Corals won't thrive with those lighting.
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With more focus on placement of corals (attention to [random] water motion in the tank, angle of received light, and appropriate acclimation to received lighting overtime), spot feeding, keeping elements stable (focus on trace elements, strontium, magnesium(Really important to keep stable around 1400 for calcification to even occur and proper marine pH above 7.8), potassium, amminos/fatty acids and other essentials than Ca/kH (Achieved through quality daily 2-part supplements, kalwk, calcium reactor, frequent water, or wet wet skimming (why not two skimmers to run one dry?) and salt replenishment)), providing aquaria with alkalinity pKa above 8.4 and actively providing correct nutrient levels while removing fish waste you will see corals will thrive under the lowest of lighting systems...
So what did I just suggest? Spot feed corals with pellets 3-7 times weekly, choose an option to restore vital elements for coral growth, provide high appropriate random water motion, and clean the fish waste from socks, bottom of sump, and substrate routinely....
Let me spotlight water flow... This is actually how corals receive the elements required for calcification.... This is probably the single most important aspect of reek keeping, next to actually supplying a balanced additive (Kalkwaser alone, while balanced, is not enough to support most hard corals). Besides bringing the elements to the corals, it brings food in many forms to the polyps.. It also keeps detritus from resting on the coral, or ending up between the rocks. Higher turnover in the display will keep waste suspended to more likely find it's way into the overflow. Maintaining a lower turnover in the sump allows the skimmer to collect more waste to skim out. The skimmer should also be after mechanical filtration so you're not depending completely on the skimmer to remove stuff.. yes this actually means we have to have multiple sponges on hand, or clean them more often... The coral needs to grow onto the rock its touching... Keeping higher turnover keeps the surface cleaner for coral growth and makes certain algaes and cyano harder to grow. With herbivores and an appropriate clean up crew algae does not tend to be a problem in high flow tanks, even with high nutrient conditions. In a tank with less light there'd be far less algae growth as well.... The symbiotic algae within corals do not need intense light.. Actually far from it..
Water flow in display is actually what is responsible for biological filtration. It is important to get the water to pass through the pores of the rock to actually nitrify the water...
Am I saying lighting is not important to focus on? Absolutely not. But I am suggesting more focus should be given to the actual presented spectrum of light rather than visual intensity... There is absolutely no reason what so ever two 24" T5 High Output bulbs could not produce a thriving, sustainable reef with excellent growth and coloration.. (
Especially in a 14g Nano like the OP) The absolutely best thing for corals is what we all know as "full spectrum" But what is this. It has to provide the spikes for coral growth in the right nm we want... Red is actually extremely important to trigger the start of photosynthesis.... Does this mean we want a 3K red bulb above the tank?? Aboslutely not. But a bulb with a lot white will have many hues of red and allow for a greater true red spike... With blues across the whole spectrum between 400-500nm corals can grow. It may be true you need to aquascape your tank to suit your lighting so you can place corals more specifically... But isn't this something everyone should be doing regardless of 'quality' of light?
Can this fixture allow for the aquarist to place corals at any part of his tank? No, but can any fixture? No because we know corals such as a bubble would die in intense light real quick... Corals have specific light requirements and always need to be placed and bought with that in mind..If you do not have space for an Acro on your top aquascape anymore you either need to re-scape or buy a bigger aquarium haha... It doesn't mean you attempt to grow a coral in less par unless you're fragging a colony and doing acclimation experiments with single frags of a colony so you can achieve your desired results...
Will this fixture allow for a thriving reef? Yes 100%
still not sure about the one next to the sun coral
or a spot for these zoas.
