Is my lighting strong enough for Coral?

Is my lighting strong enough for coral? I plan to keep Leather coral, Frog Spawns, and similar type of coral. Tank depth is 20inches, and I have a 96watt powercompact 50/50. I found a local deal for some Metal Halides and I was wondering if the upgrade was necessary.

PS I don't have the coral yet, but I plan to buy them soon.

 

How many gallons is your tank?

 

40 Gallon breeder. Tank depth is only 20 inches and most coral will be above the half mark line (i.e. no more than 10 inches from the light).

Would 10 hours a day be sufficient?

 

I think you would be right on the edge for those corals. You would probably at best see very slow growth. I would upgrade if possible.

 

10 hours should be plenty.

 

Thanks for the input. I'll consider the lighting upgrade, but nothing 100% yet.

 

I had a 45g tall tank once with (2) 65w PC's and I was only able to keep; an Lta, Yellow polyps, Flower Anemones........Oh I cant remember everything. Here are some pics of what I had. Double click on the pics to get a better close up.









and here is the lighting



If I where to be in your shoes, I would go for the MH's, that way in the near future If I wanted to keep other light demanding corlas, I wouldnt need to up-grade again. Luna

 

On a 40 breeder a Tek 4 lamp would be perfect, get a 36 Tek and your mounting/hanging components and you are set, way cheaper than a MH set up and a lot cooler, plus it will grow quite abit, esp if you keep it a few inches from the tank, or if you really wanna go big go with the 6 lamp unit.

Good luck!

 

If I am not mistaken, you need 3 and a half to 4 watts per gallon (minimum) for anenomes and 4 to 5 watts per gallon (minimum) for corals.

You may have issues with only 96 watts... One thing you do have going for you is that it is only 20 inches deep.

 

Wattage is of no concern with lighting, it is an old BS way to gauge lighting.

I have less than 4 wpg and feel confident I could grow SPS pretty much to the bottom of my tank.

5 wpg of PC is NOTHING compared to 5wpg of MH or T5, it is not even a fair fight!!