how much light?

[jdmcivicek9]

so im getting ready to re aquascape my tank tomorrow because im trading in a big piece of LR covered in gsp's for a clean gsp free piece and am wondering when i reglue my colonies of sps to the rockwork what types like more light and what types can i put down lower...such as montipora, hydnaphora, acropora, millipora what location should i place them at in my tank??

[jdmcivicek9]

bump* anyone??

[detect007]

Well most of the coral you listed are going to require higher amounts of light requiring you to keep them all near the top. Then monits and acros require strong light for good color and growth. I would try to keep them all as close to the top as possible, depending on how strong your lights are and how close they are to the top of the water.

[detect007]

good luck. There are some good books that reference where what species of coral should be placed. its worth the investment. LMK and i will supply you with the names of a few.

[60Cubed]

Every coral is different. I use these:


http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o141/60cubed/075.jpg

They allow you to raise and lower the coral to find it's best height in the tank before mounting. They are in the bathroom section at wally world for $2.99. I believe a toothbrush/toothpaste holder. They work very well.

[gavinbree]

It depends on the type of growth they have also, for plating type corals you want to put these down as low as possible as they will shade other corals as they grow, put digitate and staghorn types at the back and along the side, and more compact growing types can be put around the middle/upper levels of the tank.

It depends really whether you want to maximize the space you have or aim for lots of small colourful corals.

Putting all yours SPS at the top of the tank will limit the ammount you can keep.

[jdmcivicek9]

thanks for the help yeah im running 2 250watt metal halides and phoenix 14k bulbs so i dont think lighting is a problem im just wondering if some of my corals right now are getting to much light or not...if you mount a coral to high could that cause it to start losing color??or does that mainly just happen if they're not getting enough light??

[crmjacks]

agree with gavinbree.....i have fried some of my colonies by putting them under too much light and have had some darken/brown up because they were not getting enough light. it's really an issue to experiment about until you get the results you want.

[jdmcivicek9]

welp i traded in the big rock today and ended up with 4 new pieces of live rock that equal about the same size as the original one and also a 75.00 credit on my account!!!but anyway the aquascapeing is done im just waiting for my water to clear up before i take some pictures. but i will definatly post some before and afters!!thanks for the help