3 WPG corals

[jumpfreak26]

Im in the process of researching a nano tank(10 gal) that I will be starting up in a year, and I was wondering what types of corals(besides a sun coral) would be ok in a 10 with 30 watts at the least? i may boost it up to 60(most likely) or a 96, I just need some ideas. So basically, corals in 30 watts, what kind?

 

[YahooFishKeeper]

im pretty sure you can keep mushrooms in there

 

[jumpfreak26]

cool, i was hoping to get some,a nd maybe some zoo's or zoanthoids

 

[wayne]

Uff, what's per gallon is such a stupid rule. What bulb, what depth water. Frankly with very small tanks wpg really breaks down as the bulbs might have x wpg, but simply don't have the punch to penetrate the corals tissue thro' to the xooanthellae

 

[Joshua76]

in a standard 10 gal tank some Zoa's and mushrooms will do great under 6,500 kelvin-10,000kelvin 30watts will be fine. Having said that I would still recomend the 96 with a good combo of 10k and actinic you will be happier in the long run and can handle some different corals.

 

[FishGeek]

Just a note from experience when I had my 12G nano I had 96 WATTs and what I thought at the time was enough flow. I started getting algaes and I thought that I was burning the coral. It turned out that they were dying cause I didnt have enough water flow. Just a heads up.

 

[jumpfreak26]

if I do go with the 96 watt how would i go about putting on my tank? I doubt it would fit on the hood, would i have to buy hinged glass cover? Anybody have any pics of their setups? again all help appreciated. p.s. good to know guppy_newbe, its better to have too much than too little!

 

[fish outa wata]

you'd have to toss the hood. a 10g is 20" the same as the light. you can place a glass canopy on top I have one of the panes f/ the canopy on mine so the fan can cool the surface water.

 

[wayne]

If you're struggling to get enough light (and this is a general rule) I tihnk swapping out 10K, 14K lights for actinics is not a good idea as the amount of PAR (useful light) actinics output is so small compared to what a 10K or 14K outputs. They might look pretty, but they aren't really doing anything useful.

Daylight also has it's plus points (terriffic intensity) but can cause you heating problems. The 'sunlight causes algae' argument is utterly bogus

 

[aresgod]

I agree with wayne...why would we try to "recreate sunlight" with intense lighting systems if it caused algae problems. I try to allow as much natural sunlight to penetrate my tank as possible, and while I dont have any scientific proof, the corals seem more expanded when exposed to natural sunlight.

 

[jumpfreak26]

so what type of kelvin rated bulb shoud i get? 50/50 10k and 6700?