Tip of the Day – 3/5/2014

Corals are very intriguing creatures that are suprisingly adapatble to the various conditions we throw at them in our reef tanks. While the train of thought for lighting has always been to use the most powerful lighting systems out there (e.g. metal halides) in an attempt to recreate the sun in your living room, the true story is far different from that. Corals don’t need super intense lighting. They have been shown to thrive in relatively dim conditsions, some as low as 100 PPFD on a PAR meter. That is the main reason why LED systems have been so successful, coupled with their energy saving abilities over other forms of lighting. To complicate matters, at least for the high intensity crowd, is the fact that some corals actually look better under less intense lighting. Now, I’m not talking about bathing corals in nothing but blue. Instead, I’m talking about corals that are placed lower in the aquarium, perhaps shaded by some of the rockwork or another coral.