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gflat65
06/15/2004, 05:18 PM
All
I thought it might be a good idea to post info on what kind of corals can live under what kind of lighting. I have had MH and VHO for seven years, so I have never had to wonder if I had enough light for given coral. (Can Monti digi's live under PC's?-Are there any acro's out there that do well with out tons of light, etc.? If so, where would they need to be placed in theory to do best, etc.?) Does someone out there have a strong idea of what kind of sps can be kept in (strictly) PC's? Same for (strictly) VHO's. I know garf runs everything off of VHO, but I think they un a number of bulbs to increase intensity. I just think this thread might be a good tool for people that don't have the monster lights that some of us do to be able to wisely choose corals that will do well under lower light conditions.

SRA4031
06/15/2004, 06:32 PM
My digis are doing fine under PC compacts. If there is anything else you are curious about, send it my way, and we will see. I did get an acropora I got from coralreefing, and so far so good, ployps and all.

aquaman67
06/15/2004, 07:43 PM
I have a montipora capricornis and elkhorn montipora under 96 PC watts. They are both growing.

boofer
06/15/2004, 08:04 PM
I've been keeping quite a few sps under my pc's (3 55 watt 50/50's). I have 3 diffrent colored Digi's, 3 variations of M. Caps, an Elckhorn,an orange birdnest, a Staghorn that has turned a dark green with light red tips (the best grower by far),a mike paletta blue (I did lose one frag...bleached on me) ,a blue tip loripes and a yellow/purple tip fiji acro. all are not going to win any growth races but all are growing and seem to me healthy. My only loss was one mike paletta (knock on wood) and im only running 165 watts on a 29 (5.6 wpg). all are within 4 inches from the surface and are in high flow. with me the only complaint I have w/pc's are the colors arent as vibrant looking as with halides IMO.......It will never work if its never tried has been my philosophy with them.

coralreefing
06/16/2004, 10:13 AM
Lights are a touchy subject because you have to be very specific. As you know MH lights vary widely by wattage, brand, color temp, ballast type, etc. To a smaller degree the same can be said about PCs. You have wattage, brand & color temp to select from. Early on PCs got a rep for being algae growers because they didn't have the color temp figured out yet, and some brands still don't. More recently pc actinic bulbs were actually just blue but a couple brands have that figured out now.

IME 96watt 10k PCs from Hellolights work great for SPS. I use VHO actinic because the length of my tank but I have a friend that uses their actinic bulbs & loves them.

gflat65
06/16/2004, 10:30 PM
I've got a 5gallon hex at work with a 20W 50/50 pc (coralife). I have several elkhorn frags and some digitata frags I could try in the tank, but what does everyone else think? I wouldn't necessarily lose the frags if they didn't do well because I could bring them back home and try to save them if worse comes to worse. Anybody think it might work? It currently just has a few (very few) softies in it and the mother load of bristle worms.

SRA4031
06/16/2004, 10:36 PM
You can always bring them by to me, and I can put them under my PC. :)

How is the zoos doing?

gflat65
06/17/2004, 07:25 AM
goldeneagle
They're doing great. It adds a nice contrast. I still have the shrooms for you. If you could come out to the plant Friday, I can bring them in.

SRA4031
06/17/2004, 08:18 AM
Can do.

Still have a nice Digi bring that too.

coralreefing
06/17/2004, 09:53 AM
A 20w might lack the intensity needed for sps. I think sticking with softies in a nano would be less stressful.

That being said, if you have a frag that you wouldn't miss, you could move it to a low light area in your tank & if it adjusts well try it in the nano. I have a small (accidental) blue tip frag you could try.

SRA4031
06/17/2004, 10:49 AM
Accidental? Have you not had the sex talk with your corals?

SexiShrimp
06/17/2004, 10:53 AM
I could let you borrow a medical book to explain to your corals about the bird and the bees....of course I wish my corals had accidental moments too...more for me!

:lol:

SRA4031
06/17/2004, 10:55 AM
yepee.

I am looking for Marine Snow with Spainsh Fly (shows my age)

gflat65
06/18/2004, 07:40 AM
coralreefing
If it is looking pretty faded, I'll take it. I had the same feeling that the 20W wouldn't do so much for sps, but I wasn't sure just how low light a monti digi can take. I will move one of the tiny frags (thanks again shakes) lower for a few weeks and see if it will open up in the nano.

On the subject of MH types and colors-IME the 12K Sunburst (which I used almost exclusively for 4 years) gives a good and different color to the corals, but growth was minimal. Hearing reewik talk about his horrendously slow growth made me want to cry. He'd show pictures before and after from meetings and I wouldn't have nearly as much growth as he had shown. I am now using a 10K Ushio. Growth rates are pretty good, but color is more brown. I've noticed that the corals that start to fade begin to regain color again in a couple of weeks. I say that because I have only been running it for a little more than a couple of weeks and a couple things are starting to color back up nicely, just a little less than the 12K.

reewik
06/18/2004, 08:13 AM
Just to clarify, I run a 175 watt 10,000k XM MH and two 32watt PC actinics for lighting. When I stated I am getting slow growth I was comparing my tank to Fishdoc11's. He gets very good growth rates in his tank. He also runs 250 watt vs my 175 watt mh's. Also when I look at posts and people talk about their graoth rates I am amazed. Another thing I guess I need to think about is the fact that I stare into my tank every day. That may give me the illusion of slow growth.

