Lighting for soft corals

wyaxley1 · May 14, 2024

I have a ai prime 16hd... on a 150 litre tank (including sump)

I'm wondering if my light settings will be okay for soft corals?

so far I have just a colt coral, nearly at the top third of the tank. I wanted to mai ly fill it will soft corals.

TX_REEF · May 14, 2024

more than ok, and maybe even too intense. Softies really don't need much light at all. If they don't look happy, dial light down slowly over the course of days til they do look happy. Less is more when lighting softies (and LPS, to a lesser degree)

mfinn · May 15, 2024

TX_REEF said:
more than ok, and maybe even too intense. Softies really don't need much light at all. If they don't look happy, dial light down slowly over the course of days til they do look happy. Less is more when lighting softies (and LPS, to a lesser degree)

Correct me if I'm missing something, but it looks like his light is set at a maximum of 10%.
Seems like not enough.
Softies can take a lot more lighting than people think.

wyaxley1 · May 15, 2024

TX_REEF said:
more than ok, and maybe even too intense. Softies really don't need much light at all. If they don't look happy, dial light down slowly over the course of days til they do look happy. Less is more when lighting softies (and LPS, to a lesser degree)

Thanks. Will probs lower them all 10%

wyaxley1 · May 15, 2024

mfinn said:
Correct me if I'm missing something, but it looks like his light is set at a maximum of 10%.
Seems like not enough.
Softies can take a lot more lighting than people think.

My blues are at 40/50% here and everything else kinda cascades down, violet 30%, uv 20%, whites 15% to 10% red and greens

mfinn · May 15, 2024

wyaxley1 said:
My blues are at 40/50% here and everything else kinda cascades down, violet 30%, uv 20%, whites 15% to 10% red and greens

When I looked at the graph, it looked like the intensity was at the peak was 10%.
Just seemed a little, less than optimal.
I run my CoralCare gen 2 fixtures at 75% over my softy tank. I realize 2 different sizes, different lights, etc, but the par at the 8" under the waters surface is 180-190. On the sand is 95-100.