question about low lighting

[gtstylez87]

i have a 29gal that has half a watt per gal. the only coral i have in there are some mushroom. what other low light corals could i put in?

[dendro982]

If the depth of the tank is less than 16", the same corals as I described for my low light 90g tank in another low light thread - just below in forum index. If mushroom grows and this is a usual mushroom, not the hairy one, then your light is not so bad: my red mushrooms were very demanding and grew only in better light, than corals listed above.

If you can do DIY 70W metal halide (the cheapest but not so good looking way to do that) , you will have almost the same wattage but with better penetration at the depth and will have more possibilities to grow photosynthetic corals. DIY 150W MH is comparable in price, but will have twice more power consumption (still not so big if you calculate).

Other options:
- Planted tank (see the marine algae forum)
Algae may grow at as low light as 27W CFL (spiral daylight bulb from hardware store) if tank depth is 12" (30 cm).

- Shrimp tank
Always wanted, never had :)

- Tube anemones field.
Nothing but small tube anemones of different colors. Alien landscape.

HTH

[gtstylez87]

it was a fish only but i wanted to do coral but i cant afford any more lights. like i said it has half a watt per gallon. i have a red rock anemone, red mushrooms, and xenia(but they don't look so good). can i get some ideas for some corals

[dendro982]

From what I have seen on forums, red bubble tip anemone require more light :(

Xenia and red mushrooms should be OK at the top of the tank, as close to the lights as possible - to the middle of the lights, not ends.

Mine were OK at the top of the tank under 18W 50-50 PC (white pom-pom xenia grow, red mushrooms were just alive). Red mushrooms grow under 27W CFL (spiral daylight bulb from hardware store, in $15 reflector from Home Depot or same price arm desktop lamp), in well fed tank.

More tolerant to low light: hairy mushroom (grows big, beware) and neon-green candycane. Kenia tree will grow almost anywhere, but could become invasive when starts to drop branches. Yellow polyps are tolerant. Branching frogspawn and hammers are slightly more demanding, but less than red mushrooms (IMHE).

HTH