Corals Possible?

[Ilove2ride]

I have a 24 gallon eclipse tank with the dimensions 24 by 12. I just read that you need 7 watts per gallon... is this possible for my hood?

 

Thanks

[hhasty79]

How macho your light needs to be depends on a few things...what kind of corals do you want? How deep is the tank? etc.

 

Low-light corals are cool with 2-5 watts/gallon, supposedly.

[Ilove2ride]

Well, I would like other corals besides mushrooms, some pretty and easy to keep kinds. Maybe just soft corals... or LPS hard corals... ? I would like to get maximum lighting, but is it possible for my tank?My tank is pretty tall... I'll get the dimentsions later.

Thanks.

[hhasty79]

I have a 20 tall with a 55w retro smartlite over it. 4" sandbed, so it's not *that* deep...

 

I am currently keeping mushrooms, a toadstool leather, finger leather, pulsing xenia, xenia elongata, and lemnalia happy.

[tinyreef]

the old 5w/gal 'rule' was for Normal Outputs (NO's), i guess peeps are upping it to 7w/gal now.

 

pc's are technically VHO-level lights, approx. 3+ times the output of NO's (i usually rate them at 2x just for a fudge factor).

 

so...a 2x32w retrofit should provide you with 64w (at least 128w/20g). that should be fine for the lps and softies. you could raise more 'difficult' animals (clams, sps, anemones) but i'd walk with the 'easy' ones (softies, zoanthids, algae) first.

 

btw non-photosynthetics are the most difficult imo and they by defitinition don't need any significant amount of light.

[gennet]

The watts-per-gallon rule of thumb is bull$hit. To give you an extreme example, lets say you have a 1 gallon tank, with a 13w pc (13w per gallon). According to the above-mentioned rule of thumb, that would be enough for a reef, BUT in the end 13 watts is STILL just 13 watts. Do you ever plan on keeping stonies or anything in the future? Unless if you want to restrict yourself to only keeping mushrooms and zoathids all your life, I suggest you get some halides and be done with it. Why waste more $$ in the long run going through multiple upgrades when you can spend a bit more $$ now and have some good lighting? Just my opinion.

[tinyreef]

gennet,

while i agree with you on the mh, luv2ride is only popping it into his eclipse. the 5w/g rule is a vestige of an era that had no pc's and high Kelvin mh's available. your 13w example is very accurate. i ran a 1g hex nano three years ago and wasn't satisfied with it until i was using the 2x13w csl retro on it. a single 13w just couldn't cut it imo.

 

i wasn't advocating pc's (nothing wrong with them) but i agree mh's are a better (best?) light just $$$ for having them on every system tho. altho i don't agree that you'll be 'limited' to shrooms and zoos. this board alone has a number of peeps running non-mh's for stonys and clams. (altho deez did upgrade to a ushio X) )

 

luv2ride,

if you can afford mh's go for it. gennet's correct in that in the long run pc's are more expensive because you'll eventually go to mh's anyway.

[harbingerofthefish]

but i'd walk with the 'easy' ones (softies, zoanthids, algae) first.

 

algae-if we could only frag it like everything else

[Ilove2ride]

So, would those lights fit into my Eclipse hood? How much are they?

 

Thanks

[tinyreef]

try championlighting.com, marinedepot.com, and hello lighting all have retro kits. pet supply liquidator may also carry them but i've never bought from them.

[Ilove2ride]

Thanks, so I can put mh's on eclipse hoods?

[Ilove2ride]

how about this

 

2X24 ICE CAP VHO RETRO W/430 150 watts. 24.75" x 5" Includes IceCap ballast with harness, end caps, and lamps (please choose lamps). Requires mounting brackets, fan, and power cord. $225.90 $205.90

[LoneWolf02]

i bought a 150 QHI and 2x55 watt power compacts from Pet Supply Liquidator. I have three different SPS , mushroom polyps a seabe anenome , I am having good growth on my sps's but i sorta wish it would slow down since it is only 18 gallons. hahahah

[sjpresley]

Just my 2¢ here on the corals I keep. I have a 10G with 4 x 13W combo (actininc/10K) PC's. I originally went with the 13W's because I was upgrading a kit from a smaller tank and it was significantly cheaper to buy another 13W kit than start over with a 2 x 32W kit. Anyway, this number of lights gives me great flexibility in lighting, so I can change out a light at a time on a rotation so I don't go straight from old weak lights to new strong lights, it just keeps my light quality more constant.

 

Anyway, in my tank I have a variety of mushrooms (which are all low in the tank and are always moving away from the light, up under overhangs), Zooanthus and Parazooanthus that are growing and reproducing, encrusting gorgonians, GSP, a red open brain, some weird flat brain that is a broken frag that came attached to some zooanthids, 2 leathers (Capnella and 2 Sinularia), organ pipe (came from no where out of my LR), Caulastrea, Euphyllia ancora (was eaten by a peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdmani) not a camel back, but the Euphyllia has started regrowing from the edges of the heads), Tubinaria (pagoda/cup coral), and 2 Montipora digitata frags. The tank was set up last February and no corals (except a small Tubastraea do not contain photosynthetic symbionts so I omitted it from the above list) have been added for 2 months plus. All are growing/reproducing. Oddly enough, the only thing I have had die were 2 different small fox coral frags (which can be difficult if they are receding from the edges or damaged in shipping) and they are supposed to be low light. I had them low in the tank in "shadowy" spots but they slowly gave up the ghost. I may feed the tank a little too lightly as fox corals are proported to absorb much of their nutrients from the water. So light feeding plus skimming may have starved them.

 

Anyway, I always try small corals or frags that are pretty cheap and have had good luck with them in this system. Just do research before hand (no impulse buys), even some SPS (e.g., Montipora) aren't that demanding of high light levels, just good water quality.

[iFish]

PC's are the only lighting you can retrofit into an eclipse hood. I would say go for MH and have a canopy built/build one yourself. That way you can have more freedom in filtration and lighting, as well as some nice furniture.

 

P.S. On my 10 gallon I could have gotten a 36 or 32 watt retro from like 60-100 dollars, my radium setup w//ballast and reflector is about 260. Worth it if/more likley when i upgrade. HTH

[Xavier]

Ilove2ride - I feel your pain.. I'm still trying to find out what lights I need after months of research. I also purchased an eclipse hood with a retro from CustomSeaLife for my 25g. My LFS suggested two 32W bulbs (Ultra-actinic and 10k), and I'm still not certain it's going to be enough to support corals - thankfully I still have time to make changes as nothing has been added to the tank but water . I may wait on the MH simply because I've already shelled out the dough for the hood and retro. I'm hoping I can replace my bulbs to a higher wattage w/ having to buy a new ballast.