Reefs.org Forums

[sdbarton42]

Ok, so I am going to fully stock my 10 gallon reef tank with 3 Margarita Snails, 1 Peppermint Shrimp, 3 Trochus Snails, 3 Bumblebee Snails, 1 Cleaner Shrimp, and 2 Zebra Reef Hermit Crabs. I am really wanting to nail down what type of corals to put in my tank, but a problem arises when I start looking at lighting. I have 24 Watt Coralife 10,000K/Actinic light. That comes out to be 2.4 watts/gallon. Is this just too low for corals? What would be some good beginner corals that are able to survive and thrive in low lighting conditions?

I lied...I just looked the light up that I have and it is 28 watts, not 24! Is this still considered low lighting, or could medium lighting corals work too?

[brandon429]

xenia will work, mushroom corals, any ricordeas and a lot of LPS will work. The key to dealing with limited lighting is to stock a little aquascape mountain to place your corals on and lift them up off the bottom. Just today in a magazine for marinedepot.com I just saw a little suction cup tray just like the soap holder in a bathtub that is meant to suction to the side of your tank a little shelf for frag growout, even has plug holes that common frag mounts will fit into. A system like this is perfect because you can place a few up high on the back glass and let them grow in if you must have corals before you buy the big lights. have fun sounds like it's working well.

[sdbarton42]

Thanks! I'm getting impatient now but I know I need to wait. I would like somke bigger lights and I almost bought a dual compact satellite but opted for the smaller because the guy at the LFS told me that the dual would just be too much output for my little tank. I will start stocking corals in January (if I can get my inverts to live) Will put pics up then!

[brandon429]

sd I waited patiently for your updates now give em up

lol

hope you are still running this creation
B/RDO

[sdbarton42]

lol! I know sorry! I haven't been on here in a while but I just purchased a Lavender Coral and it has been in my tank for about 24 hours now. Pictures are below and are from about 5 hours or so after it was placed in the tank. The only one that worries me is the polyp on the far right. It has yet to open up fully like all the others. Also, they aren't in a very strong current but they are waving around; is it too strong? I wouldn't want to damage it; I know that they like medium current strength (or rather so I've read). Also..it's been a couple of days now and I keep waking up to find the stupid frag on the bottom of the tank. Are the corals doing this? It was stable for several days before this.

[dogsrule19341]

Mushrooms should do good...