Coral Quarantine Lighting

[Ward9320]

So I am starting a new tank and have been putting a lot of thought into everything I doing with it. I currently have a nano running and have never QTed and of the fish I have in there but since my new system is going to be 150g I want to make sure everything is QTed before going into the DT. Anyways I picked up a cheap 20g and painted the back and sides black to avoid stress and what not. My plan is to QT every bit of livestock that I get for about 4 weeks but it occurred to me that if I am going to be putting coral in there wouldn't I need some nice L.E.D. or T5 HO? I have done a ton of reading on what I could find on Quarantine Tanks and most say just to get a cheap light. My concern is that keep coral in a tank for a month with cheap light would be counter productive. What kind of lighting do you think I should get? If it helps the tank is 30" long.

 

[WillFish]

Good question! I'm curious to hear the responses.

I'm no expert, but I think it depends on the coral species. Some are more sensitive about light than others. As I understand it LPS and softies would be okay under lesser lights. Especially for that shirt a period. But SPS may be more affected by poor light.

I'm learning also so don't take my word for it wait for some more experienced folks to chime in.

 

[Badfish83]

If your going to keep sps in a qt tank for 4 weeks you will need sufficient lighting. T5 would be good or possibly a cheap full spectrum led. Reefbreeder or ocean revive

 

[eric.battani]

Amazon has some nice inexpensive led lights that you can dim. I have two now that were over a frag system. And they worked great. Paid a little over $100 for them. Came with cree 3watt leds and 120 degree lenses, dimmer switches, and hangers. 1 would be more than enough for a qt. And you could turn up the power when housing sps.

 

[tektite]

Kudos to you for doing this! So many corals and livestock deaths would be prevented if everyone did so.

You don't need an expensive light. Just need enough light. I've been successful keeping pretty much any corals in a quarantine tank with home depot CFL bulbs in small worklight reflectors. ~$8 each with bulb. Just find high lumen/watt bulbs (I usually go with 100W equivalent ~23-27W actual), and the bluest/highest K rating you can find. With SPS just put them right under the surface of the water, LPS/softies deeper in the tank. More than enough light. They won't have great color though lol.

More of the problem with keeping sensitive corals like SPS in a small quarantine is stability in general; temperature, salinity, parameters. You need to stay on top of stability for the corals, or it won't matter what light you choose.

 

[Ward9320]

Thanks for all the quick advice! Even before I put this thread up I was thinking that I was gonna get a Reefbreaders or maybe a Kessel 150w because of the coral factor. I am planning on a mixed reef so I want to make sure I can support anything I put in there.

Thanks for the Kudos! After reading about other people on forums that have had tank crashes from disease, parasite etc. that could have been easily prevented by just QTing their livestock I decided I wasn't go to be one of those people. Its no secret that this hobby is expensive and with all the money I will most likely have into my tank I am not at all interested in watching anything in it die. Thats just my 2 cents.