# coral lighting?



## Gilraen Took (Apr 19, 2007)

I figure someone here _may_ know, since my reef tank forums are too wishy washy on it. . .

Basically I know that plant will not use the blue light in bulbs, like a 50/50, but do corals? My good store is even wishy washy on it. The guy there says that the blue lights are JUST for human enjoyment at times, yet says that the blue light is good for deep water corals since that is what they use in the wild. So is it a case by case thing?

The big reason I wonder is that I've got a 10 watt 10K on my 5 gallon, and was hoping to get a candy cane, which is a low-medium light coral and was promptly told that I did not have enough light, then was told by people who have them in 5 gallon tanks that they do wonderfully with two 9 watt bulbs, one/blue one 10K. >_> Plus I've seen it said on some forums that a coral will starve(unless overfed) in a tank with only blue light on it. Nice and confusing, or does the blue light have usable light that really makes that difference even when it is only a small ammount more?


----------



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

Corals do use the blue spectrum of light, like what is in actinic blue bulbs or 10K (or higher) bulbs. The Candy cane will do good under 2wpg, but they do even better under higher lighting. You might want to give shrooms a try, since they do very well in lower light.


----------



## Gilraen Took (Apr 19, 2007)

Yeah, I'm getting a shroom or two for it as well, once the site that I like gets the variety I used to have in again(once every few months) but had also just wanted something different as a centerpiece. Though I may just get another rock and stick the shrooms to it. Hm. 

On the other hand I did have a really nice ricordea in the 20, but it turned to mush when I was getting the other tank set up. Which bites, since I'd had it forever.


----------



## bencozzy (Jun 2, 2006)

lumens per sq. inche for your reef tank

heres the rules

low-med; ~50- lumen per sq. inche
high is ~80+

simple and easy to follow, no confusion about it.

and as far as lighting options for 10K 20K actinics and so on it all personally choice on what looks good to you. personally ive used the GE 9325K bulbs over my reefs with great results, a little on the pink side but a actinic balances it out well.

side note- as with planted tanks the wpg rule doesnt take into account tank dimensions or depths.

side note2- corals have auxilary pigments to help use blue light if given only blue light it might not be enough for a given coral, as corals have individual differences in their pigmentation.

HTH
ben


----------



## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

In my experience with the Candy Canes, they do much better the lower in the tank I put them, so with 2 wpg, they may do just fine if you put them a little higher in the tank. With 4 wpg, I have my CC's on the floor and they are doing great. 

Ben, I didn't realize that the 9325's would be good for SW. I'm glad to hear that since I really like the looks of the light myself.


----------



## trenac (Jul 16, 2004)

That's interesting, Jan. My cane never did really well until I put it directly under my MH lights.


----------



## bencozzy (Jun 2, 2006)

i had my cane and blasto merletti under 355W of flourescent and they showed marked improvements in color being about mid to upper level. oh the tank was a 20g long.

i like the 9325K, they are cheap and work great i had one PC and i had 3 NO running on a vho e-ballast. they seem to work fine being overdriven as well unlike some of the more expensive NO flourescents.


----------

