Can a 38watt 50/50 flourescent tube sustain coralline growth?

[cato]

Can a 38watt 50/50 flourescent tube sustain coralline growth? It's a 36" light strip I got with a used 38gal tank. A light upgrade is in the future but not for a while. Looking to do a FOWLR tank for now.

[skyfireblaze]

"sustain coralline growth" eh?

I've been forced to use the standard 15W NO light that came with my 37g for the last year and a half. IME, the coralline on my rocks has been sustained (hasn't died off), but I wouldn't say that I've had much growth. The coralline on the rocks has grown a bit, but I haven't had any really take on the glass.

So, really I'd say "sustain coralline" = probably yes; "coralline growth" = probably no.

HTH

[Entropy]

Yes it can. Not only will it sustain it, it will also grow it. I had a 20w NO 10k bulb over my 22g refuge for almost a year and it had 90% coverage. The refuge was half of my sump, so I had to scrape the sides just to see into it. Water quality and akalinity will play a bigger role than light quality IMO.

[Reefdaddy1]

Coraline grows real well in Low light configs. It has proven that COraline prefers low light and will grow at night as well. Most of My growout tanks run 2 blue moon NO T12 and one Acentic and thats on 140 gallon tank. Coraline grows like crazy in it. You should be good,

[skyfireblaze]

You know, after thinking about Entropy's comments I'd have to agree with him (Reefdaddy too). I've had a fair amount of trouble with my alkalinity (way low). Could that be why I've yet to have a lot grow on the glass?

The rocks have held up well though. I just now looked back on some pictures from when I first set up the tank. I was amazed to see just how much coralline growth I've had. I guess when you see it everyday it kind of sneaks up on you.

So yeah, ignore what I posted above. I was wrong. Your coralline will be fine.

[cato]

Thanks alot guys.:thumbsup:

[Entropy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6857812#post6857812 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xchrisjb
I've had a fair amount of trouble with my alkalinity (way low). Could that be why I've yet to have a lot grow on the glass?

Could definately be a problem. My coralline stops growing and will even start to go away if my alkalinty drops. Also for some reason it is much hard to get coralline to grow on glass than acylic. My refuge was acrylic and was complete covered. With my new tank (6 months, 150g), the acrylic overflow wall has really good coverage, but the glass is still coming along very slow.