Hard corals under PC lights?

[reefBoyDc]

Hi, I need some advice. I am wondering if I can have hard corals in my tank.

I have 3 x 65w powercompacts (50/50 actinic/daylight). They are 23" long and are mounted 5 inches above the water line. The tank is 29 gals and the max depth is 12" (top of substrate to water line). Some of the LR is 1" from the water line.

What do you guys think?

[ruhspolostar]

DOn;t do it, tried several times, failed miserably

[ruhspolostar]

DOn;t do it, tried several times, failed miserably

[ruhspolostar]

hey I thought the new software prevented DBL posting

[mapster]

I voted "yes, they will be fine". of course it depends on the coral. Hard coral is a little general. What corals were you hoping to keep in particular?

3 x 65w on a 29 = 6+ wpg in a shallow tank. I would think any LPS and some SPS (montipora, pocillopora, seriatopora, stylophora come to mind) would be fine in that amount of light.

[mjsandbe]

I keep the full range of corals in my two tanks with VHO and T5, you should be just fine with LPS and good for several varieites of SPS

[Jeremy1973]

I think it also depends on the coral you are thinking of as to how well it will do. Also the placement of it. So, I voted in the middle as a maybe..and depends.

[clownfishcrazy]

I voted yes, but they will not grow much. Currently I am keeping 3 Monti digi, 4 Monti caps, 1 birdsnest, 1 pavona, and 1 acro under a 55w 50/50 (daylight/actinic) pc on a 20H gal. It took my digi about a month to encrust the base, so the growth is very slow. I just got my acro and caps so I don't know how long it will take them to encrust.

[Tasher80]

I have LPS under 4x 65W PC. They are doing fine. Or should I say IT. I only have one LPS.

[manderson0805]

I have kept 13 different LPS colonies and what started out as 6 SPS frags that have grown to some point under 3 96w PC on my 46 Bowfront. It's all about placement. I fragged 1 giant frogspawn into 3, and the one that seems to color up and expand the most is the one on the bottom, in the second highest flow. My LPS are doing great, at least doubling the number of polyps in 1 year, and the SPS, although they don't color up as nicely as they would under MH, have been doing good as well.

[reefBoyDc]

Wow! thanks for the recommendations. At this point I am not looking at any specific hard corals. I was just wondering in case I'm at the LFS one day and see a great one that I want. So I guess general consensus is Yes, but it depends on which ones and I should place them really high up.

[Andrew3]

I am keeping and growing several sps and lps corals under pc's with good growth and color: Pink, green, purple, orange, cap, and elkhorn digitata's, bali slimer acro, neon green pocillopora and Pink, maze brains, galaxea tooth, and two ultra maxima clams, blue, and purple. The only coral that hasn't really colored up well yet is the purple digi, just faint purple. Things that I believe are contributing to their success are stable water/system conditions (most sps added 8 months or later after tank setup), quality stock - mostly tank raised corals, frequent feeding's of zoo and phyto planktons, and regular maintenance.

Many "lps" corals, the brains, plates, hammers, frogspawns, etc, can do very well lower in the tank under pc's. Most sps montiporas, acros, pocilloporas, stylos, do well closer to the lights, and thrive under good, random current.
HTH

Andrew

[512148048]

right now i have a sps under 110 watts of pc

[Cosine]

do the same opinions apply for VHO of simillar wattage?

[cubicus]

I think it also depents on the depth the coral normaly comes from. The deeper water stuff like anchors, hammers, frogspawns, torches, DW acros, Birds nest (serratipora) should all do fine. Depth of the tank will play a role too as the yellow and red spectrums of light will get filtered out after about 14-16" down from the waters surface.