Growing hard corals in a Biocube 29g?

[Katy410]

Due to the light (not the blue light with the fan, but the regular light. I can't remember the correct name or wattage of the light at this moment.) waning, and an open spot for an LED bar, I have decided that I would like to add some lighting to grow hard corals. I have not researched lighting much yet, since I have kept my Biocube stock, but I would like to dive into the realm of hard corals. This, my question, what lights would you recommend to install in a Biocube 29g (I have two spaces for lighting) to grow hard corals? Excuse me if my terminology is off. Again, I had not looked into this much until recently. Thanks in advance!~



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[nanoreefz]

Hey Katy! What exactly do you mean by hard corals? The lighting on the biocube in general is not strong enough for things like sps (small polyp stony) corals. I have had luck with birdsnest but I'm kind of scared to go any further lol. If you want the more advanced corals. I would consider either finding a retrofit kit for the biocube hood (which I'm too scared to do) or remove the hood in general and find a light (such as a kessil) and use a good neck clamp for it! Hope this helps!


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[Katy410]

Hey Katy! What exactly do you mean by hard corals? The lighting on the biocube in general is not strong enough for things like sps (small polyp stony) corals. I have had luck with birdsnest but I'm kind of scared to go any further lol. If you want the more advanced corals. I would consider either finding a retrofit kit for the biocube hood (which I'm too scared to do) or remove the hood in general and find a light (such as a kessil) and use a good neck clamp for it! Hope this helps!


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Thanks so much! This helped a ton. So, I have not looked onto hard corals much (since my tank can currently just grow soft) but I assume LPS and SPS. Pretty muh the majority of hard corals, if that makes any sense.


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[bribo12]

If you want to grow everything including acropora you'll need the retrofit kit or to take the top off and get a new fixture like nano said


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[nanoreefz]

Thanks so much! This helped a ton. So, I have not looked onto hard corals much (since my tank can currently just grow soft) but I assume LPS and SPS. Pretty muh the majority of hard corals, if that makes any sense.


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It's no problem at all! Anything to help! As far as LPS corals you won't need to change anything, which is awesome! There are so many different varieties out there that can really add pop to your tank! Here are a couple of mine and if you really want to see amazing tanks check out bribo and BigRed


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[Katy410]

Is that a frogspawn, and a Euphelia? I spelled that wrong xD. So I can grow pretty much every LPS? Would this include Acropora?


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[BigRedsReefs10]

No acros are very high light and extremely sensitive sps corals.

 

[nanoreefz]

Yea it's frogspawn, hammers and zoas. Acropora is actually an sps coral and requires way more advanced lighting. Only sps I've had success with is my birdsnest


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[Katy410]

No acros are very high light and extremely sensitive sps corals.

Ah, alright. Shame. They're gorgeous.


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[Katy410]

Yea it's frogspawn, hammers and zoas. Acropora is actually an sps coral and requires way more advanced lighting. Only sps I've had success with is my birdsnest View attachment 246857


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Birds best actually resembles Acropora a bit, IMO.


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[Macscale]

Yea it's frogspawn, hammers and zoas. Acropora is actually an sps coral and requires way more advanced lighting. Only sps I've had success with is my birdsnest View attachment 246857


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Zoas and Palys are a soft coral, not LPS.


As for the birdsnest and Acropora resemblance, they do in the sense that they both are branches of hard coral skeleton. However, birdsnest is much thinner, and doesn't have the shaving like polyps that Acropora does.

 

[Katy410]

Zoas and Palys are a soft coral, not LPS.


As for the birdsnest and Acropora resemblance, they do in the sense that they both are branches of hard coral skeleton. However, birdsnest is much thinner, and doesn't have the shaving like polyps that Acropora does.

Yeah. Okay. I have a question, relating to water levels. I have a test kit for the basics (PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite) and today I'm going out to purchase the other levels required for a reef. What are they? Calcium, Alkalinity, KH? Sorry about my sudden off-topic-ness.


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[Macscale]

Yeah. Okay. I have a question, relating to water levels. I have a test kit for the basics (PH, Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite) and today I'm going out to purchase the other levels required for a reef. What are they? Calcium, Alkalinity, KH? Sorry about my sudden off-topic-ness.


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Calcium Alk and Magnesium.
If you want to get technical, Iodine, Strontium, potassium, and iron.

 

[Katy410]

Calcium Alk and Magnesium.
If you want to get technical, Iodine, Strontium, potassium, and iron.

Should I get copper as well, for inverts?


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[bribo12]

Calcium, alk and mag are really the only ones you need other than nitrate , ammonia, nitrite an pH.


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[Macscale]

Should I get copper as well, for inverts?


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No, don't worry about that.
Just get Alk calc and Mag. The rest don't do as much, and are really only for special special occasions.

 

[Sniperhank]

Should I get copper as well, for inverts?


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If there is copper in your tank, all the coral and inverts will be dead.

In terms of testing for corals you will want alk, calcium, and mag tests. As these are important, you will want better quality test kits than API. Red Sea makes some solid tests and I'm a big fan of the Hanna Checkers.

 

[Katy410]

Calcium, alk and mag are really the only ones you need other than nitrate , ammonia, nitrite an pH.


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Alright then. Though it's not needed, I think that I should get a phosphate tester, since algae feeds off of it and I currently have quite a bit of algae so I can see if that's the cause of it.


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[Katy410]

If there is copper in your tank, all the coral and inverts will be dead.



In terms of testing for corals you will want alk, calcium, and mag tests. As these are important, you will want better quality test kits than API. Red Sea makes some solid tests and I'm a big fan of the Hanna Checkers.

Alright then, so I don't have any copper.
I'll look into the Red Sea kits. Hopefully they sell them at Petco. I know that they aren't at my LFS.


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[Sniperhank]

Alright then, so I don't have any copper.
I'll look into the Red Sea kits. Hopefully they sell them at Petco. I know that they aren't at my LFS.


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They might, as each Petco sells different stuff depending on area. If not, they sell them on sites like bulkreefsupply.com.