Adding corals, some lighting help please

[-Pixie-]

About to add a few beginner corals to my tank, but the issue of globes is giving me some grief.

I am running a 3 bar 54w fixture with independent switches.

I have at the moment 2x10k sun globes

And 1x marine blue globe - Blue actinic light
specific spectrum (400 - 480nm) , also the leaflet with the globe said it peaks at 460nm?

So what should i be replacing the 2x sun globes with or do i only replace the 1?

Do i need an 2x actinic white? or just the 1, or do i need any at all and run another blue? or a fiji purple? i really have no idea.

I realise a 3 bar fitting is minimum standard, so im saving for an identical fixture, but for now what would help me get some nice beginner corals in to my tank, also what are some nice beginner corals?


thanks in advance pixie

[-Pixie-]

Also i have tried the lighting forum but cant find a sticky or topic to suit my situation.

looking for some typres of corals that will be happy with my 3 bar fitting, by that i mean will *pop* look pretty and grow.

[jflick345]

What size tank do you have? Some good soft corals to start with are leathers, kenya tree, xenia, mushrooms, Sinularia, or colt. Some good starter lps are hammer, frogspawn, and torch. All of these corals have light requirements on the lower side so your 3 bulbs should be fine depending on your tank.

With the lighting it all depends on what you plan to keep and the size of your tank. If you're only going to be keep the lower light varieties then you just need to decided what kind of look you want to have. If you want a pretty much identical look to what you have now you might try 2 UVL Aquasuns and an ATI Blue plus or UVL 454

[-Pixie-]

Its a standard 4ft 55g, i would like a much whiter/blue look, i believe that my tank has still to much of a natural sunlight look.

As for corals im more after fluro type colours not to particular on types

[-Pixie-]

from pics and reading i would like.....

a lobo
a sea fan
star polyps or some type of zooanthids as they look awesome
found some nice branchy leathers
and a nice hammer head

any issues with these?

[thegrun]

I would advise you to wait a while on the sea fan, they can be difficult to keep, not a beginners coral. All the others would be fine. As far as bulbs go, I would use one actinic and two bulbs in the 10,000K to 14,000K range for a nice white/blue look. You will be limmited to lower light requiring corals unless you upgrade the lighting.

[-Pixie-]

OK sea fan on hold until new lighting.

By actinic do you mean blue or white actinic?

as far as i know the marine blue globe i have is actinic 15k so the box tells me anway is this sufficient?

by the 2x 10-15k you mean blue and 1 actinic white am i correct?

[Chiefsurfer]

Ask about the bulbs in the t5 Q&A thread from GrimReefer, he knows his lighting.

In my experience, you probably want something like this:

1-12k ATI aquablue special(daylight)
2-420nm ATI Blue+ bulbs(actinic)

The 12k is a nice crisp bluish white, and the 2 blue+ should add quite a bit of blue. But grim might tell you something else. If you already have livestock, you would want to replace one every week or so to not shock them with new brighter light.

[-Pixie-]

will do so thanks chief

[jflick345]

Originally Posted by Chiefsurfer

Ask about the bulbs in the t5 Q&A thread from GrimReefer, he knows his lighting.

In my experience, you probably want something like this:

1-12k ATI aquablue special(daylight)
2-420nm ATI Blue+ bulbs(actinic)

The 12k is a nice crisp bluish white, and the 2 blue+ should add quite a bit of blue. But grim might tell you something else. If you already have livestock, you would want to replace one every week or so to not shock them with new brighter light.

+1 I'm running 2 Blue Plus, 1 UVL 75/25, 1 Aquablue special currently and I like the color. I might go a little more towards the blue in the near future but it's definitely a very crisp color with a hint of blue. If I had to lose one bulb and go with 3 I'd probably go with the recommended bulb combo above. The Blue Plus is a great bulb.

Check out neon green nepthea for a good hardy brightly colored soft coral. It's one of my favorite corals in my tank when it's opened up.

[Chiefsurfer]

jflick, I am running an almost identical setup. I have 1 12K, the 75.25, and 2 stock actinics that came with the fixture. Have ordered the blue+ from my LFS, just waiting.

[-Pixie-]

going to buy new bulbs right now.

[Jstdv8]

Originally Posted by chiefsurfer

ask about the bulbs in the t5 q&a thread from grimreefer, he knows his lighting.

In my experience, you probably want something like this:

1-12k ati aquablue special(daylight)
2-420nm ati blue+ bulbs(actinic)

the 12k is a nice crisp bluish white, and the 2 blue+ should add quite a bit of blue. But grim might tell you something else. If you already have livestock, you would want to replace one every week or so to not shock them with new brighter light.

+1