I am using a 36" Marine-Glo and a 24" Power-Glo. I was curious as to if this is considered low or low-moderate, and if so, many months down the road (don't worry), are there in fact any corals that could live in a tank with said lighting?
Lighting
- Thread starter VoodooChild
- Start date
The 24" bulb = 20w, the 36" bulb = 30w, so that's 50w total over 30gallons. That gives roughly 1.7wpg, which is considered low light. Some corals will do well in this lighting such as, my faves, mushrooms.. Anything that is either a low light coral or non-photosynthetic will be able to tolerate that light level.
Stop with the WPG... Horrible, terrible, and many other ibbles. What are the dementions of the tank, how far from the waters surface is the light, and how far from the waters surface is the coral going to be.
I do agree that 50 watts over a 30 gallon tank is minimal for any type of photosynthetic coral, despite the dimentions I asked for.
FWIW my tank is 10 gallons, I have 70 watts of light, and I can only keep the low light creatures. Plenty of light for shrooms, zoanthids, and xenia, but I wouldn't dream of putting sps or a clam in there. To better make my point, I have 7 watts per gallon on my tank. If I had two 250 watt halides over a 75 gallon tank it would be roughly 7 watts per gallon (a little less), but I could keep anything I wanted as far as lighting requirements.
I do agree that 50 watts over a 30 gallon tank is minimal for any type of photosynthetic coral, despite the dimentions I asked for.
FWIW my tank is 10 gallons, I have 70 watts of light, and I can only keep the low light creatures. Plenty of light for shrooms, zoanthids, and xenia, but I wouldn't dream of putting sps or a clam in there. To better make my point, I have 7 watts per gallon on my tank. If I had two 250 watt halides over a 75 gallon tank it would be roughly 7 watts per gallon (a little less), but I could keep anything I wanted as far as lighting requirements.
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Holy crap. The tank is 30 gallon. The Marine-Glo covers the whole length of the tank, the Power-Glo covers the middle, with 6" cut off on each end. They're standard fixtures, therefore I dunno, maybe 2 " for the water surface. I guess I probably won't do anything high up...maaaaaybe some mushrooms. I was thinking about gutting the insides of both fixtures and putting in a compact double in each. Thanks alot.
Musicmaker, the wpg "rule" falls apart on large and small systems. 
You may call it horrible or whatever, but the rest of the sw world uses it as a guidline for what then should and shouldn't try to keep... Your mileage may vary 
Voodoo, here is my personal definition of low, moderate and intense:
low - <3wpg
moderate - 4-6wpg
intense - 7+ wpg
insane - 10+, mostly for keep clams
You may call it horrible or whatever, but the rest of the sw world uses it as a guidline for what then should and shouldn't try to keep... Your mileage may vary Voodoo, here is my personal definition of low, moderate and intense:
low - <3wpg
moderate - 4-6wpg
intense - 7+ wpg
insane - 10+, mostly for keep clams