Bars
Well-Known Member
I've got a 40 gallon tank (28*20*20) lit by a single AM Qube 50, mounted about 9'' above the tank. I'm wondering if my single 50 watt LED fixture is enough for my tank?
Reason I ask, because I have never had any significant growth. Most of my corals are just large frags, even though my parameters are usually stable and nutrients are present. I gave away my sps recently, so all I've got now is lps and some soft corals. Coloration overall is alright, polyp extension is great, yet growth is almost non existant. My sps were mostly brown, although they did grow very, very slowly.
It seems like most people actually use/recommend a lot more light for my tank size. I've seen people recommend the Kessil A360WE, which is almost twice the amount of watts my current fixture has. I do run mine at 100% blues, 20% whites for ~ 6 hours a day, 50% blues and 5% whites for another 4 hours and 20% blues with 0% whites for the first and last hour of the cycle.
Of course I'm not expecting tons of new heads every week. However, occasionally I read about a single head frag that has grown multiple heads in a years' time. My 1.5 year old octospawn so far has only grown 1 new head. One of my Blastomussa grew 2 new heads about a month after I got it last year. Haven't grown at all ever since.
Reason I ask, because I have never had any significant growth. Most of my corals are just large frags, even though my parameters are usually stable and nutrients are present. I gave away my sps recently, so all I've got now is lps and some soft corals. Coloration overall is alright, polyp extension is great, yet growth is almost non existant. My sps were mostly brown, although they did grow very, very slowly.
It seems like most people actually use/recommend a lot more light for my tank size. I've seen people recommend the Kessil A360WE, which is almost twice the amount of watts my current fixture has. I do run mine at 100% blues, 20% whites for ~ 6 hours a day, 50% blues and 5% whites for another 4 hours and 20% blues with 0% whites for the first and last hour of the cycle.
Of course I'm not expecting tons of new heads every week. However, occasionally I read about a single head frag that has grown multiple heads in a years' time. My 1.5 year old octospawn so far has only grown 1 new head. One of my Blastomussa grew 2 new heads about a month after I got it last year. Haven't grown at all ever since.
