• Why not take a moment to introduce yourself to our members?

Josh Weber

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
hey, i am starting up a 10 gallon frag tank for sps. i have two 18watt lamps each fixed with a 9watt antic and a 10,000k daylight. do you guys thing this would be enough light. also i had seen a 13 watt bulb online. it would fit in the place of my 9watt coral life bulb, but have 8watts more per lamp. would this work or just set my house on fire? thanks
josh
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Marginal at best IMO. Why not just go MH and not have to worry about lighting anymore?
 

Josh Weber

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
to be honest. i'm 15. and can't even drive yet. i'll have to wait till middle of summer to get that money. but my idea was to put the frags on some shelving about 4 to 5 inches up off the bottom. the lights would only be a few inches from the frags. do you think they would be powerful enough?
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
For some SPS yes, but not for most SPS. You'll have to be very choosey about what you try to grow in my opinion.
 

Meloco14

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Are you trying to grow out these frags to add them to an established tank? Because under that lighting you will find slow growth rates and no coloration other than brown. If you are just looking at keeping SPS corals alive and not necessarily growing them quickly, then yes it can be done. I have a staghorn monti in my nanocube under PC lighting and it has almost grown to cover the entire circumference of the tank. However, it is totally brown, no coloration whatsoever. I have also kept a pocillopora and monti cap in there in the past, before moving them to my main tank with halides. I have 69 watts of lighting in the nano, and the monti is only a couple inches below the waterline. So if you are to attempt this I would recommend packing as many watts of PC bulbs as you can in there, with the majority of it being 10,000K. Stick with some of the less demanding SPS corals, and don't expect to see pretty colors or amazing growth rates. Because of this, I would recommend you turning it into a nice little nano reef rather than a plain frag tank with some eggcrate and brown frags. Get a nice rock structure in there with some softies on the bottom and the SPS up on top of the rocks and you'll have a nice little environment. This would be my best suggestion given your situation. Good luck!
 

Josh Weber

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
well, i'm only 15 years old. i really couldn't get that kinda money until summer. (but mh is the best out there) my plan was to keep the frags on a shelf about 5 inches off the ground.(this would leave me room for calurpa) and the lights would set directly ontop of the tank, just an inch or two away from the frags. do you thing this would be enough light?
josh
 

Meloco14

Advanced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well, again, yes it will be enough light for them to survive. But I strongly doubt you will see any pretty coloration. And I would still try to fit as many PC lights as you can into the hood. Good luck
 

Josh Weber

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
well, i found a 130watt odessy for about 40 bucks from a friend. it's only a month old and with it he gave me a 30 watt odessy, only a month old! the 30watt has a problem in the wireing but one of the bulbs works great. i think this should do the trick but i'm not sure about how fast they are going to grow.and i would like 4 this tank to mainly raise them. thanks 4 the suggestions! any more are would be nice!
josh
 

clippo

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
light is an important factor in sps health and growth, but there are other factors too - water quality and stability in particular should not be overlooked. Bearing in mind the size of this system, you may have difficulty managing these parameters. Have you kept many tanks before?
 

Josh Weber

Experienced Reefer
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
yes, i currently have a 56 gallon reef setup and it is doing great. i had planned to change about a gallon a week from the 10 gallon and add the water from my reef. i am going to add calcium and buy some test kits to monitor the levels. the water from my reef if very healthy, stable water, full of minerals. i hope that this can work. please give me any suggestions. thanks.
josh
 

Sponsor Reefs

We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.

Click here to sponsor $10:


Top