General lighting for thousands of LPS
 

I've seen scolymia, trachy, cynarina, euphyllias expand beautifully under 250W and I've seen it bleached and died under 150W, and I've seen it expand and coloring up like crazy under indirect natural tropical sunlight with additional blue pp shade on top, it is very dark and blue, yet they expand and coloring up nicely.... So what is the safe general lighting for LPS?? I am holding thousands of em, so It is impossible for me to meet each individual corals need. I just need the color to stay and thats it.... Currently I use insulated roof with patches of clear pp, clear area is about 35% of the roof, bear in mind that this is tropical sun we are talking about. Is 35% clear scattered patches enough for general LPS? Corals are positioned 10-20 cm under water surface, water quality is top notch suffice to grow SPS.

Might not be enough light depending on the depth most of your corals are harvested from. JMO

I have multiple rows of tubs, each tube measures 300 CM X 90 CM (10ft X 3 ft) and each row measures 30 M X 90 CM (100ft X 3ft). The current natural light allow the corals to expand fully, but about 30% of the corals would turn to a darker colors if being held more than 2 weeks, while about 50% maintain the coloration and the rest 20% actually increase to a more intense color. If I install a single 250W bulb on each row using radium 20K on light rail that stop every meter (3.5 ft) for 5 minutes and continuously going back and forth for 10hr each day will it help a lot?? I heard short burst of intense light is actually better than constant light. Bear in mind that natural sunlight with naturally changing intensity are still available through natural daylight cycle, so the addition of the 250Watt on light rail is solely for providing short term repeating high intensity burst, also bear in mind that the corals are positioned only 10-20 cm (3-6 inch) below surface. In the past I have tried to open 60% of the roof with clear pp and it resulted in newly arriving coral bleaching, particularly scolymia, cynarina, and trachy......
Or.... probably all I need is actinic supplementation????? Paint the clear pp with clear blue color??.....???

I will be getting lux meter next week when budget allows, I will measure the actual intensity received by my corals. What is the optimal intensity for LPS??

Here are my thoughts

1. You may consider getting a PAR meter rather than a lux meter
The Apogee Instruments' Model QMSW-SS (with optional BNC connector) has been recommended but I think they have now changed their model numbers...you'll need to email them for info. [url=http://webtrolley.org/mivastore/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=apogeeint&Category_Code=BQM]Apogee Instruments[/URL]

2. Don't try a one size fits all solution - perhaps move the ones you feel are coloring well to ambient light into a seperate tub or area. Those you think need supplemental light place them elsewhere and provide the light.

3. Light rails appear to be a good idea...there is I beleive a thread on this..Hahnmeister has installed this system on his private tank. I wish I could do it but my canopy is too low.

4. You've got a wonderful opportunity with the PAR meter to do a bit of research and advise the rest of us as well as I guess your customers.

1. noted
2. Yes that is what I am doing right now, I am arranging my corals, and still it is a constant headache for my employees, like I said, same corals, same supplier but respond differently to light
3. I think so too... I will try it ASAP and post it in my website once it is finished
4. Will do that... Always try to improve my system to provide my customers with better corals ......

Thanks for all the input guys... keep it coming....

Do you have any pics/build thread of your facility? It would be really cool to see something of that scale.

Yes indeed... It will be interesting. Ok I'll start working on it next week. I hope by doing this I can get lots of valuable lesson, comment and suggestion....