What's the best lighting for a soft\sps coral reef tank.

[kehaulani424]

Hi everyone,
So I'm new to the hobby. I have a 48 gallon bow front tank that houses two clowns, a goby, a filefish, scooter blenny and lawnmower blenny. I have a green star polyp and a yellow polyp along with a hammer coral in my tank. I have a coralife LED light on my tank now but I'm not getting the color or growth that I want out of my corals. I have decided to just stick to soft/sps corals since that's what everyone says is the easiest. I was just curious what the best type of lighting was. I not to sure how much I want to spend because I do want something good but can't afford to go broke on a light system. So I'm open to any suggestions. Thanks everyone.

 

[Its.Evannn]

You mean soft corals. NOT SPS. SPS require some pretty high intensity lighting that softies don't. Led's, t5, and halides all should work with softies. Sometimes it just takes some experimenting and seeing what works for other people. Happy reefing!

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

i think he meant to type Soft / LPS (since he mentioned having a hammer coral in there)

that said, any source of light will work for these corals…just because they are softies or LPS doesn't mean they like any less light….i have grown softies without issue under PC, LEDs and halides, and know they grow just fine under T5 as well…

water quality and flow are considerably more important then type of light…as long as the light is reef capable it is more then enough….

 

[philosophile]

There are two things that you should spend more money on when you start up rather than less.... A skimmer, and lighting. Everything else can be done kind of cheaply... But you save more money by investing in quality lighting than upgrading because you got a cheap one now.

 

[gettoyawara]

I really like rapid LEDs dimmable onyx

 

[Tiberione]

I have T5 HO and atinics and my hammer coral loves them

 

[hectat2]

Hi new in the hobby I have a question aquasun t5 Ho double work for a 10 gallon nano to keep soft coral? Tank have 3 weeks old

 

[fredro]

It's often a matter of personal preference. T5 peopel love too bash LED people and most LED fans swear by them. MH T5 and LED are all good for corals that require higher PAR levels. after that, its pretty much a matter of preference. Go see some other peoples tanks and get a feel for what you like and take some personal reviews from the owners.

 

[Tiberione]

It all depends on your preference.. LEDs are seeming to be the way to go but T5s and especially MH are tried and true to grow SPS, though softies / LPS seems to grow fine in LED