Wondering About Green Fungia

[Donya]

I have been looking at these guys:
http/www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_di...pcatid=1925&N=0

I'm not all that fond of corals in general, but the Fungia group have held my fascination for a while. There are a few things I don't entirely understand though:

- what constitutes "moderate" lighting in watts per gallon? I looked around on the forum for an answer but either I'm blind or didn't look in the right place. Sorry if this is in an obvious place and I missed it (I know it's a newbie question...)

- if they're semi-aggressive and can damage other corals, what does this mean for other animals in a tank? Will they sting non-coral inverts if they come into contact with one? What about fish?

- since they are "easily damaged" by handling, how does this apply as far as being shoved/bumped by something like a large turbo bulldozing accross the substrate? I've seen Fungia in with pretty gigantic snails that are notorious coral-bashers, but I don't know how long the two co-existed.


I'm not thinking about getting one of these any time soon; I'm pretty sure my current lighting is completely insufficient for any sort of photosynthetic coral. Just wanting to get my understanding of them correct, should I want to plan ahead/modify a setup to accomodate one at some point in the future. For some reason I really like the big green blob look.

 

[SkiFletch]

Well this is going in your shallow nano tank right? If so, power compacts are probably fine, and even T5's might be ok for keeping it alive. I cant comment about the stinging of fish and inverts other than corals though, hope someone else can help you there

 

[Donya]

If the tank is even suitable, yep, it is shallow. The tank is a long way from ready for a coral in more ways than just lighting, since the bio-building process is going slowly. I've been google searching for several weeks trying to figure out the difference between the various lighting types and I still don't get it lol this could take me a while. One limitation that I have currently is that the lights can't get very hot; I'm not sure if that would be a problem. I might be able to modify the setup if it is. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly my current lights are

 

[steelhealr]

I have the exact coral that you are talking about. They are not a threat to your fish and inverts unless they were zooplankton which can get caught and ingested.

One of interesting features of this coral is that it can swell and move. Very weird to watch. If it contacts another coral, it can sting it and damage it.

Defining lighting is always a tough topic and WPG is such a rough guide. The only true way to know what your ligthing is at any particular point in your tank is with a lightmeter...and THAT is a PITA to do. As SkiFletch said, if you're water depth is 18 inches and lower and you have PC lighting, 10,000K, you should have adequate lighting to support it at 3-5 wpgs (I hate putting it down in print that way). See the TFF Index on this coral. SH

 

[Donya]

I keep planning to go back down to Home Depot and re-find the bulbs to get the wattage and type on them but havn't had time. Is PC lighting a type of fluorescent?

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, lemme see if I cant help you out with discerning what you have... There are pretty much 5 types of marine lighting, I'll list them in increasing power.

T12 Flourescent
Flourescent lightbulbs of many lengths. The 12 stands for either the diameter or the radius (forget which) of the lightbulbs. The bulbs are single straight tubes with commonly one or two pins on either end. They require a ballast to light and are the least efficient (per watt) of light of any flourescent fixtures. T12's are common in shop lights and basic household and office lighting and have been around for a whole lot of years. You cant grow much other than perhaps mushrooms and easy soft corals under them.

T8 Flourescent
Same thing as T12's with slightly more efficiency and wattage for the same length bulb. Require a ballast and are single straight tubes with pins on either end. T8's were developed in the '90's for aquariums and were the first flourescents to really allow a wide variety of soft corals to be kept relatively easy in an aquarium. They are obvoiusly 8mm in radius or diameter and are thinner than T12.

T5 Flourescent
Again a single straight tube flourescent with still more efficiency and wattage for the same length bulb than T8's. T5's have become popular in aquaria over the past decade or so. Their extra power allows aquarists to keep some large polyp stony LPS corals. Obviously they are still single tubes with pins on both ends and are thinner still than T8's.

