 wtts actinic...pretty much for coral and to make bomb plants
ALSO
adding refugium.....for kelp...

ps. tina turner (aka my condy) is all about yanking shrimp into her mouth....
all. day. long.