Enough for softies?

itstheantitang

itstheantitang

A man, struck down in his prime...
Oct 1, 2005
268
0
0
Hi, I wanted to know if 2x96 watt pc's over a 20 in deep tank (a 55) would be bright enough to keep soft corals (my choices would be mushrooms and zoanthids) and LPS (I would like to keep a brain or open brain and bubble coral)

If that light isn't enough please give suggustions.

Thanks
 
I think so, I've got a 2 x 96W fixture over my 24" deep 65g (planted tank), it's a fair amount of light. You might not be able to keep some more light-demanding corals but I imagine that zoas, shrooms, some ricordia (some need more light than others as I understand it), fox coral, and maybe an open brain (with spot feeding) would all be okay. I'm not sure about the bubble though. You could also keep non-photosynthetic things like sun corals, if you're willing and able to feed them by hand.
 
Anti, (yes, i know your suprised I'm actually answering one of your lighting posts) you could also keep azooxanthellate cnidarians. They don't rely on symbiotic zooxanthellae, so they don't need much light. They do, however need you to feed them 'cause they don't use light to produce food.

Unfortunatley, some can be very hard to keep alive.
 
yeah.
I dont know If i want to feed suncorals every night, because keeping my hand and arm in the sw too long makes me feel like I am being burned and red dots appear on my skin. The dots go away in a couple of minutes though.
 
How about puting the suns in easy reach? That way you can get them out of your tank easy and put them in a large feeding container . Just leave em in there for a while after they open back up feed and voila you've target feed your critter saved your arm and lowered polution levels in your tank.
 
could a kent seasquirt be used to feed suncorals?
 
Also, under the 2x96 could I keep xenia?
 
As far as azooxanthellate cnidarians go, I would do some serious research on what your looking into, tho lighting might not be of importance, some require very strong flows of water, specialized feedings and some are near impossible to keep alive.

Heres a quote or two from some experts

Unknown
The current state of knowledge about the husbandry of these organisms is limited, as is their life span in captivity. For advances in that direction, articles such as those by Charles Delbeek on Dendronephthya and Rob Toonen on nonphotosynthetic gorgonians in this publication are much more likely to provide critical husbandry information
Click to expand...
Robert Fenner
As aquarists, we have experienced around 20 years of success with keeping some corals alive, 10-15 years of success keeping almost all zooxanthellate corals alive, and only limited success with most of the azooxanthellate species.
Click to expand...

So please keep this in mind.

As far as lighting, you could probably get away with a colt, brain *if high on reef*, possibly xenia, most shrooms, and a few other softies.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom