Few Q's

[reefsrule]

I was just at my LFS. I asked for a leather coral but the employee there said that they would out grow a 5 gallon. Is this true? Also he said that torch's would need high lighting. I have a 13 watt and 9 watt compact flourescent and will upgrade to 2 13 watts, but is that too low for torch's? This concerns me, he said that you can put corals right into the tank without acclimating them. I know poeple here say that's wrong but he says that that's what they do in the store and their corals look really healthy.

[tinyreef]

leathers can grow out of the largest of tanks. just frag/prune them if you think they get too large.

 

imo the 2x13W is still too low for a torch (moderate~high needs). you can try for 2x32W PC for that size tank. some people even pop a 70W mh over the same (or smaller even).

 

it also depends upon how the coral is being kept currently. for example, if it's currently under 400W mh's and you buy it and place it under 2x55W PC's it'll have a browning effect on the coral.

 

not acclimating is a contentious issue. i've always acclimated purchases. for transfers, i sometimes do without the acclimation (but i make sure the temp. and salinity is similar).

 

i just don't think corals and such has an effective osmotic regulating mechanism as 'higher' animals do (e.g. renal system). maybe i'm wrong and it's actually the opposite but i've never lost a coral or fish because of acclimation. true, never lost one w/o acclimating but that's because i never skipped that step.

 

i always light acclimate regardless of the source tho (3~4 hrs dark period after intro). regardless of reasons, imo it's good practice at the very least.

 

i think borneman has a thread discussing acclimating on reef central in his forum. hth

[mattie]

tiny answered this one well.

just understand that some people don't understand a nano

and taking extra care to limit stress never hurt anything

[reefsrule]

Originally posted by tinyreef

imo the 2x13W is still too low for a torch (moderate~high needs).  you can try for 2x32W PC for that size tank.  some people even pop a 70W mh over the same (or smaller even).

 

 

 

I think that's to big for my hood.

[tinyreef]

is it the 5.5g AGA? this retro should fit, depending on your finished hood of course.

 

hellolights.com might have some more selections but it seems champion is addressing the nano market more these days. hth

[onthefly]

I have 2 leather in my 5.5 AGA and I have 64W of PC under the hood...Totally do-able!!!!......Like Tiny said, corals taken from the store/friend with bigtime lighting MH will brown up......might come back, might not. IME, I received some free SPS frags from a guy with a 130ga with boo koo MH's. After 2mo, the color is finally coming back. I'm sure it won't reach the same intensity as if it were under MH's.

[reefsrule]

My tank isn't normal, I got it from my LFS. It has a small opening at the top for the light and the 2x13 watts is the only fixture that will fit I think, unless there's a fixture the same size. I think its about 7.5 inches long.

[MKramer]

Regarding a torch, I've kept a kept a hammer (extremely similar animal) in a 5g with 39W that doubled its number of mouths in a year. So I'd say 39W is plenty of light, and 26W would be enoguh to keep it healthy, but maybe not growing as well. Which may not be a bad thing as mine outgrew the 5g and I had to move it to a 10g tank with 56W of PC light (roughly equivalent to what your 5g w/ 26W would experience). It's doing fine, as is the Torch coral that's been there a year and a half. They're both on the bottom of the tank, too. Moving them higher would obviously net them more light.