coral lighting needs...

[2008pollyanna]

To raise good coral, and to get them to not only just survive but to grow...what should a person get for lighting?
Is this something reliable?
400 Watt Metal Halide Aquarium Light w/ 14k or 20k bulb

What should I be looking for? Economy wise for the electrical bills what should I be watching for? Price range on unit...

And if anyone has a good cheap used unit let me know...
Thankyou
My tank is 36" long its actually a 46 gallon bowfront...

 

[Bifferwine]

For a 46 gallon tank, 400 watt MH will probably be too much and will heat your tank up way too much. My choice for a tank that size would be T5s. They are much cheaper than MH, the bulbs cost less and don't need to be replaced as often, they don't heat up your water, they don't use as much electricity as MH, and you can still keep any animals you want under them.

A 36" set of T5s will not be too expensive either.

 

[lightcs4]

A Nova Extreme Pro (around $300, maybe a bit less) will allow you to keep anything in your tank and keep it well. You could also go with a Nova Extreme and keep things like clams up toward the top half of the tank. However, you could also go with a 36" HQI MH (metal Halide) setup (around $300 also, maybe a bit more) and be able to keep everything healthy as well. Most prefer the T5's as they are cheaper to run. The bulbs are cheaper as well, but you have to replace all the bulbs at once so your spending about the same to replace six bulbs as replacing one MH bulb and a couple PCs (Power Compacts). Also, you will get a lot of varying opinions when it comes to lighting so take all, mine included, with a grain of salt.

Edit: By the way, check out the two Doctors site (http://www.drsfostersmith.com/). They have some reasonable prices on T5's and recently had them on sale.

 

[Piggy]

I would go with T5's over MH. Way cheaper on the electric and replacement bulb bill.

 

[2008pollyanna]

Thankyou Biff, Light, and Piggy.

I have these lights at this point...They may be quite sufficient... But, I dont know..
It is the 36" Orbit Compact Flourescent Lunar light set. it uses 2 dual bulb units. Current sunpacs 420NM & 460 NM Actnics and 6,700 and 10,000K daylight dual bulb.

Do you think these are strong enough to grow corals?

 

[lightcs4]

It gives you a 96 watt actinic and a 96 watt daylight bulb. That is only 192 watts or about 4 watts per gallon. However, the PCs don't have the ability to penetrate much depth from what I have read. You could likely put corals near the top and have them happy, but I would wait for others to provide an experienced opinion as I have never used this type of unit.

 

[2008pollyanna]

How many watts per gallon are recommended for coral propagation?

 

[Piggy]

What type of corals do you plan on having?

 

[2008pollyanna]

I have several...lots of zoanthids, ricordeas, mushrooms, foxcoral, red monti, 2 favites, buttons, polys, zena, kenja tree, gorgonians, toadstool, and bubble coral. They have all been added within 3 months. Between 2 tanks my 29 biocube, and my 46 bowfront. Seem to be doing pretty good. Just not seeing alot of growth. But, not dieing either. Look quite healthy.... I have noticed they like cyclop-ezze. Any thing else you guys feed your corals? Oh, I have a suncoral also.

 

[Bifferwine]

They would definitely grow faster under T5s, but if they are doing well under the ones you have now, your lighting is probably sufficient. None of those are high-light requiring corals except for maybe the monti (and not all montis are high light corals either). Some of those will grow much faster if target fed with frozen mysis or krill. Try that with the button polyps and bubble coral. Bubble corals love to take chunks of meat when they have their tentacles out.

 

[2008pollyanna]

Hey Biff,
How can I target feed mysis or krill...they really arent tiny for their mouths?
And I heard anemones like chunks of silversides twice a week. Have to find some of them in my area...My anemone have been eating the krill, mysis, and brine shrimp. All frozen by the way. Wish I could get my hands on fresh.

 

[Bifferwine]

Get a pair of tweezers or feeding tongs. Once the food is thawed out, take a piece with the tweezers and place it on the coral's tentacles. The bubble will be greedy and love the feedings. If its tentacles aren't extended, though, it probably won't eat.

You can feed your anemone and fish fresh seafood. Avoid fish (it's too oily) and stick with fresh clams, mussels, oysters, frozen shrimp, scallops, etc. I have made my own coral and fish food in the past by putting those things in the blender. Most pet stores (even stores that aren't specialty saltwater stores) will sell silversides.