Chalice lovers-question

I must own at least 2 to 3 dozen different chalice corals of all shapes & sizes. I've done pretty well providing them with their moderate flow/moderate middle-of-the-tank environment.

I've seen the specs that some of our sponsors & others use while keeping their chalice corals before sale.... "kept under 250w, 20K Radium", blah, blah.

My question is,how many of you " push the envelope" this way? Has anyone tried...succeeded, failed, fried mummy eye. etc? Its as if reefers are actually bragging at taking chances in nuking their stock. Am I missing something like color of the coral allows more light, type of coral, etc?

I keep my chalices under 150w Phoenix bulbs, none higher up on the rock than mid-tank & moderate chaotic flow.

Thanks for your responses.

 

distance from lamps make the difference SeabassI

they inform people what lighting they are kept under basically to help explain any colour differences between the coral you see in the image and the coral that arrives at your door

I dont believe they are advocating excess light for these corals
they are just telling us , what conditions the images where taken under

Steve

 

Hey Steve....you mean the corals were placed under the higher wattage for the photo shoot only?

 

well thats possible , but what I meant was that
sponsors have limits on facilities and many have many different species of corals
so you will see Zoanthids in the same frag tank as Acros
we all know that Zoanthids would prosper under 60 watts of incadescent light LOL but that the Acro would not tolerate that for very long

so the sponsors cater to the needs of the premium corals , with lighting best suited to those , they may have the lighting far higher than would be the case in our home tanks, and they often have shelving or racking systems in order the light demanding corals can be raised in relation to the light ( sometimes its PVC pipes with the frag plug stuck in it lifting it 3 - 6 inches off the base of the frag tank)


Steve

 

Well, calling a chalice anything other than a "premium coral" is kinda misusing the term. Anything can be "premium", depending on price and availability. I would call the corals that need light "light-demanding", as not every acro is super-expensive.

When they say it's kept under a certain light, it's because different light combinations let corals grow at different rates and they'll color up differently. For example, a 6500k bulb will let your corals grow like crazy - but they won't have as good of a color, even when transferred to a 20k tank. The 20k bulb will let the coral develop better colors, but it won't grow as fast. Most people will grow out under low k bulbs, then color up for a little while under high k, before selling.

 

LOL
premium corals

True enough - we dont get the premium varieties out here so I have tended to lump them in the average coral bracket ( although I did see the price tag on the Jersey Diesel so should know better by now)

Steve

 

AHhhh....I bet you got some absolute Kickin' corals Steve & you're holding back on those frags, correct? 8)

 

Corals, yes , we do get some nice ones in general
but Chalice and in particular the more colourful varieties , no I never see any at all out here

Steve

 

I wasn't aware of that. I always thought you were in a major shipping corridor for corals. I guess I was thinking more of Indonesia.

 

the chalices really are not very light demanding, i keep mine under power compacts they seem to be thriving under them I think they will adjust to any kind of lighting as long as they are slowly acclimated to any large shifts in whatever they were used to prior