Biocube 29 stock lighting and reef???

[Lunchbox66]

I'm very new to the forums and the community. I recently decided to purchase one of the coralife biocube 29's for my first tank. I have not been able to get anything else to start setting it up yet. I am definitely planning on doing the basic filter mod that seems to be popular.

I'm still struggling to understand what lighting in necessary for corals (LPS and softies mostly, but shedding light on SPS would be nice too). I've searched online and the forums and learned a bit, but I can't find any hard descriptions of what is the proper amount of light for corals to thrive (I know alot depends on size and depth of the tank). I know the new coralife biocube has upgraded lighting compared to the oceanic, but are those lights good to support some hardier corals until I can invest in some more mods?

[terrypercula]

The stock PC will handle LPS no problem. I've seen someone have SPS in their stock biocube and much to my surprise it was doing well. It was also basically right under the light ha.

[RDM]

Congrats on the new tank! The stock lights will support some softies and LPS corals. The problem I saw with mine, and the reason I went with LEDs was due to the heat from the stock lights. The room where my tank is stays at about 76 degrees. With the lights on and the cover closed I had trouble keeping the tank below the mid 80s. The LEDs have helped with the heat. I went with the RapidLed retro kit for my biocube. 12 white and 12 royal blue for the mains and 3 royal blue for moonlight. All are on dimmers so I can adjust the color mix and brightness level to my liking. I'll probably add 4 of the UV at some point. There are other options out there but I've been happy with these. And I don't work for or have any interest in RapidLed, I'm just a happy customer.

You can always start your tank with the stock lights and update later. It doesn't take anything special lighting wise to get your tank cycled and a couple of pieces in it to get you going. Good luck getting setup and going.

[Crna]

+1 The stock lights are plenty to get you started! I didn't have any problems with heat, but the temp in my house is usually around 70 degrees. Before my LED upgrade, I had LPS, zoas, mushrooms, and a couple of birdsnest that were doing great. So, depending on what you want to keep, stock might be just fine for you. And the upgrades are pretty simple if your reef changes over time.

[Zoa hoarder]

You can keep anything under pc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQN1zxxAQbQ

[sponger0]

The stock lighting is good for a start. You can keep LPS and zoas. But the colors arent as vivid as other light sources.

LED retrofit kits are nice. But the downside is you still have the hood trapping possible heat. And no bulbs, but you can keep pretty much anything as far as corals that way

Another option is a 24 inch 4 bulb T5 light. They fit and like LEDs can pretty much keep any coral. The upside is no more hood so heat can escape. Down side is evap and possibly fish jumping out but you can make a screen top. Its up to you. I used T5 fixture on Biocubes and it worked out great.

[Amoore311]

Depends on what you want to get into. If you want soft corals that are shades of brown/green PC's will do fine. You'll never get the colors you see under halide/t5/led with PC's though, and you still get to deal with heat.

[Lunchbox66]

Thanks for all the great replies. I plan on starting with a few hardy corals at first, since I am a beginner. At some point I definitely want to do an LED upgrade, thinking about maybe the RapidLED biocube retrofit kit, but there is definitely a lot more essentials I need to get before that.

Are there any hard numbers as far as lighting goes (watts, kelvin, etc...) for each type of coral? I'm a math guy so I like charts and numbers. :)

[Amoore311]

PAR is your best bet in regards to light measurements for corals etc. For a lot of the higher end LED set ups, and most of the halide set ups, you will see a par graph offered.

That tells you what par level you can expect to see at "x" inches under the light. Like this one below which happens to be for one of the Radions:

Edit..... wow you really can't like to RB from here..... lol


Try this link: to the right on page one you will see the 2 charts
http://ecotechmarine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/10793_Rev01_Radion_G3_G3ProSalesFlyer.pdf