Suggested Lighting on a 46 gallon FOWLR system?

haha and that's exactly how many i plan to put in his tank. My two options that i liked were the green star polyps and pulsing xenia but i read some where that if nipped at they release something into the water? And if my puffer decides to eat the coral i will need something that will be safe for him and the other inhabitants especially since i will be trying 1 or 2 clownfish in the tank with him.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/show-off-your-fish-tanks/our-progress-46-bowfront-55581.html

Just look at the last few pages. Unless you want to look at all of the gross growth spurts our tank went through...

And your tank would be fine without moon lights. We don't run ours all night. We used to, but now we let them sleep in total darkness. Sometimes my mom will have them on if she wants to watch the nightlife, such as our brittle and serpent star, and other nighttime critters. The way we run them, it must seem like a random full moon to the fish at times. Darkness darkness darkness darkness moonlights! I guess that's why they're called moonlights? Duh.

And expect some new pics in the next couple of weeks on our thread. I've got a little something special I'm cooking up...

 

ok, my puffer has slept in darkness since i've had him and he's used to darkness, lol i wonder if the moonlights would keep him up all night and not let him sleep (he sleeps all curled up in a ball when he's tired) And i guess i would need to get used to the moonlights as the tank would be in my room, so maybe it would be best without the monlights.

Hehe i can't wait to see what you're going to do

 

Jwin: I love how the tank looks makes me so excited. How many pounds of live rock do you have in there?

 

We started with about 45 pounds of rock, because we originally wanted to have a FOWLR tank with soft corals. FOWLR with softies. Well...we have alot of soft stuff. But we've graduated. I believe our rock count is up to around 70 or 75 pounds now, because we have some base rock and LR rubble in our fuge. I think our rock is at 75 pounds. I can't keep track of the weight, because I don't know how much rock my mom bought after we had the count at 63

And all that coraline that was on the back of the glass in our last full tank shot is gone. We scraped that off cause it was starting to get a bit out of hand. Tank is pretty again.

 

I was thinking about starting my tank at 50lbs then possibly ending at 85lbs. What kinds of corals are considered softies? I may be interested in trying them with the puffer.

 

Softies would be things like xenia, mushrooms, frogspawn and hammer coral, zoanthids, etc. Easy stuff to take care of. Really good first corals.

 

hmm i think i'll try those. And hopefully their not to expensive so if my puffer eats them it wont be a big deal.

 

I personally like xenia. It's cheap, can grow like a weed, and looks kinda cool and wavey. If your puffer at some xenia I don't think it'd be a big deal at all. What corals are they known to eat?

 

it all depends on the puffer, but it's highly suggested to have "bad tasting corals" which i have no idea which ones they are. Some people have puffers that behave very nicely in a reef and some just tear everything apart. But the only coral that i know that everyone can get away with on their puffers is the green star polyp, but i want a little more to the mix. But i personally think my puffer will be ok with corals.