When you say SPS what do you mean? There are so many different types with so many different light requirements. Has anyone ever kept Acropora is a 10G long term? Lighting requirements aside, I thing it would be a real pain to keep the water parameters stable enough for them... unless you hooked it up to a 50G sump.

Ya I think Rob makes the best point. Light will be the least of your issues. Unless you have a large sump LOL

J

lol, I would definitally be waiting a long time to make sure my parameters were nice and level, before adding SPS corals. By SPS i mean high light requireing corals, such as *yea my favorite, although hardest to keep* Acropora.

lol, just run a sump line a few miles to someone elses tank, yea that would likely be easier.

Well I was thinking about an internal sump that would be about 3 gallons, possibly a section or end of the 10 gallon which was seperate from the coral section. Containing LR rubble, algea and other good stuff.

the problem with a 10G ( I had 1 for about 1 year) Is that it is very hard to get stable. Evaporation alone can cause such huge changes to the water make up.
unlike larger tanks smaller changes effect a 10G huge

J

Well I've found a way to keep the evaporation levels in check, a simple auto top off system, and for a smaller tank I don't have to be worried that the auto top off will run dry of a day's worth of evaporation. Yea I know, bigger is always better, unless you have no place to put the bigger. I may just give up on SPS corals for a while.

If you had say a tank, that was completely closed, with no area or space for evaportation and for outside influence, but with clear sections to allow for light to get in, could SPS corals do better or worse in an already cycled, closed tank? *assuming that you could somehow add calcium and other good stuff to aid it with life functions*

Seal up at tank shine a bright light on it you'll have a greenhouse effect. Also your tank still needs the exchange of air.

No sure what you're planning for ATO but here's a simple gravity type.

If you are forced to go small, should skip the SPS (and the expensive lights). There's lots of really nice nanos out there with easier stocking and demands. Something as simple as a piece of LR, a mushroom and a shrimp can gorgeous if done properly, think bonsai.

Ha, yea I had found a good DIY designs for an ATO similar to that one, but tks. Simple gravity type ATO's when done right are some of the easiest ones going.

Has anyone tried LED lighting for SPS corals?

Hmm, ok nvm the closed system idea.

LED lighting is probably good enough, but VERY expensive!

How many LEd's would it take, do you think, to provide enough light for SPS corals?

2 T5 tubes the same length as the width of your tank would work great. Think about at least putting a HOB refugium on if you're not using a sump.