appropriate corals?

[jacuglietto]

I am slowly trying to convert my FOWLR to a reef tank, and at the moment I have only reef safe fish. My lighting is currently at 1.5 Watts per gallon - on a standard 90 gallon set up - and will hopefully be upgrading to about 2.7 Watts per gallon shortly. (not sure if watts per gallon is the best measurement to give).

I gather that mushrooms and zoas are the best choices for aquariums with low light, but is my lighting too low? - If not, are there any suggestions for corals which will do well within my lighting range? any help is welcome - thanks

 

[Deanos]

Can you give specifics about your lighting? Is it VHO, T5 or PC? 1.5 watts per gallon tells us very little.

 

[jacuglietto]

t-5, and I am either going to suplpement that with an additional 108 watts of t-5 or move to a 260 watt PC - which would give me almost 2.9 watts per gallon

 

[charlie1225]

t-5, and I am either going to suplpement that with an additional 108 watts of t-5 or move to a 260 watt PC - which would give me almost 2.9 watts per gallon

I would stick with the t-5's. PC's seem to be much weaker than T-5's. If you want mushrooms I say go for it! I have mushrooms spreading like weeds in shadows in my tank.

 

[basiab]

If you go by watts per gallon it is very low even for mushrooms. What you can do is make sure your corals are closer to the light than to the bottom and place them under the lights instead of off to the sides. This way you are using the light efficiently.

 

[jacuglietto]

yes, I have designed my rock work so that there aregood surfaces close to the light source, and the rocks are assembled directly under the light. (as opposed to in front of or behind the light)

 

[House of Laughter]

james,

Is it a standard 90g @ 24" deep? if so, then you'll need a 6 bulb T5 fixture to give you good lighting that can penetrate the water column - especially if you intend to have corals on the sand - clams or the like - if you intend on having a range of corals - lps, zoos, shrooms other softies etc, this would be the best plan - if you intend to only have a softy reef with shrooms and some zoos, then a 4 bulb should do it - i would just caution you that once you start, you'll want more and buying 2x is never any fun, especially if it's lighting -

good to see you tonight.

House