The best sps for my tank

[leeks]

I have a 75 with 258 watt of power compacts smartlites. I want to see witch sps coral would be ok with that lite. Going to harbor aquatics on sunday. :?:

 

[jabrams]

orange montipora digitata and other montipora species would do great under your lights; although, many species of acropora may do decent you will be missing a large amount of thier potential color without MH

HTH

joe

 

[Mac1]

Montipora's are probably the least light demanding SPS corals. I've seen a few nice looking corals at my LFS's, who's display tank is lit w/ PC's... However I have those same corals in my tank, and they look far better under my Halides. Ron's SW heaven in PA holds his Acro's in a PC only tank, and admittedly they do look great.
I would stay away from any real colorful acro's, IMO, most lightly colored or white w/colored tip Acro's seem to come from deeper water, and perhaps would do allright. Porites I've seen people keep w/ VHO's, so that might be another option. If you can, try getting a few LPS: Blastumosa's look great, as do Candy Corals, Torch/Hammer/Euphyllia's, and Brain's would all be good candidates for a tank like that.

- Mac

 

[newkie]

What about porites? People always recommend monitpora but its not completely easy to keep. That said they don't demand a ton of light or flow. HTH

 

[Mac1]

Actually Greenbud, I was going to suggest that, but I think Porites typically come from very shallow, even partly exposed reefs. Could be wrong in that though.

- Mac

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, Porites are generally found pretty shallow. FWIW, I keep mine way up in my tank under 500W of 'Sakis and 440W VHO. Grows very slow regardless.

I agree that certain Montis are pretty tolerant of lower light levels. However, I think that's too broad of a generalization to say they are all that way. You can find Acros, Pocillopora, Stylophora, and Seriatopora (etc.) that will all live just fine beneath what most would call moderately low lighting (175W halides or a few VHOs/PCs). It's just a matter of adapting them or getting a strain that is adepted to those levels.

That aside, having other avunues of nutrition in your tank besides lighting will generally make their dependence on light lessened and help them grow.