How many watts per gallon (light) for corals?

[EmmanuelJB]

How many watts per gallon for Low Light Corals? Medium Light? High Light? Right now I have a little over 3.5 watts per gallon on my 10 gallon....

[Tigerbarb]

With 3.5 watts per gallon, you could probably keep a nice collection of low light corals, such as zoas, mushrooms, kenya trees, xenias, etc. Do you intend to keep low, medium, or high light corals?

[EmmanuelJB]

With 3.5 watts per gallon, you could probably keep a nice collection of low light corals, such as zoas, mushrooms, kenya trees, xenias, etc. Do you intend to keep low, medium, or high light corals?
Probably just low lights but how many watts per gallon for medium and high light corals?

[labnjab]

Its not really how many watts per gallon but what type of light. Your going to be able to keep more under 35 watts of t-5's then you can 35 watts of pcs. We have 6.6 wpg of metal halide over our 75 gallon and can just about keep any coral under the sun

For instance, when I had my 29 gallon set-up with pc's, I had roughly 6.75 wpg, but since it was pc's I was limited to softies and most lps, but couldn't keep any sps. When I upgraded to t-5's, I only had 5.3 wpg, but I could keep all softies and lps, a some sps and an anemone

[EmmanuelJB]

I have a Current USA T-5 36 watt with a metal reflector. (10 Gallon)

[labnjab]

I'd say you should be good for most softies and maybe some lps if kept up high. You could try open candy cane of frogspawn

[sheamurai]

So, if you only have cp's, it doesn't matter how many wpg you have, you are limited to what you can grow?
And when figuring wpg, do you figure it out as per tank volume (when empty), or actual water volume in the tank?

[labnjab]

Your pretty limited with compact flourecents, the just dont have great par. I've always measured wpg by tank size. The concern isn't really the amount of water but more so the depth. For example, a 20 long requires less light then a 20 tall to keep the same coral. Same water volume but one is taller the the other

[kaybee]

A variety of soft and LPS corals can be maintained under PC lighting (though that isn't the most efficient type of reef lighting).

The limitation would for corals that require more Photosynthetically Active/Available Radiation (PAR) than what PC's can emit (which practically includes most SPS corals).

It's the PAR rather than the WPG that is key. For example 36 watts of 420nm actinics over a 10gal tank is 3.6 WPG...same as 36 watts of 6500K lighting over a 10gal. However the 6500K bulbs are putting out a lot more PAR. PAR is also reduced by water depth, so the higher the coral is positioned in the tank the more PAR it receives. The spectrum of light also plays a key role.

High quality reflectors (and single lamp reflectors/SLR in regards to T5HO) improve PAR by utilizing more light that would otherwise not be efficiently projected down to the corals. If your T5 unit has SLR's you should be able to keep a variety of soft and LPS corals...though a 10gal is not much room to work with.

[MeggyPuff26]

I have a 45g tank and I have 10000k T5HO lights in it .It's a 48"long and 18.5"tall what can I grow in it ?

I have 10000k T5HO lights. the light is 420/460nm lamp.

[fins_n_fur]

@MeggyPuff - I merged your posts, but it would be better for you to start your own thread rather than highjack another's.

[labnjab]

depends on how many bulbs and what the wattage of each bulb is

[BigMac]

I am testing some lights right now that may allow me to keep SPS at shallow depths in my new display tank @ 60 watts of light.
Waiting for my turn W/ the PAR meter.

No heat transfered into the water!
I trying out reefbright LEDs.

A guy in my local club is running his frag tank on one 30 watt fixture and growing SPS @ 18" of water.

I know personally another guy that had to turn two sticks off ( multi stick sytem)so his SPS would color back up, he started bleaching their so bright.

It not the wattage, its the PAR and the depth must be considered.

[Fishguy2727]

I always suggest slowly stepping up from the easiest and hardiest corals up to the most demanding. You will never know for sure how corals will do in YOUR tank until they are in it. Guides are obviously helpful, but position in the tank and every tank in general are different.

[bmajestic]

i have found a metal halide with t-5 or pc actinics work best i keep most everything in my tanks with that combo.`You get a good amount of color spectrum and watts when the two are combined.