photosynthesis and Coral

Corals are not plants, they are animals or sessile inverts. They don't use photosynthesis but zooxanthellae (sp?).

It really doesn't sound like it would be successful or coral friend but I am no expert.

You could direct true sunlight into your tank instead of using a lighting fixture. Sounds hard, but I have seen a few tanks that do so.

huh?.... i have to say sunlight it by far the worst type of lighting you can TRY to use unless you have an elaborate timing system and control. not to mention the amount of glass filtration the light goes through thus losing ubvs and uv lighting. all you really get out of it is visble lighting.

Yes corals are animals and they contain zooxantheli to aid in in-between feedings of phytoplankton. but thats just it. corals need the lighting to be able to live and not struggle to live. so corals in aquariums are kept but synthetic lighting. and in order to imitate intensity of the lighting we tend to use Watts to measure it. softies require about 3-4 watts per gallon of lighting and sps or hard corals require 4-6 watts per gallon. the lighting you found technically works because they have the neccesary wattage to support the tank (might even be to much) but there is no visible lighting for you to see your corals. yes you could add in some bulbs but why the extra cost?.. the lighting on ebay is designed for land plants and being an indoor light its use to grow plants indoors... ... in closets.... so no one sees..... ;]


i just recommend buy lighting that is sold by aquarium shops if your new because they are design for tank.. if you want to make a retrofit then research the topic and understand it well

and you dont have to run your lighting 12 hours a day. 6 hours is the minimum and most people run it 8 hours a day. people who run it 12 hours a day really love their corals and/or have the lighting on a special trolly and timmers to move and replicate the sunlight


cold cathodes also lack the intensity of lighting required for corals to use, it does give you visible lighting to view your tank by

I mentioned true sunlight just because he was worried about running 100 watts of light 12 hours a day... which is really not that much. WPG is now almost out of date now, its just an estimate. Just go with Aquarium Lighting that is designed to house corals. You can spend the same price on lighting that would keep healthy corals and bring out their corals.

SuperScro said:

Corals are not plants, they are animals or sessile inverts. They don't use photosynthesis but zooxanthellae (sp?).

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zooxanthellae is plant lives inside coral, they definitely need correct lighting to do photosynthesis for producing food for the coral.