Corals for normal output lighting

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gswarri0rfan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 18, 2008
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Northern California
Hey everyone


I am thinking of having some corals that would survive in normal output lights or stock lights that came with my tank. Is there such corals? I have heard of mushroom corals and polyps that would be ok with my lights. Any particular corals that come to mind? I already looked at the sticky for soft corals. I am just not sure if they are ok with my lights.

Also, I talked to the guy at lfs, he told me I could just replace my flourescent lamps with 10,000 k lamps that they have. He told me my current ballast would be ok. He said it would be sufficient to have corals in my tank. Is this true? I want to clarify the information first before making the purchase. I looked at the wattage of the 10,000 k lamp and it is about the same wattage as my stock lights.

My tank is still cycling, but I want to do my research ahead of time so I could look around before the actual purchase.


Thanks in advance for all the replies
 
some sun corals would like the low light, but im not sure you would have much success in such basic lighting. I would get a basic t-5 unit. depending on your size tank, prices will usually range from 60-100 dollars. This light depending on the height of your tank will keep mushrooms and some leathers.

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_searchItem~SearchText~nove+extreme%2ct5+ho%2c460nm~IdCategory~FILTFI~breadcrumbsid~6348778~searchlogtext~Fixtures~logtype~current_category~searchstep~1~pageindex~0~parsed~1~category~Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies___Lighting-Fixtures.html
 
gswarri0rfan;2196210; said:
Hey everyone


I am thinking of having some corals that would survive in normal output lights or stock lights that came with my tank. Is there such corals? I have heard of mushroom corals and polyps that would be ok with my lights. Any particular corals that come to mind? I already looked at the sticky for soft corals. I am just not sure if they are ok with my lights.

<<Shrooms, and some polyps would ok with stock lighting, seen plenty of very basic lighting setups with these corals in therm>>

Also, I talked to the guy at lfs, he told me I could just replace my flourescent lamps with 10,000 k lamps that they have. He told me my current ballast would be ok. He said it would be sufficient to have corals in my tank. Is this true? I want to clarify the information first before making the purchase. I looked at the wattage of the 10,000 k lamp and it is about the same wattage as my stock lights.

<<I would not go with that. Lighing fixtures are tested at manufacturer with specific bulb types. Swapping bulb types leaves you open to a potential issue>>

My tank is still cycling, but I want to do my research ahead of time so I could look around before the actual purchase.


Thanks in advance for all the replies
Click to expand...

Added some comments in red above...

I would go with sweetang21's advice and go for a cheap end of scale T-5 lighting unit as they cost very little for a standard fixture....
 
Shrooms would probably be my best bet before I upgrade my lights. I was surprise though that there are fixtures out there that seem to accomodate my budget. I always thought all fixtures for corals are all around the 300s range and above.
 
A non-photosynthetic coral such as tubastraea ('sun coral'), as previously mentioned, would work, you'd have to feed it though.
 
if you placed some mushrooms and softies at the very top of the tank they might be ok for a few weeks but thats about it,,they would decline imo. if you wear to get a t-5 retrofit kit for you existing hood you could keep all the lo-light corals you wanted to
 
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