Mdwannabe
06/18/2004, 02:58 PM
Slow growth and you complain????, come see what I am forced to call a tank (right now), and I'll show you negative growth!....LOL
Seriously, it will be interesting to see what happens to the few corals I have left (mostly LPS) when they come face to face with 1200 watts of 20,000K MH light.
Anybody want to go out on a limb and recomend an acclimation cycle for the new lights. Fishdoc...assuming you read this post keep in mind Mother will be living in this world, and Shan told me sunday she is starting to bleach under the PC's.

Mdwannabe
06/18/2004, 03:04 PM
Oh yea, forgot to mention, right now everything lives under 10 hours of VHO light (2 O3's-2 50/50's)
Just finished with the Staining work on the new hood, and when I log off I am starting the install of the lights.
Tested the LED moonlights last night, they look great in an empty tank, can't wait to see them going through water!

Gotta get started!
Rick

rcmike
06/18/2004, 04:29 PM
I saw it the other day and it looked more like it was dieing instead of just bleaching. I didn't look very close at it though.

fishdoc11
06/18/2004, 06:43 PM
It's not bleaching it's receeding from lack of light. It's the same thing that sometimes happens under Montiporas when they get real large. I would'nt worry about it though. As long as you've got a few pieces it will grow back to that size in a few months to a year. I would start the tank at 3 hrs a day MH and 10 hrs a day atinics and increase the MH 1 hour a week until you get to 8 hrs a day. Then see how your temp is doing and if ok run the MH for 10 hrs a day and the atinics for 12.
Chris

Mdwannabe
06/18/2004, 08:24 PM
Misunderstanding......New tank will have only MH, no room in hood for VHO.
Recomendations????? :-) Temp should be no problem, my cooler should handle it. Please notice all those should's in the last sentence, can only go with equpt. info and what it SHOULD be able to do.

Thanks for the input Chris, I was starting to worry about Mother, think she will be happy once she gets back under MH lighting?

Rick

fishdoc11
06/18/2004, 10:11 PM
I think she will be fine(although I haven't seen her lately). If she's not Sean will take care of you and I still have several pieces of her floating around here so getting you another won't be a problem. I would just follow the MH portion of the acclimation schedule if you dont have atinics(of course you don't need them with 20K's). You might start with 4 hrs instead of 3.
Chris

SexiShrimp
06/19/2004, 08:43 AM
I added pictures to my gallery showing the growth of my tank since I set it up back in late January. The sps that I do have seem to be doing pretty good under my PC's 10K and actinics. I have about 4.7 watts per gallon. Here's the link to the gallery to see the pictures and growth throughout the months....
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showgallery.php?ppuser=55120&cat=500&thumb=1

:)

fishdoc11
06/19/2004, 08:51 AM
Looking good Mimi!
Chris

SexiShrimp
06/19/2004, 09:17 AM
the green mont cap that I got from you, fishdoc, is thriving!!! Unfortunately, the elkhorn is going through some issues right now.....

gflat65
06/19/2004, 06:38 PM
It all looks great Mimi. I am going to have to find the answer to why I don't get the growth everyone else seems to be getting. Like Mdwannabe said, I do look at it all the time, so growth might be difficult to quantify, but I have some things that haven't grown much since I got them months ago (namely a blonde digi that I got from fishdoc). I don't do too well with monti caps either, despite my acros and digi's starting to take off in growth. My flourescent red cap bleached, then regained it's color (over the last few weeks oddlyu enough under the 10K Ushio). I have two pieces of purple ridge and they both almost completely died, but are now recoivering and growing well. I had to move them to the darkest spot in the tank that still gets MH light to get them to not completely die off. My parameters have been good all along (no spikes-fairly constant with alk (6-10) and ph (8.0-8.1) swings). I haven't been able to get my pH over 8.1 regardless of what I do, so maybe one facet is there? I'm sure (as is usually the case) there are several contributors, but...

Anyway-looks really good Mimi. I hope to move the 55 today so I should have some pics of the move documentation soon. I'm going to post a thread with the entire process for the hope that it will help someone else out. My practices may not all be the prescribed way, but we will see how it treats me when I have completed the move. All inverts will be spending the night(s) in Hotel Tupperware until the 125 water tests good after moving some older established sand into it and my rock. It has been runnning for about a month now, so hopefully I can count on some help from little bacteria running around:) Fingers crossed.