Any corals or anemones that can live under compact florescent?

B

BavarianBuilt

AC Members
Jul 2, 2008
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I'm just curious really. Are there any corals or anemones that could live under compact florescent lighting? Unfortunately because of the shape of my tank (tall and skinny) my florescent bulbs as small and do not put out very much light. I have two bulbs each rated at 15 watts, one white and one blue. I also have live rock stacked up to about a foot below the lights. Just thinking about my future stock and my possibilities. Thanks everyone! :hi:

Gary
 
Your tank is a 44g right?
30 watts over that size tank isn't enough to keep any photosythetic corals. You can keep corals under compact flourescent lighting but you'd need a lot higher wattage tubes. There are some non-photosynthetic corals (they don't need light), such as the Sun Coral, you could keep but that's about it.

If you wanted to upgrade to keep corals I would suggest T5HO lighting (they are like normal fluoro tubes but a lot brighter and more efficient). They're not that expensive, don't get very hot and put out alot of light for the wattage. You can get light units that sit on the tank or some that can be retrofitted into a hood. I would aim for at least 100 watts, you could keep a wide range of low light corals under that.
 
I'd go plastic.. to do a low light you'd need 3wpg CFL to do well.. And a sun coral is kinda hard to keep as it needs good water conditions and a heck of alot of food
 
Wattage is relative to volume and the height of the tank. It also depends on what type of bulbs you have and if you have reflectors or not. 30w over a 10g should be okay for low light corals such as soft corals eg leathers etc.
 
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