What is considered Low, Moderate and High lighting

[SaltyMist]

Im just looking at some soft corals on the web, so Im wondering what is considered Low lighting requirements, Moderate Lighting requirements and High lighting requirements in terms of wattage, or watts per gallon.

Thanks,

 

[liquid]

Low light might be something simple like a couple flourescent bulbs. With that you could probably keep Zoanthids and mushrooms.

Moderate light would probably be a set or two of VHO's, PC's or a low wattage halide setup. With that you could keep soft coral, LPS.

A high lighting setup would be something along the lines of > 250 watt halides and you could keep just about anything with that (clams, SPS, etc).

Shane

 

[SaltyMist]

Okay, Im looking into getting better lighting, right now I just have a PC 65w 50/50 light, so I assume I have currently moderate lighting, and I dont really want to go up to metal halides, so I'll be avoiding the clams, sps etc.

Im really looking into finding some Zoanthids, and more mushrooms for my tank, so I guess my lighting as it is now is okay for that.

Thanks for the reply

 

[insearch]

Low light might be something simple like a couple flourescent bulbs. With that you could probably keep Zoanthids and mushrooms.

Moderate light would probably be a set or two of VHO's, PC's or a low wattage halide setup. With that you could keep soft coral, LPS.

A high lighting setup would be something along the lines of > 250 watt halides and you could keep just about anything with that (clams, SPS, etc).

Shane

So am I to assume that my duel 175 MH and 2ea 96w PC in my 36 wide 55 gal are still in the catigory of Moderate?

 

[liquid]

IMO that would be on the upper end of Moderate. Granted, my High Lighting category consists of a 250 watt halide at the lower end, 400 watt halide in the middle/upper, and > 400 watt halide at the top of that range.

Shane

 

[ricky1414]

Liquid, how about 156 watts over a 10 gal? Probably still moderate? 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Depends on the wattage of the individual bulb, not the total wattage, IMO. One 96W PC will be able to support some corals that 2 65W PCs can't.

 

[K9coral]

:roll:

 

[liquid]

Liquid, how about 156 watts over a 10 gal? Probably still moderate? 8)

Will that be 22 nightlight bulbs (@ 7 watt/ bulb) or a single 150 watt halide?

Just bustin yer chops...

Shane

 

[K9coral]

 

[liquid]

I guess where I was going with that is that watts/gallon, while is one way of looking at your lighting, really doesn't tell you the whole story. If watts/gal were the way to go, I could keep SPS in a dixie cup (holds 1 cup water) with a 7 watt nightlight bulb. That'd be:

7 watts / 0.0625 gal = 112 watts/gal :!:

It's more about intensity and tank depth than anything else.

Shane

 

[K9coral]

O.K. - point taken by all.
Lets take up a collection and send his aquarium straight into the sun :!:

 

[liquid]

I guess I've never really answered the direct question of what lighting you'd need for mushrooms, zoanthids, and soft corals. You could keep them just fine w/ either PC's or VHO's. Heck you probably could keep a number of LPS under that lighting too.

DLARG89: Hehe Heh, that dixie cup analogy was the very first thing I got hit with (from Phishmon IIRC) when I started chatting on #reefs over 4 yrs ago. Just passing it along. 8) Ahhh, the memories.

Shane

 

[K9coral]

Lets not get sentimental.... the memories are nice though. When my allowance paid for my hobby!!!! lolololol NOT ANY MORE! memories are good.

 

[ricky1414]

Will that be 22 nightlight bulbs (@ 7 watt/ bulb) or a single 150 watt halide?

Just bustin yer chops...

2x65 watt pc, and two wierd 13 watt hellos t-5 bulbs mounted inside my gto canopy.
But I do have a 250 watt mh (less broken bulb) setup that I could put over my 10 gal. Would that be enough intensity? I could supplement with 130 watts of pc. Does that put me in the right range for SPS? :wink:
BTW, did I say that my chops needed busting? LOL, just kidding 8)