LPS That Can Handle Higher PAR

Marco S · Jan 23, 2020

SO, I have decided that I am going to stick to LPS and Softies for my 160 gallon tank. I think this is the best Life/Tank balance for me currently and I do not want to take on any more than I can handle and end up killing my coral. I currently have pretty good collection of Torches that will take up a good part of the tank and I have several other Euphylia and some Acans and a bunch of Blatomussa and some Mushrooms and a Toadstool Leather, so I am good in the bottom and middle sections of my tank. I am looking for something to fill the top though and figured I would reach out here for suggestions on LPS or Softies that can handle PAR in the 180 - 300 range. I really do not want to mess with my lighting because everything is doing fine and I don't want to mess that up.

My current PAR levels are:

Bottom - 85 - 150 range

Middle - 100 - 200 range

Top - 180 - 300 range

Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

duberii · Jan 23, 2020

In my experience, most corals can handle higher lighting if they are slowly acclimated. My blasto is probably at 150ish par, my xenias are easily at 200+, and my clove polyps are also really nice in higher light (not too sure about PAR for them)

Squidmotron · Jan 23, 2020

Yeah I'm not convinced that these corals are damaged much by higher lighting. Never had any issues. I think they just *can* exist in low lighting.

If I could've killed my previous xenia or green star polyps infestations with simple high par lighting I would gladly have. They are more than happy under it, unfortunately.

b4tn · Jan 23, 2020

I have 150 par on the bottom of my tank. I am successfully keeping a blasto, several different zoas, acan lord, duncan, favia, and an alien brain. The only strangeness I have gotten is the favia has gone from green with brown ridges to all 100% bright green and the alien brain ridges are more a green brown color than brown.

b4tn · Jan 23, 2020

Oh, and I have GSP on the back wall that sees 250 par easy and it still spreads like wildfire.

Marco S · Jan 23, 2020

Thanks for the replies! ;Happy

What I am gathering here is that most corals can be acclimated to any lighting, (within reason). That is reassuring, because I have some Mushrooms in shaded areas, (around 50 - 80 PAR) but once they start to grow beyond a certain point out of the shade they will be in 150 - 185 PAR. I was wondering what would happen then but hopefully they will acclimate themselves to the higher PAR.

I am still not sure what I want to populate the top section of rock with, but I guess I will have to acclimate it to higher PAR slowly before just sticking it in 200+ PAR. My QT tank is only around 70 PAR on the sand bed and between 100 - 150 on the rack so I will have to start them out on the sand bed in my DT and move them up slowly to the higher areas.

duberii · Jan 23, 2020

Marco S said:
Thanks for the replies! ;Happy

What I am gathering here is that most corals can be acclimated to any lighting, (within reason). That is reassuring, because I have some Mushrooms in shaded areas, (around 50 - 80 PAR) but once they start to grow beyond a certain point out of the shade they will be in 150 - 185 PAR. I was wondering what would happen then but hopefully they will acclimate themselves to the higher PAR.

I am still not sure what I want to populate the top section of rock with, but I guess I will have to acclimate it to higher PAR slowly before just sticking it in 200+ PAR. My QT tank is only around 70 PAR on the sand bed and between 100 - 150 on the rack so I will have to start them out on the sand bed in my DT and move them up slowly to the higher areas.

The mushrooms, even if they don't acclimate immediately, will be fine either way. Mushrooms are one of those corals that you can get completely bleached on live rock and have it live without much special care.

b4tn · Jan 23, 2020

I have blue mushrooms that turn metallic green under intense light. I moved a rock of them to my pico thats lit with a single PAR38 bulb and they returned to their original blue color.

Reefer40b · Jan 23, 2020

Like a lot have been saying, a majority of corals given enough time can be acclimated to higher lighting... I tried to melt some xenia with lighting shock and well they closed up for about 2 weeks looked like pink blobs but just came right back looking better than ever...