Power Compact Flourescent (PCs)
These things are the newest and greatest out there on the flourescent market. They are essentially double T5 bulbs. Each bulb contains 2 tubes that have 4 pins either straight in a row or 4 in a square at one end and they are connected together at the other end. They are extremely powerful compared to a T5 tube of the same length (slightly more than double the wattage) and require a specific ballast. PCs are usually found in double or quadruple fixtures. Their power allows most aquarists to keep a ful range of softies and LPS, and some people even report success with larger plating SPS like montipora. Branching SPS like acropora are hard to impossible to keep on PC lighting. They also usually require a fan for cooling as they put out so much power.

Metal Halide
The cadillac of lighting. Lots of Power, lots of light, and an extreme ability to punch through even the deeper tanks. You can keep anything you want under MH lighting. They come in a variety of styles and fixtures (pendants and tubes), and the easiest way to know if you have them is to weigh your pocketbook... If purchasing your tank or fixture caused it to weigh insanely less then you have MH lights . They are not cheap and create LOTS of heat, but when only the best will do, you need halides.

Hope that helps you out

 

[Donya]

Thanks for the info! That has really sorted out a lot for me. I will have to go home and have a closer look at the bulbs. They are two-pin bulbs but I can't remember the width. Unfortunately from memory of the width I'm leaning towards them being T12s (gack...), so if I can figure out the wattage maybe i can swap another bulb in if needed.

 

[SkiFletch]

You can swap out bulbs for sure, but T12 are not the best bulbs as mentioned. Just for a frame of reference, I just measured my T12 bulb with my calipers and it measures 36.1mm in diameter.

 

[Donya]

Got home and had a look at the bulb--doesn't look like a T12. I finally found something written on it that says F18T8/P&A. Does this mean it's a T8? I couldn't get a good measure on the diameter but it's less than 1" (the radius may be 8mm...tough to tell).

 

[SkiFletch]

Yeah, thats a T8 model designation for sure. Like I said, those can usually support softies, especially if the tank is shallow, with little or no troubles. If your tubes are more than a year old, i'd suggest changing them before you try and keep any softies.

 

[Donya]

The bulb is only a couple of months old, so it should be ok as far as that goes. Just measured the water depth--it's about 11". Guess I should upgrade down the line to a T5 for a Fungia?

I also read something that said that just flicking the light on/off is a bad idea and that it should have a dimmer switch...is that a must? I hadn't heard the dimmer switch thing before except in application to certain other inverts like octopi.

 

[SkiFletch]

For a T8 you dont need dimmers, nowhere near enough power to shock organisms. As a matter of fact, using a dimmer on any flourescent will lower its overall working life. They are designed to run at a certain voltage and current and anything outside that range is detrimental to the bulb over the long run. Also remember with any flourescent that if you lower its voltage too much it may not even fire to start up...

Upgrading in the future may be a good idea, but I dont know much about that specific species of coral and its requirements. My gut would say go with T5 or better, but please get a couple more oppinions

 

[Mr Miagi]

I had a green fungia. Twas an awsome coral. My T8's did a good job, though I had 2x30W 14K(to memory) and 2x30W actinic. Im afraid it went down hill after my hermit wouldnt let it consume any food. It was partly my fault though. I should have tried harder to keep the food up to it.

Feed it twice weekly with mysis or a small peace of thawed shrimp/prawn. It is a very interesting coral as SH mentioned. They use their tenticles to "walk" the food into the mouths, then you can watch the portion of food being digested.

I would wait until you got better lighting. Its only one T8 bulb right?

 

[Aquascaper]

T12 = 1 1/2"
T8 = 1"
T5 = 3/4"
PC = 3/4" (Dual Tube)

HTH

 

[Donya]

Thanks for the measurements Aquascaper!

The fixture is a single-tube one, it's 28" if I recall correctly. I'm still bothered that I can't find a wattage mark on it anywhere. Is there a way to calculate wattage from the length and the T#?

Feeding sounds like it would be ok in my tank. I don't really have anything that could steal food, not meaty stuff anyway. If it were algae that would be a different story...I have plenty of algae bandits