SPS under pc lighting

[Double M]

Hey all,

I have been successfully keeping softies and LPS for a while and am now considering a few easier sps that are being offerred for good prices on the for sale forum.

I have 390 watts of compact pc lighting (daylight and actinic mix) over my standard-dimension 55 gallon tank and was thinking about buying a few frags (green monti and bali green slimer) from hegi, but I wanted to get a sense of whether people thought that these items could thrive in those lighting conditions. I do not want to purchase something that will merely subsist or languish and would rather not buy the items only to kill them off several months down the road due to inadequate lighting.

I know that I will not likely have optimal growth or color compared to most higher tech lighting schemes, but will these guys still thrive?

Does anyone have any thoughts? I know this is a much broader husbandry issue than merely lighting, but I'm willing to work hard to keep them growing well, but if it is unlikely that they'd succeed under this lighting even if all other perameters were perfect then I'll avoid wasting the frags.

Thanks,

 

[greatwit]

I have kept sps under pc lighting with decent results. As long you provide good flow and keep your alk and calium parameters in check, you should be able to get growth and ok coloration. The closer to the surface, the better. I'll try and find a pic of my old nano setup (96w quad bulb over a 10g tank) so you can see the coloration I had.

 

[chappy]

you can also build a cheap hang on the side frag rack and get them sps right under the lights