upgrade biocube 16 lights

[Jozefs a lizard]

I have the default biocube lights, most of my corals are doing fine, however, one of my corals came withe a pretty good hitch hiker, a purple plating photosynthetic sponge, however, i dont think the biocube lights will be enought for it, and i also really wants some mystic sunset montipora, and i want to upgrade the light. so i was think of removing the hood and using an asta 120 or 2 asta 20s, Should i use the asta 120 (i have a spare when i had to takedown my biocube 29 when moving) or should i use 2 asta 20s, (i already have 1). Or should i use any other light (suggestions plz).

The livestock is a domino damsel, a strawberry conch juvinile, 5 hermit crabs,  3 trochus snails, and a tuxedo urchin. Corals include some sort of green leather coral, 2 duncan colonies, 1 is 3 heads but the other is a grapefrut sized clump, a single hammer coral with 2 heads, some sort of clove polyps, the purple sponge, and a tiny red rock flower anemone that hitchhiked with my small duncan frag.

I have decent flow, and my setup is about a year old. I was thinking having the asta 120 only, but that might be too much light. So then I was thinking 2 asta 20s. Can I have suggestions on what to do/ or a different light.

[jambon]

This is just an opinion but if you were to put a stronger light in the established corals would possibly get burned . The mystic sunrise might do ok placed higher up to the light. If it caught on it would grow towards the higher light. Worse case it would be dull brown, best case it would be multi colored depending on the light angles. I just put a forrest fire monti in my 32 cube with stock lights.. it's too early to tell how that does. Time will tell. They say montis are the lower end of the high light requiring SPS corals.

 The sponge is a great hitch hiker but they IME are temporary. Is it worth switching your lighting around for? It's your call. 

[WV Reefer]

On 10/12/2019 at 7:12 PM, Jozefs a lizard said:

I have the default biocube lights, most of my corals are doing fine, however, one of my corals came withe a pretty good hitch hiker, a purple plating photosynthetic sponge, however, i dont think the biocube lights will be enought for it, and i also really wants some mystic sunset montipora, and i want to upgrade the light. so i was think of removing the hood and using an asta 120 or 2 asta 20s, Should i use the asta 120 (i have a spare when i had to takedown my biocube 29 when moving) or should i use 2 asta 20s, (i already have 1). Or should i use any other light (suggestions plz).

The livestock is a domino damsel, a strawberry conch juvinile, 5 hermit crabs,  3 trochus snails, and a tuxedo urchin. Corals include some sort of green leather coral, 2 duncan colonies, 1 is 3 heads but the other is a grapefrut sized clump, a single hammer coral with 2 heads, some sort of clove polyps, the purple sponge, and a tiny red rock flower anemone that hitchhiked with my small duncan frag.

I have decent flow, and my setup is about a year old. I was thinking having the asta 120 only, but that might be too much light. So then I was thinking 2 asta 20s. Can I have suggestions on what to do/ or a different light.

i have tons of purple plating sponge and it is beautiful so I can understand why you would want to keep it. 

 

can you show us a pic of your tank to see how it is set up?

[Jozefs a lizard]

My tank doesnt look the best rn as i just moved and it had a amonia spike and an algae bloom, i am keeping  most of my corals at my lfs (thank god i didnt glue the corals to the rocks). during the amonia spike, my hammer died, I kept the frag with the plating sponge ( it was a $5 blue clove frag my lfs was gettign rid of anyway). After the ammonia spike i had an algae bloom, The clove was looking ok, but  the plating sponge was actually doing quite well, it developed these little shoots near its plates during the algae bloom. I am fixing the algae problem and added my inverts back, keeping the fish and corals at the lfs still. And maybe in 2 weeks i will add them back. I think i will keep the algae on the back of the tank wall as I think the algae is the reason of the sponge growth. I guess i will be keeping the default lights, not sure if i will get the monti anytime soon.

[Jozefs a lizard]

a part of the sponge is bulging a bit and it is kind of shinny, is that normal