tank move under way - question

[anjhof]

My question is, how long can corals such as zoos, mushrooms, leathers survive with only flourescent lights.

I have to move my 75 gallon tank for about a month so I can do some work on my house. I have a 55 gallon tank with basic flourescent lights as a holding tank in the basement. I also will set up the 75 gallon tank in the basement and put the canopy with the halide lights back on there. The 75 will house my SPS and LPS corals.

 

[whiirly]

I would look into a vho set up you can get a used one fairly cheep around here

 

[Pufferpunk]

Isn't a 55g the same length as a 75? Why can't you use your lighting?

 

[TheGent]

I'm assuming your talking about using just one flourescent 6500K tube to light the aquarium?

You might be alright with the corals you listed, but I would still be concerned. I would think that you'd brown out. I would also think that ther is the potential that you could starve them, but in the bad old days, a lot of people were keeping mushrooms successfully in what we would now consider an ideal FO set up. If I had to do this, I would keep everything towards the top of the aquarium.

I would also be very nervous about acclimating them back to the VHO lighting. In an attempt to un-brown them, you could end up bleaching them.

Very tricky..

 

[anjhof]

I am putting the zoos in the 55 under basic flourescent lighting until I can get the 75 fully torn down. I'll probably add them back to the 75 (under the halides) as soon as possible - maybe a couple of days. Then I will probably put the fish in the 55 until I am ready to set up the tank again.
Honestly, I may be bringing several frags to Oceans Floor on Thursday night, since I am afraid of what this move will do to everyone.

 

[AuroraDave]

During my lengthy move and tank re-build I had a similar situation.

I put whatever I could fit into a temp. tank with a MH bulb.

I also had 2 rubbermade tubs with live rock that I put softies that wouldnt fit into the temp tank. Just leathers, sinulara, zoas, a toadstool, yellow polyps and a hairy mushroom. Those tubs were only lit by the sunlight of my english basement window for a couple months.

Although I wouldnt recommend this set-up, the corals lived and acclimated to MH lighting w/in a few wks in the new tank.

 

[ppurcell]

IMO a few days with sub-optimal lighting should not pose any major issue. Just imagine a multi-day storm settled in over your reef. The corals, mushrooms, zoas, etc shouldn't be any the wiser. I don't think it would be a good idea to stretch it to 10 days or longer but a few days with weak lighting shouldn't cause any lasting harm.

 

[ostrow]

Exactly. I'm starting a regimen of shutting off all lights for 24-36 hrs once a month. Everything in the tank seems to love it.

 

[Pufferpunk]

I wonder how much $$$ you save in electricity in a year, after doing that.