Are PAR 38 bulbs sufficient for soft corals??

[Mele__Reef]

hey gang,

I just wanted to know if PAR 38 led bulbs would be enough for softies like especially, hammer coral, frogspawn, Zoas, and mushrooms? And what are your recommendations on an affordable light that produce growth and comfort ability for them in my 3 gallon pico tank. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[mcarroll]

dimensions?

i'm not a huge fan of par38's in general.....seem to always have isssues with longevity

 

[ReefQueen]

Definitely. I have one on my 8 gallon and love it!

 

[ritter6788]

You can grow sps under par38 lighting if you have the right lighting. No different than any other lighting. You just need the right spectrum and intensity.

 

[Mele__Reef]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Can you guys recommend a good light that's affordable ?

 

[ReefQueen]

I got a cheap 12 led bulb off ebay, I think it was around $30. You might not need that many for that size tank, but you can always electrical tape off some bulbs. Although I think there is an 8 bulb option

 

[Mele__Reef]

Haha that's funny, I actually bought. A 7 bulb par 38 but it was a little too pink. So I used blue painters tape and covered one of the white bulbs to give more of a blue in the tank and it looks pretty good. Was just concerned about the intensity.

 

[ReefQueen]

I covered the red one because I didn't like the color

 

[mcarroll]

Haha that's funny, I actually bought. A 7 bulb par 38 but it was a little too pink. So I used blue painters tape and covered one of the white bulbs to give more of a blue in the tank and it looks pretty good. Was just concerned about the intensity.

(It sounded originally like you were looking for a new light.....if so we really need to know the dimensions of your tank.)

If you already have the light, then what you need to assess it is a light meter.

At minimum download a $free [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] to your smartphone.

It uses your camera's light meter and does some math to come up with lux. (Check your first results here....all apps don't work equally well with all cameras.) There are lots of them for Android and IOS. For a place to start, "Galactica Luxmeter" is one on IOS people have had a lot of luck with.

A $15 lux meter from eBay or Amazon (any place like that) like the LX-1010B would be MUCH BETTER than the app though....and safer to use around salt water!

This is the basic unit (the LX-1010B I mentioned) that a number of people use, including me:

I also think it's fun to use a handheld spectrometer to assess the color of your light: