SPS color???

[jstewart0]

A friend of mine at my lfs gave me a couple of sps frags.  He gave me some Pocillopora and a small Acro frag.  The pocillopora has extended all of its polyps but it is pretty brown right now.  The acro is a light yellowish brown color as well.  They have only been in the tank for a couple days now so I am not expecting any mircles.  I was just wondering what past experience has been with sps corals coloring up.  I know that I dont have as much light on my tank as my friend but he had the pocill. at the bottom of his tanks and it was pink.  I put mine near the top.  I have 4 13 watt pc's lighting the tank now.  My buddy has vho's over his tank.  Thanks

[quiksilver5768]

Well what size tank do you have? 4x13's isnt very powerful / intense unless its a pretty small tank for the SPS. I found that my acro's and other SPS only got to their full color under MH. If you have very strong lighting then you could get it turn from the brown but i doubt that it would reach its full potential of color. In my 10 gal, im running 2x55 watts of PC and cant even get my purple montipora color up back to purple from the light brown (It is 3 inches away from the lighting). So, IMO, they will live healthy lives but for me, I couldn't get them to color up with PC's. Only worked with MH for me although ive never tried VHO's...

[jstewart0]

I was afraid of that.  the tank is only 7 gal. and I have the frags a couple inches from the top.

[Jefe12234]

SPS corals produce colorful pigments in order to protect themselves from harmful UV radiation. There will not be enough intensity in most PC lights to produce much UV, so these corals rarely have the need for such pigments under PC lighting. I don't think you will see much coloration without MH lighting.

 

I would be more worried about the coral merely surviving under those lights. I doubt that 13w PC's will provide enough intensity to sustain even the coral's most basic functions, let alone growth. I would not expect them to survive for very long.

 

I would suggest MH lighting for good growth and coloration. (I know it's a small tank, but intensity is intensity regardless of tank size). You could also go with a more practical setup of powerful PC's or VHO's, but growth and coloration may still be sacrificed somewhat.

 

I don't mean to be a downer, but you got some very demanding corals. There are other SPS's that are better at adapting to lower light, but I think they will all require an upgrade from your current lighting.

 

-Chris

 

(Edited by Jefe12234 at 3:06 am on May 29, 2002)

[NanoReefer53]

i agree with everyone else, with that kind of lighting the most you'll be able to do is just keep them barely alive. You can try a 70w HQI over the tank if you really want to keep SPS in the 7g.