What amount of Light for SPS?

[KidK9]

Could anyone point me in the direction of what kind of light I should be using to grow SPS in my 7 Gallon minibow?? I currently use 3 Coral life Mini's, which accounts for 54 watts of actinic and compact fluorescent light. So, I know MH would be best of course, but I'm just wondering what can be pulled off. So much thanks!!!!

[Tek]

I have kept SPS under 110W of PC. The corals were at the top 4" under the water line.

[onthefly]

You can have pretty good success with Montipora (cap and dig) and perhaps some of the other low light (Acro yongei, Pavona, etc) using PC. You need to increase the amount of PC you have to something like Tek had. Just for reference, I had 96W PC on my 5.5 in the beginning. Most of my SPS browned up (or lost there nice coloration) within a month or two.

 

Options for good SPS growth and color: MH, T5 (do a search for "danano" and look at his "my precious" thread), or a truck load of PC (probably 6500K too)