will this light support corals?

[agreeive?fish]

As the title states.. will this lighting support corals mainly softies mushrooms, and what some pepole concider weeds (aka zoo,colony polyps ect)

tank demensions

72*24*29(h)

light specs..
(1) 6ft fixutre
4 bulbs @96w each (384w)

can add (2) 36" fixtures
2 buls each..55-65w each bulb(220-260w) depending on bulb manufacturer

pc watage total 604-644w total


age of bulbs..about 4.5 billion years old..so new bulbs are in order so if your upto suggesting color combos feel free

tank is not set up yet so no corals will be harmed by these old bulbs


i would prefer to use only the one 4 bulb 6ft fixture of 384 watts if possible but iam more than willing to use the other 2 eixtures if needed

[Toddrtrex]

Would think that you would be able to keep some mushrooms and other "weed" polyps, though not sure how Zoas would work, think they might brown out.

If you are going to use just the 4 bulb fixture I would stick with 10,000K bulbs. MIGHT be able to get away with 2 10,000K bulbs and 2 50/50 bulbs, put can't say for certain. It has been a long time since I keep those types of corals and used PCs. Though I did use 6*65 50/50 PC bulbs over my 75 many moons ago. My mushrooms and yellow polyps grew to plague proportions.

[firebirdcrzy]

I see no problem with keeping mushrooms, zoas, and other soft corals with your light. And maybe even some LPS corals. But if the bug ever bites you to want SPS those lights will never do.

[agreeive?fish]

ill never go to the colored sticks.. if i want a colored stick ill just buy a fake coral..cheaper, less light investment, and the electric co wont get as much of my money plus the fake coral wont die on me

i only want corals that actually have some movement.. if they just sit there taking up space i dont want them... a colored stick in my tank is about as useful as a plastic fish

softies and "weeds" is as far as ill ever go...i personaly dont want corals but the wife does and it has taken her almost 7 years to convince me to add corals to my fowlr tanks.. and because of her new porciline dolls cabinate the 30g reef is gonna have to come down because we are maxed out on wall space as it is... i have two 6ft tanks and one 7 ft tank but at the moment only the 7footer is set up but the other 2 tanks are in thier posiitions i just have to get under the house and support the floor joist because the run the WRONG DARN DIRECTION ...dang it.lol

[firebirdcrzy]

don't knock the colored sticks till ya try them :) I think if all you want are mushrooms and zoas your lights ar right on. Most mushrooms do not like alot of light to begin with and will probably flourish. Sence I changed to halides most mushrooms I had dissapeared or stay really small as they cant stand the extra lights.

[agreeive?fish]

don't knock the colored sticks till ya try them :) I think if all you want are mushrooms and zoas your lights ar right on. Most mushrooms do not like alot of light to begin with and will probably flourish. Sence I changed to halides most mushrooms I had dissapeared or stay really small as they cant stand the extra lights.


oh iam not knocking the more advanced corals aka colored sticks.. its just not my thing.. but then again reef safe fish for the most part aint my thing either with the exception of tangs.. i like them puffers/angels/triggers wrasses(non reef safe) thats why it took soooooooo long for my wife to convince me to allow corals in my big tanks to start with

[Chiefsurfer]

if you're going with softees, those should be fine. 29" is deep, but they are all fairly low-light stuff.

[agreeive?fish]

thanks for the replys

any more opinions out there?

[orion1]

most Zoo's would be ok if you can get them mid to upper level.
IME pumping xenia is nice but requires a lot of light if you can get it near the top it might survive