Looking for expert opinions

[Sarina]

Here's what my light says:

JEBO R24 (610mm) 55Wx2 AC120 V 60 HZ

Hopefully you can understand what that means. Is that a good light? I paid $100.00 for it.

What corals would you recommend for beginners?

[TheReefGeek]

Jebo is a cheap brand name light, not worth $100 IMO, but hey its what you have so its a start. FYI, it is 110watts total, so over a 28g that will keep soft corals.

Good starter corals would be:

Mushrooms
Zooanthids
Colt
Xenia
Star polyps
Kenya tree
Toadstools
Leathers

[Willow]

Originally Posted by TheReefGeek

Jebo is a cheap brand name light, not worth $100 IMO, but hey its what you have so its a start. FYI, it is 110watts total, so over a 28g that will keep soft corals.

Good starter corals would be:

Mushrooms
Zooanthids
Colt
Xenia
Star polyps
Kenya tree
Toadstools
Leathers

yeah actually it's really only 55 watts as half the light is actinic. your 10k part of the light is the only usable part of the light the corals are going to be using for growth. you should be ok with soft corals but that isn't much light.

[TheReefGeek]

Actinics will still help corals grow, maybe not as much as 10K lighting though.

I would stick with soft corals until you upgrade your lights. (if you want to keep LPS, SPS, clams, anemones, etc)

[albert_dao]

There's a few LPS that you'd get away with too. Candy canes and Echinophyllia's come to mind.

[Snappy]

I agree with Rory in that there is more than one way to be successful in keeping a reef. One suggestion I have is to get the most pourous live rock that you can as it creates more surface area for the bacteria to grow (inside & out). As you can see from this thread there are many different opinions, and usually most have some merit, however, do some reading and go with what you feel will work best for your circumstances and budget. No matter how much you read there is most often still a little trial & error. I have found that this hobby is more forgiving than a lot of people let on. Do the basics properly and the rest will come as your hobby and experience grows. I have found that even though this board is made up for the most part of amatuers I have still learned a lot from them.
Good luck,

[Sarina]

What is the difference between LPS and SPS and soft corals? They all look the same to a beginner like me.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Softies - toadstools, leathers, mushrooms, zoos, etc. (no hard calcium-based skeleton)

LPS - Large Polyp Stony - frogspawn, hammer, brain, bubble, etc. (usually large hard skeleton base with med. to large polyps growing on top)

SPS - Small Polyp Stony - Acropora, millipora, cat's paw, montipora, caps, etc. (Mostly skeleton, some finger or antler-like, others are more plate-like, with thousands of tiny, hairy polyps)

As a general rule, softies - LPS - SPS go from easiest to hardest, least light to most light, lowest water quality requirements to highest water quality requirements, low or med. current to high current.

That's why most newbies start with low light softies, advance to LPS and many then upgrade to powerful MH lights & lots of flow to keep SPS like acros & millis.

HTH,

Anthony