Additional Lighting

earman88

Reefing newb
I am currently running a Marineland Reef capable LED on my 10g.

If I add a nova extreme (2 bulb) 24", would this be a good move? Possibly both bulbs as white bulbs, not one white, one accent.

I want to ensure optimal light for my coral, and sufficient light for SPS (currently just 1 birdsnest frag).
 
I agree with Smitty - the marineland reef capable unit should be more than sufficient for your 10g. Beeguiles had that unit over her 29g and had no trouble keeping SPS or anemones. I think the bigger issue with challenging species in a 10g is stability and consistency in your water parameters. I know I've personally found it much harder to regulate things like temperature, salinity changes, etc., in my 10g just because even small changes can impact livestock in a 10g very quickly.
 
Alright cool.

One thing that raised concern was my birdsnest coral. Lately its polyps have been sort of retracted so I thought it may be wanting more light.
 
Have you recently moved it or re-arranged your rocks? If so, then put it back to its earlier spot and see if it improves. Otherwise, if you haven't made any recent changes to the tank and have only recently noticed the polyps not fully extended then I would look for an explanation other than lighting. I have a birdsnest in my 90g, and also had one in my 10g, and found both to be very sensitive to parameter changes. I ultimately lost the one in my 10g due largely to temperature fluxuations. The one in my 90 was one of the corals that retracted its polyps when VOCs from carpet cleaner made their way into my tank, but it has recovered since then. I'd check all of your parameters, make sure your temps are stable, and make sure no one released any cleaning chemicals anywhere near your tank. If everything checks out then do a few slightly larger water changes and give it some time to bounce back. One other thing to check is salt creep on your light - while I highly doubt this is light related, if you've got major salt creep on your light, then its intensity will be reduced and your coral wouldn't be getting as much light as it normally does. Otherwise I don't think your light is to blame :)
 
Thanks Fishy! I'll see. It could be from temperature swings.. I think I also had a little bit of trace ammonia that could have affected it as well. I was a little past due for a water change last night (it had been 10 days probably).
 
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