Quote:
Originally posted by yoDavid
With the addition of the new rock I'm going to try to introduce some peppermint shrimp, I know i was feeding him live shrimp before but i hope he realizes the difference, as he used to live with 2 in the 55 and 2 cleaners also. (i need them to keep my aptaisia in check) so i can add new mushrooms.
on that note , anybody recommend a good amount of watts per gallon for mushrooms?
Also would you say that a fish looks better in dim lighting or verybright lighting?
Im contemplating whether to get 4, 95 watt vho's or just 2(which would be better for the shrooms probaly be more importantly is how the trigger will look.
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Watts per gallon is a worthless measure = a watt is a unit of power, not light. Basically higher wattage use more power and do not necessarily put out more light. A 250 watt MH puts out more lux and probably a higer par than 250 watts of NO, HO, VHO, or PC.
Personally I keep mushrooms under 2 65 watt pcs and they do ok, though growth is minimal. 2 96 watts pcs should do decently, but your best bet is to get 3-4 VHOS. Most mushrooms look their best under VHOs particularly when you have 1:1 ordinary white bulbs to actinic bulbs.
Yeah, PCs suck for color...pc actinics are horrible.
In terms of the fish's appearance, brightness of the light is pretty meaningless - actually brighter light will sometimes increase skin pigmentation and make the fish look better. You have to think the fish lives in an environment way brighter than we can acchieve even with many halides. The real concern should be color quality of the light. If you want the fish to look the best I would use VHOs - with a 1:1 standard to actinic ratio - the actinics are what is really going to show the color of the fish(and yes pc has aweful actinics). The actinics are going to make the stripe between the eyes show up best and should help with the green toward the tail.
A 65 is probably a bit small for a picasso - especially one that large - is it a 36" tank? Most picassos get around 10" or possibly more - the tank is barely 3 times as long as the fish. Picassos are so active - once they get full grown you almost need a 6' tank like a 125 to keep them in.
Be nice to your humu - he deserves it!!