5000k LED lighting for coral

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Tyler_Fishman

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For soft coral specifically. in a nano setup, would the corals die? I've done some research and it seems like a touchy subject. Im aware that 6500k-20000k is optimal
 
soft corals are more like animals than plants. they get a significant portion of there food from particles of food (microscopic algae and animals) floating int he water. If those are not present they may starve.
The other issue is that some beneficial algae live in the soft coral. If the water parameters change too much the corals may not be able to support the algae and then the corals would die. As is the case with regular plants, its not all about the light.

All that said I don't have a salt water tank.
 
Some corals will die, some won't - but even for those that don't, they may not thrive. Most corals need more in the blue spectrum. Although I can't remember the numbers offhand, there are a couple ranges in particular that are important that many lighting systems for corals have as intensity peaks. That said, some of the hardier soft corals can definitely be grown under other lighting as long as there's enough of it, but they will be very brown. Any color beyond pinkish brown that they show at the shop will disappear under the wrong lighting, and species showing a lot of greens and blues are more likely to wither under improper lighting.

In the past, I grew some soft corals under non-marine lights (like Marineland double bright LEDs), and some thrived, particularly in shallow water to ensure good intensity. But, it was all dull browns and I only ever got frags out of the hardy bargain bins at shops when I was doing that - and not all of my experiments with that did well. Species that actively eat like some hairy mushrooms are also more likely to do well under sub-optimal lighting. Still, it's not something I can recommend to other hobbyists, since success with corals is just much more likely with proper lighting.

One other note: not all corals eat. Some require it, many can but are very passive about it and can't survive on food alone, some others rely purely on photosynthesis and microscopic dissolved nutrients and don't consume food through the gastric cavity (lighting is extremely important for those).
 

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