Differences between LPS and SPS

????

 

just an edit

swimswithfish, when you click edit you can choose to delete the posting.

 

I don't want to make the guy think he can't have anything other than a shroom without a 400 dollar light set. With what he has going so far he's got lots of options. Above all, the fore mentioned mushrooms, zoas, and most soft corals are fine. Some chalices, which prefer lower light but are LPS corals are good, and frog spawn can do just fine with the lighting he has. Granted, most of these corals are symbiotic with zooanthid which give them a lot of food through light sources, and with more light in turn grow faster, can easily survive naturally with low light conditions. Nature is not kind, nor is it providing, and most life forms have adapted to this. The downside to that is that with low light, comes low color attributes also. But low lighting doesn't always mean imminent death. The same as poor food for a dog wont kill it, it'll just make for a weak and lazy animal.

 

not to take anything away from what you just said as i think it was valuable info, but a frogspawn coral is a lps not an sps. and should be fine under a 2 bulb t5 fixture as well.

this is right there are many many soft corals you can keep under your lights, actually virtually any soft coral youll be capable of housing.

 

Thank you for the edit, and correction made........

 

Sadly not

 

Oh that wasn't my intention either. I'm not saying that every person should have 400 dollars worth of metal halides. Lolz. Far from it, but a 2 bulb setup does limit what you can keep. Totally forgot about the low light chalice's that are out there. <runs off to check them out>

 

im not following

 

Oops I thought you where asking a question. Lol. How does that work?

 

Before I upgraded to my quad bulb fixture, my dual bulb t5 fixture did the job. My zoas and Duncan were doing great and showing growth on the sand bed in a 21 inch tall tank.

You should have no issues with soft corals and some LPS, placement will be important though and get some quality bulbs. If you desire more options and variety in your corals, I would upgrade to a four bulb fixture or a different form of lighting.

I have a four bulb fixture from fishneedit.com and really like it. I can tell where they cut some corners to make the part affordable, but it works great, especially with some ATI bulbs. Doesn't have all the bells and whistles, but gets the job done.