making sense of low, moderate and high light

[Freddy Twotimes]

I often look at corals and see descriptions regarding thier needs of lighting and water flow. I often see explanations like "low light, moderate light and high light required"

As if lighting was not confusing enough, I can't tell the difference between low light and moderate light when reading about watts per gallon and tank depth.

This is the skinny...

• I have a 55 gallon tank [48"W x 13"D x 18"T]
• I am running a 36" Coralife lunar Aqualight which consists of 10,000k and actinic bulbs [192watts total]
• I keep the corals under the 36" width of light in the tank

I am to the understanding that the 10,000k bulb is actually better than the standard 5500 white light for deeper tanks. So heres my question, if I have 192 watts of light, with the light I described, and my tank is 18" deep, can I support some LPS corals [like a torch or coral or a cany cane] in this tank? Everything I read about some of these LPS corals supports that they are not very difficult to keep and require moderate lighting. Is my 192 watt VHO flourecent light moderate at that tank depth?

I would sure like to have one or two LPS corals to break up the mushrooms, the leather and the polyps in this tank and add some color. Is this 192 watt light low or moderate light?

[Poseidon]

Hi Freddy,

Actually I think your light fixture would be more then adequate for some LPS corals, things like Hammer Coral, Frogspawn, and Torch would all be good choices. Lighting IS very confusing, and the more you learn the more complicated it becomes. THings like PPFD, PAR, and color all get very detailed later on.

Oh ditch the watts per gallon thing, it is a useless analogy that fails to account for the SHAPE of the tank.

[Freddy Twotimes]

Thanks