sorry if this has been answered, but....i've read on here that all that's needed is some fluorescent compacts, but will a metal halide hurt an octo?

i know that they're in shallow waters in the wild, which would mean they're exposed to sun as well as the fact that they can choose to hide during the daytime and come out at night.

if someone could shed some light on this (pardon the pun) i'd appreciate it. if you can't do metal halides that means all interesting SPS corals can't be kept with them : (

Most SPS corals are pretty aggressive stingers. Most octopus don't like very bright light, so you would most likely never see it. Many octopus species are naturally nocturnal and adapt to daytime living in the aquarium, so they don't deal with bright lighting in their natural environment. Perhaps a naturally diurnal species might.



It's generally not in your best interest to spend money on corals for your octopus tank, because octopus are curious creatures and will most likely mangle your corals.

When I had my Bimac a few years ago, it lived in a tank with just some regular flourescents...not very bright lighting. He didn't mind it and was always out and about. However, when we changed the lighting on the tank in hopes of making it a future reef tank, the poor little guy hid all the time...you could really tell he didn't care for the bright lighting.
My suggestion would be to keep the bright lighting minimal in an octo tank.