which Corals can I keep?

[OceanMist]

What type of coral can I keep under 12 watts per gallon compact flourescent? TIA

 

[revhtree]

I would say most all. I am not to sure about sps, and the spectrum it might need from MH's. I have kept all before under less. The sps I kept though were easy to care for like montipora.

 

[revhtree]

Oh also should have said that you may be limited as well when it comes to light sensitivity. Some corals will not like ALL that light. Shrooms and some softies may have a hard time. Some may be able to be acclimated to them ok though.

 

[OceanMist]

thanks for the reply, only the tank is only 2 gallons (12"x8"x8"), and i will be using a 24 watt compact flourescent, so soft corals would probably be a better option because of the size of the tank, the tank though is only 7.5" (effective) high so perhaps that would be too intense for them ... i don't know!?

 

[Phyl]

I would say that with 12 watts per gallon you're going to want some pretty light demanding SPS corals. Anything less is going to bleach like mad. I think you'll find very few softies tolerant of that kind of lighting. When I went from 2.5wpg to 4wpg I lost a lot of color in my lps and shrooms.

 

[OceanMist]

I haven't really thought about it but do corals have water volume limitations like fish? could I put SPS corals in a tank of this size?

 

[Hara]

I think another issue is going to be stuff rapidly getting too big for the tank.

 

[revhtree]

Didnt realize it was such a small tank!

On a bigger tank the light could be raised to allow for most corals. In this case, I think your going to have sea soup, hot and ready. Anyway to cut that in half? Reason being is that your probably going to want a softy tank. SPS are very demanding of CLEAN water. It is so much harder to keep CLEAN, and up to par water in a nano like this. It can be done and it is often, but you need to take what I have said into consideration.

 

[Phyl]

Weekly 100% water changes would be easy with a 2g tank. I think the heat and the growth would be the biggest problems.

 

[OceanMist]

Iv'e fitted a fluval 2 plus, 105 gph internal filter meaning it filters about 52 times per hour, water changes aren't a prob, so water should be okay, so i'm still just a bit confused about what kind of lighting to fit, i didn't think compact flourescent gave off much heat. any help appriciated.

 

[flanque]

That's a lot of light.