This month's (July/August) issue of Coral Magazine has an interesting article on low light corals.  Not to be confused with what are commonly called beginer corals held by folks with lighting systems that will not support what they want resulting in weird colors/shapes and death.

these are corals that come from deeper  water (100+ feet)

The author argues for keeping such a tank for economic reasons but I think they make a very interesting second or in some folk's cases "other tank"

most of the colors tend to be dull browns or other off colors.   However, there will be some corals that respond to this environment by using some sort of floresences.  Not like pyrophyta (doing bio-lum) but capturing light and re-emitting it back onto the symbiotic algae layer.  The effect is the coral glowing in wierd colors.

There are a limited number of acros and other sps corals along with a limited number of soft corals.  The author suggests that some other corals that would naturally live in higher levels may be trained to thrive in the lower light.  He suggests starting those corals as frags rather than larger pieces already living in higher light levels.

I really do not have the time or space for another project this fall but something  to leave on the old back burner

I am interested to hear what others think of this

One of the biggest challenges that comes to my mind is figuring out the temperature for this sort of tank.  I think it could easily be 10 cooler than a traditional reef tank.  that might be hard to keep that cool????  I think there will be other parameter issues as well that may be a bit surprising (not in a good way)

Thoughts?????

your pal

Briney

Briney Dave said :

This month's (July/August) issue of Coral Magazine has an interesting article on low light corals.  Not to be confused with what are commonly called beginer corals held by folks with lighting systems that will not support what they want resulting in weird colors/shapes and death.

these are corals that come from deeper  water (100+ feet)

The author argues for keeping such a tank for economic reasons but I think they make a very interesting second or in some folk's cases "other tank"

most of the colors tend to be dull browns or other off colors.   However, there will be some corals that respond to this environment by using some sort of floresences.  Not like pyrophyta (doing bio-lum) but capturing light and re-emitting it back onto the symbiotic algae layer.  The effect is the coral glowing in wierd colors.

There are a limited number of acros and other sps corals along with a limited number of soft corals.  The author suggests that some other corals that would naturally live in higher levels may be trained to thrive in the lower light.  He suggests starting those corals as frags rather than larger pieces already living in higher light levels.

I really do not have the time or space for another project this fall but something  to leave on the old back burner

I am interested to hear what others think of this

One of the biggest challenges that comes to my mind is figuring out the temperature for this sort of tank.  I think it could easily be 10 cooler than a traditional reef tank.  that might be hard to keep that cool????  I think there will be other parameter issues as well that may be a bit surprising (not in a good way)

Thoughts?????

your pal

Briney

I would think that being lower light that you might want to increase the temperature rather then decrease.  The lower the Temperature the slower the growth rate and metabolism of the coral.  Unless you just want to maintain the coral and keep it from growing.

Briney Dave said :

This month's (July/August) issue of Coral Magazine has an interesting article on low light corals. Not to be confused with what are commonly called beginer corals held by folks with lighting systems that will not support what they want resulting in weird colors/shapes and death.

these are corals that come from deeper water (100+ feet)

The author argues for keeping such a tank for economic reasons but I think they make a very interesting second or in some folk's cases "other tank"

most of the colors tend to be dull browns or other off colors. However, there will be some corals that respond to this environment by using some sort of floresences. Not like pyrophyta (doing bio-lum) but capturing light and re-emitting it back onto the symbiotic algae layer. The effect is the coral glowing in wierd colors.

There are a limited number of acros and other sps corals along with a limited number of soft corals. The author suggests that some other corals that would naturally live in higher levels may be trained to thrive in the lower light. He suggests starting those corals as frags rather than larger pieces already living in higher light levels.

I really do not have the time or space for another project this fall but something to leave on the old back burner

I am interested to hear what others think of this

One of the biggest challenges that comes to my mind is figuring out the temperature for this sort of tank. I think it could easily be 10 cooler than a traditional reef tank. that might be hard to keep that cool???? I think there will be other parameter issues as well that may be a bit surprising (not in a good way)

Thoughts?????

your pal

Briney

Scott, I hope you find your missing issue(s)

Brad, that is very interesting.  In my 29 I am using a aqua-medic 250  M/H.  Despite the wattage it falls off on the sides of the tank rather dramatically.   I have a couple corals that had fallen to the sides and were sort of left there.  Their growth is much slower but they continue to grow. 

Most, although not all the corals discussed in the article were from deeper water.   The authors quoted some par values as definition of low light.  I will have to do a bit of reading to translate that into terms I can relate to more easily.  I know what photo active radiation means just not what the stated values would look like in a tank.  

Might be a really cool project to grow those out and keep some of the more shy fish which would do much better in the lower light

Actually I just got my issue today...  It was beat up but I got it.

I still have not figured out why I have not subscribed to the magazine yet.

Briney Dave said :

I still have not figured out why I have not subscribed to the magazine yet.

It's definetly worth it althought I think I'm missing an issue or two.