Lighting settings on a 36 bow front tank for corals and anemones

[Andrew Whitaker]

Ok guys, I’m new to this site and new to the hobby. I have a 36 gallon bow front with a Fluval nano sea 25000k 20 watt light the guy at lfs convinced me to buy and says his exact setup does great. The question I guess I’m asking is what settings do I need to set this to for the best overal health and happiness of my fish, corals and anemones, and I’m hoping to get some growth from them as well.

currently I have a few clowns, a white anemone, a purple bubble anemone, and a long tip green anemone, with standard cuc.

mom also running the Fluval 207 canister filter and a protein skimmer as well since I have some live rock.

please help. And I know I probably sound like an idiot but we all gotta start somewhere and I’d appreciate it if we kept the hateful stuff to a minimum.
Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Kathy Floyd]

I currently have a 38g bow front, but I am running an ocean revive light, 80% blue and 20% white. I have a mixed reef in mine. I'm not sure about a 20w light but I am sure someone with more knowledge about that will chime in soon. Welcome to R2R.

 

[Uncle99]

3 nems in 36, I would have concern about coral losses.
20 watt light for a 36, run 100% anything blueish, virtually no red, and white just a tad until you like the colour.
Normal consistent photoperiod of 9-10 hours, ramp as you like.
High light acros and some clams it may not be intense enough.
Then never touch the settings again.

 

[Andrew Whitaker]

3 nems in 36, I would have concern about coral losses.
20 watt light for a 36, run 100% anything blueish, virtually no red, and white just a tad until you like the colour.
Normal consistent photoperiod of 9-10 hours, ramp as you like.
High light acros and some clams it may not be intense enough.
Then never touch the settings again.

So how do you think I should ramp it and about what times, you say 100 on blues and just tune the white u til it looks good then ramp up to peak day then back down around night time, what times should I ramp and how much per time

 

[Uncle99]

So how do you think I should ramp it and about what times, you say 100 on blues and just tune the white u til it looks good then ramp up to peak day then back down around night time, what times should I ramp and how much per time

I do an hour on each end of 9 hour photoperiod with 5 hours at peak in the middle, peak for me is 300 surface PAR.

There are many variations of this and all work fine.
As with water chemistry, stability and predictability of light is the key.

 

[Dbichler]

We all make mistakes at first but learn from them. Your first mistake is trusting that lfs. Only two of your clowns will likely survive. You’ll be extremely lucky if any of your anemones survive in that new of a tank. 20 watts is not nearly enough light for that size tank.To the good that’s a great size starter tank. Everything looks good at the moment and you’re completely cycled.

 

[willnow]

So how do you think I should ramp it and about what times, you say 100 on blues and just tune the white u til it looks good then ramp up to peak day then back down around night time, what times should I ramp and how much per time

I know your post is bout year old but I've been running my 13.5 gal Fluval tank. I bought the new Fluval Sea Marine 15"-22" to upgrade it. I've got 2 clown, hammer coral, pulsing xenia and gsp. None are difficult to keep, but this has been my settings and it's doin very well.