help with a light upgrade for coral growth

skelator · Oct 15, 2014

hello everyone, ive got a 46g bowfront tank. i currently have a few cheap ebay 3foot led bar lights. it was a cheap way for me to get started. the tanks been set up a year next month i believe. some of the coral i have seem to do pretty well where as some just kinda stay the same. i have a couple chalices that are growing. the leather i have grows really well. i have a green zoanthid that does pretty well too. the trumpet, acan, favia and this rastafarian zoanthid i have just kinda stay the same. the rasta especially ive had it prolly 7 months and it hasnt grown one bit.

ive never had an open top tank before. im unsure of the benifits and drawbacks of this. i have 6 small fish. clown (nemo for the kids) flame hawkfish, 6 line wrasse, psudochromis and the 2 damsels i cycled the tank with. (i still cant catch them lol)

the tank has about 70lbs of live rock 40lbs of live sand and 2 cheap ebay powerheads. one on each end of the tank. aquamaxx hob skimmer

any suggestions reguarding coral growth and health would be greatly appreciated.

kireek · Oct 20, 2014

Do you doing regular water testing and water changes? My acans,candy canes and favias enjoy the occasional frozen food.This seems to encourage growth. I am no expert on LEDS.You need specialized equipment to test the intensity of the lights.If you are thinking about a low cost upgrade ,I would recommend T5's.You could use them in addition to your current lighting.Also I would recommend keeping your lid so that you can place the T5's close to the surface of your tall aquarium.

Reefing Madness · Oct 20, 2014

Would be good to know the output on those LEDs that you do have. You may need to upgrade those to a 120w (3w LED) unit, or run a quad T5 HO unit.
Also, how often do you do water changes? And what are you water parameters?

Gundo · Oct 20, 2014

Sounds like you do need a lighting upgrade, what is your budget and going forward what kind of corals do you plan to keep?

skelator · Oct 21, 2014

I was looking at the reef radiance stuff for around 200. I'm not sure how good they are though. I do a ten gallon wc every couple weeks.

As far as water parameters what are you looking for? I honestly haven't checked in a while. When I checked a lot there was almost never any difference at all so I haven't checked in a while.

I assume I have s phosphate problem as I have relentless green hair algea. When I set the tank up about a year ago I got a "deal" on a bunch of live rock. It seems to be good but I suspect their leeching phosphate. I don't have a Hanna checker just the crappy color chart test kit. I used sea klear for a week but my big leather disent react well to it it shrivels up real small for days. It's still like that. So I stopped using it for now.

As far as corals right now I'd be happy if the ones I had actually grew then in get some others.