how much lighting do i REALLY need?

ding ding ding

You got it right. Someone will probably chime in to point out that the final "S" really stands for "scleractinian," which means stony coral. The classic SPS is acropora, which is very finicky and needs very intense light. LPS includes hammer coral, frogspawn, etc. I have heard 4 mm as a cutoff for polyp size. I think brains are usually considered LPS. While LPS corals are supposedly easier to keep, there are tons of exceptions. While all stony corals can produce sweeper tentacles, LPS tend to have longer, nastier ones. That's why I've avoided them.

Soft corals are a completely separate group. These guys have tentacles in multiples of 8 (rather than multiples of 6, like stonies and anemones), and have sclerites supporting them rather than a hard skeleton.
 
Thanks guys! Lucky for me that i like LPS better then SPS then. Just another non controversal quesiton. At RC someone said that MH penetrate the water better. This maybe true but with a small and shallow tank does this matter then much?
 
IMO metal halide lights over a 20 gallon tank will cook that sucker pretty fast unless you have some serious air movement around the lights and tank. I don't think it's worth it unless you are dead set on keeping the most light demanding corals and clams, and it sounds like your not. The PC's should be fine.

Guy
 
Don't get me wrong, RC is a great site. But, a lot of the advice you get there can be very narrow minded. Yes MH lighting is the most intense lighting we can light our tanks with. Is it the only lighting that will work, no. Many reefers keep softies, lps, some sps and some clams under PC or VHO lighting. Especially in a shallow(18" or less) tank. Like I stated earlier, lighing is 1 of the key components in keeping corals, along with calcium and water movement.

I don't know your current tank situation but I would suggest waiting until your tank is at least 4 months old(6 would be ideal). I know this is a long time but reef tanks usually take between 8 - 12 months to mature. You will notice this 1st hand as you go through the many different types of algae cycles.

Take this time to learn about the corals you plan to keep. Aquarium Corals by Eric Borneman is a great book for this. 1st purchse corals you learn to be more forgiving. As your experience grows, move on to the more difficult corals. As you succeed, move on to the sps that can tolerate your PC lighting(montipora, pocilipora) In the end you may even decide to try some more difficult corals.

In my 50gal reef with 386 watts of pc lighting I have successfully kept all sorts of softies, all lps I've tried and montipora. I currently have 2 acropora frags. They are living but growing very very slowly. For clams I currently have a nice green squamosa and am having success with my first maxima. I kept a derasa for about a year and traded to another reefer because it tripled in size and took up too much of my sandbed. Remember that with small clams feeding is the most important part of caring for them. I feed live DT's every other day and the grwth is astonishing.

Just take your time and you should be fine.

Brian

Brian
 
My tank is only 16 inches deep so it is pretty shallow. IT doesnt sound like keeping hte calcium levels up is that hard, unless you can extremely over dose on it then it might. But other wise it is just a matter of getting a calcium test kit and slowly adding calcium until you get it at the right level. The same goes for water movement, get the right amout of powerheads and your set.

I think i will pass on the clams, but i would really like to not be restriced for acropora. I dont think that letting the tank mature will be that big of a deal since i only make $10 a week, the timing will probably be perfect when i get the amount of money to get corals and let my tank mature.
 
tank maturing

There really does seem to be something beyond cycling in a reef tank. In a fish-only system, you get your nitrifying bacteria going and you're set. In a reef that's just the start, followed by various algae blooms, nitrate swings and so forth. It really does take about 6-12 mos for the whole thing to settle down. If it ever does.

You may not want to run all of your lights until you have livestock that need them. It will just promote algae.
 
Seeing how we are on the subject, how much lighting would an anemone need? I plan on keeping one in hte far future and dont want to be short of light for it.
 
Originally posted by Andy16
Seeing how we are on the subject, how much lighting would an anemone need? I plan on keeping one in hte far future and dont want to be short of light for it.
Click to expand...

I've read and been told that anemone's require nothing less than Metal Halide and I've also talked to people that have kept them with great success under a lot of Power Compact light.

I think gvct (gcvt???) has one in his reef and he runs 4x96watt PC lighting. Or maybe I'm dreaming... Hopefully he will verify.

I did read a really interesting article several months ago, where a survey showed that of the people that participated the people that used RO/DI water had less luck keeping the anemone's alive then people that just used dechlorinated tap water. The thoughts behind this, in the authors opinion, was obviously that the RO/DI was too pure and the anemone actually needs some impurity in the water that it uses. I don't know about that myself, but it was a good read.

Sorry I can't help more.

Guy
 
Thanks for your input, i just remebered my brother had good success with one under 4 96 watt PC over a 75.

The RO/DI thing is pretty interesting. i wont be using RO/DI water so i guess thats not a problem for me.
 
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