Colt Coral Lighting

Thought I'd share this observation with you. Maybe this should be in the lighting form instead of coral.

Soft corals aren't supposed to have the high light requirements of hard corals. Indeed I thought my Colt coral was doing fine under my PC lights. It was growing under my 4x65W PCs.

I switched to 6x54W T5s two months ago. This coral is now thriving. It doesn't even look like the same coral anymore. I can only describe the coral as looking furry now.


BEFORE
Here is how it looked under my PCs. (Right side of tank)
I was also supplementing with some CF bulbs until I could afford to upgrade.


Here is a macro of one of the branches from last November.



AFTER
Here is how it looks today after two months under T5s.


Close up of one of the branches





Anybody else see a change in their soft coral like this?

 

Thank you so much for this post. This helped make the decision for us. We have been trying to decide if we wanted to make the switch.

 

i wonder how it would look under MH's!

 

Not sure. The T5s are extremely bright though. I put a blister on my toadstool when I first transitioned and had to cut the hours way back. I spent about a month acclimating to the brighter light.

The kids complain about the lights being too bright on movie nights. They want me to cover the tank. It does pretty much light the entire room too.

 

Glad I was able to help someone. You have PCs now? I was quite amazed at the change. I bought the T5s so I could add SPS corals. My anemone loves the brighter light as do all of my softies and LPS. The Colt and the anemone have changed the most under the brighter light but the anemone is also getting fed now and it wasn't before.