Coral positioning?

[AZL]

Hi, hope you don't mind a general question, I'm new to corals other than a few mushrooms. I've got hairy and superman mushrooms in the lower right corner and am getting a duncan, a candycane or trumpet, and a couple of kenya trees. Are the mushroom in a good spot and where would you recommend positioning the others when they arrive? I'm currently running blues for 12 hours and full spectrum for 4, the light is the full 4 feet of the tank 38 watt LED. the return pump outlet is in the rear left corner with the weir and there is a circulation pump about 1/4 of the way down from the front top right. Thank you!

 

[Hemmdog]

What are your parameters? Trumpets and Duncan’s use calcium, magnesium, etc. By the looks of your rocks the system seems very new or almost brackish looking.
You will also need to get more light; 38 watts in 48’ is nothing. What light is that?
what fish are in there?

 

[GabeM]

How deep/ how many gallons. I feel that your 38W is not enough to keep your LPS happy. I am running 178W over my 50 cube (24")

 

[AZL]

thank for your answer, NH3 0, NO2 0, NO3 5, PO4 0.03, mg 1180, ca 390 (dosing those two up currently) ph 8.2, KH 10, sg 1.025, temperature 78. This is a recent upgrade with a couple of bits of dry rock seen in display and a load of very mature live rock - the sump is crammed. Total rock is more than 1 kg per 10 litres of tank capacity and was 85% mature live rock, 15% dry to scape. Current fish stock are a pair of green spotted puffers, a ruby red dragonet, and a watchman goby. I am only planning to keep more soft coral and add LPS needing low to moderate light and flow. fish stock will not increase dramatically, just a few more smallish ones over time between 5 and 15 cm in length.

 

[AZL]

How deep/ how many gallons. I feel that your 38W is not enough to keep your LPS happy. I am running 178W over my 50 cube (24")

thank you for replying. Yes, I'm aware while they need less than SPS there is some light need. I have been told to keep these particular ones lower down as they're not keen on too much light hence choosing them. When you discuss wattage are you talking about fluorescent tube, halogen, or led? 9 watts of LED output are equivalent to a 20 watt florescent tube and 12 watts LED are equivalent to 100 watts Halogen making my 38 watt equivalent to an 84 watt fluorescent or 317 watt halogen. If you're talking about halogen I'm running equivalent to twice that output for twice the tank length so pretty comparable. The mushrooms are thriving at the bottom so enough light is getting down there for them to photosynthesis. The tank is 56 cm deep.

 

[GabeM]

thank you for replying. Yes, I'm aware while they need less than SPS there is some light need. I have been told to keep these particular ones lower down as they're not keen on too much light hence choosing them. When you discuss wattage are you talking about fluorescent tube, halogen, or led? 9 watts of LED output are equivalent to a 20 watt florescent tube and 12 watts LED are equivalent to 100 watts Halogen making my 38 watt equivalent to an 84 watt fluorescent or 317 watt halogen. If you're talking about halogen I'm running equivalent to twice that output for twice the tank length so pretty comparable. The mushrooms are thriving at the bottom so enough light is getting down there for them to photosynthesis. The tank is 56 cm deep.

Hi AZL,

I run LEDs - only 5 hours at peak though. I have the Orphek Atlantik v4 which is a bit of overkill but I am hoping to have a good amount of SPS.

That being said, you should be aiming for 75-150 par wherever you want to have the LPS mounted. What fixture do you have? You should be able to get par estimates from the manufacturer for each depth with the recommended mounting height.

 

[AZL]

Ah, it's nothing fancy, just one to do the job hopefully as I have very little budget - I DIY most things. They don't give par estimates unfortunately. It is mounted across the top of the tank rather than hung above, only a couple of cm gap really with acrylic to protect the light (and keep fish in and cats out). I'm really only wanting to provide enough light for softies and less light loving LPS, not particularly interested in SPS myself and I can't draw unnecessary power as we have to buy electric cards from the bar we live above which works out very dear, particularly when running three good sized tanks and quite a few small ones. I might have to grab a par meter on ebay and see if the light needs boosting, really appreciate the guide for par levels for LPs location - that gives me something to work with.