Lighting For Mushrooms

[ocmsolidsnake]

What kind of lighting would be needed for mushrooms on 55g. I currently have a 130 watt 50/50 light hood. Are there any corals I can keep?

 

[Mr Miagi]

Mushrooms should do fine. Zoanthids, Sacrophyton (leather corals), and possibly other soft coral and lower light requiring LPS.

 

[ocmsolidsnake]

Thanks for that info. I probably wont be looking at corals for a long time, seeing as my set up is only two weeks old, but at least I know I can keep something.

 

[enjoiskater158]

you could start with a pulsing xenia. their hardy for a coral and arnt very expensive

 

[tmreynolds]

I've got mushrooms, green star polyps and a plate coral under T8's doing fine. xenia is another that would be OK. There are quite a few lower light corals that you could get besides these aswell.

 

[RadaR]

Sorry to hijak but i thought id ask my question here saves doing a new thread.
Zoanthids, Mushroom's, Elegance Corals, Torch Corals and a Leathers do well under t8 lighting you say. So do you think they'd be ok under 79W of t8 lighting 6500K in a 30G?
Thanks

 

[SkiFletch]

Sorry to hijak but i thought id ask my question here saves doing a new thread.
Zoanthids, Mushroom's, Elegance Corals, Torch Corals and a Leathers do well under t8 lighting you say. So do you think they'd be ok under 79W of t8 lighting 6500K in a 30G?
Thanks

Dunno where you got Elegance Coral on that list . Elegance corals have in the past decade been one of the most difficult corals to keep in a reef tank, period. Problem is, nobody knows why. Back in the early days of reefing, elegance corals were easy to keep and very hardy. Not the case anymore. Whatever the cause of their low survivability, its pretty accepted that an elegance coral will likely die in captivity. If I had to guess, I'd say 80% failure rate at least. Cause unknown, but symptoms include swollen oral disks followed by shortening tentacles and finally shrinking and necrosis of the specemin.

Zoos, Mushrooms, And leathers will do great . A torch will do OK in there, but dont expect fast growth or vibrant colors out if it...

 

[RadaR]

Thanks for the reply Ski. I saw that Mr Miagi had an Elegance Coral in his tank with 30W lighting so I thought it would be ok. Oviously not lol
I was just curious because im thinking of converting one of my tanks to marine (yes, you guys have me hooked) and thought I could save some money by keeping the lighting. I knew i wouldnt be able to keep the main corals but I would have liked a few to stop the tank from being just bare live rock.

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, elegance corals are tough. Mr. M has the luxury of living practically nextdoor to where they are collected (australia and indonesia) and therefore his specemin got relatively babied in shipping compared to any of those I've tried. Mine's directly under a 175watt halide now and scheduled to get some home-made coral food twice a week. Hopin it pulls through

 

[Mr.September15]

Ah the glory of living beside the GREAT Barrier Reef. I live bside the lousy Pacific Ocean. And not the nice part either

 

[BigIan]

Ah the glory of living beside the GREAT Barrier Reef. I live bside the lousy Pacific Ocean. And not the nice part either

Its better than the north sea though

 

[SkiFletch]

Its better than the north sea though

TRUE THAT

 

[tmreynolds]

Its better than the north sea though

TRUE THAT

Both better than the Grand Union Canal, never seen elegance coral there

 

[Mr Miagi]

Yeah, elegance corals are tough. Mr. M has the luxury of living practically nextdoor to where they are collected (australia and indonesia) and therefore his specemin got relatively babied in shipping compared to any of those I've tried. Mine's directly under a 175watt halide now and scheduled to get some home-made coral food twice a week. Hopin it pulls through

There is conjecture to whether or not its due to the actual collection methods, or the area collected. Elegance corals can be found in a variety of different conditions, covered in mud, and with poor light, but Ski is right, UK and US specimens do remarkably poor compared to our Australian specimens.