Fullofit343

I have 2 27 (i think) watt flourescent lights on my 75 gallon. My guess is that's no where near enough for even low light corals? If not, how many watts per gallons do i need for mushrooms and what not?

cerianthus

I, at least, used 4 x 40W Flo (48" long/ea, but specific bulbs) for mushrooms, most LPS, most softies and just about all variety of polyps avail at that time (early 90's) to achieve good results, even multiply. Had clavularia sp Growing onto side/back glass when lean agaist glass, so did some zoa, palys, etc..

I guess you can do 80W, even 57W with specific bulbs, when placed towards top, near the light.

Mcalpine

soft corals are that picky about light you can get away with a few watts per gallion but if you decide to go with harder corals like agro they need much more like 10 watts per gallon
i have a 46 bowfront with some soft corals and i have like 60 watts right now but im going to buy a odyssea 192watt light for my tank with puts me at like 4-5 watts good for soft corals and some harder corals

harpua2002

That's probably not enough for low light corals. If you don't want to upgrade your lighting, look into sun corals, gorgonians, etc... they are not photosynthetic but do require target feeding for optimal health.

If you would like to keep a low light reef in a 75 gallon, I would recommend a 4x 65 W power compact fixture at a minimum (260 W total). This would give you plenty of options for a lot of soft corals (mushrooms, zoanthids, clove polyps, xenia, etc.), and would also afford you the ability to keep some of the easier LPS corals, like candy cane, frogspawn, hammer, etc.