Lighting Upgrade

[jeffrey_ropp]

As a new zoanthid collector, I'm somewhat uninspired with the coloration of the zoos from my current PC lighting setup. I'm running 2x55W 10K bulbs and 2x55W Actinic 03 bulbs.

My ballasts do support 96W bulbs, so I could get quite a bit more wattage by buying new bulbs (220-->384).

The other option is to go MH, which would obviously be more expensive and require some refitting of my 6" tall canopy.

So my question is this:

Will upgrading to 384W (perhaps 1/2 actinic) will result in significant better coloration or do I need to go MH to achieve real results?

Thanks for the thoughts.
Jeff

[surfnvb7]

i doubt putting in more bulbs will help with the color. unless you are just adding more actinics, in which case they will glow more, but it will drown out other colors. zoos color up b/c of the "type of light", not necessarily more light.

[cmc5dc]

Have you checked out MUCHO reef....he's running actinics and his tank looks awesome.

[jeffrey_ropp]

cmc5dc - I followed his link to Tank of The Month (8/03). In the write-up he indicates this lighting/photoperiod:
- 2 - 65 watt super blue actinic power compacts, 8 AM to 8 PM
- 2 - 65 watt 10,000K power compacts, 9 AM to 7 PM

BUT, he also mentioned that he used an extra PC fixture for the photos...I wonder what that was.

Do you have any other links?

Thanks,
Jeff

[tekknoschtev]

And now he's using MH bulbs - as far as I know.

In my experience, zoa color was OK under PC. We had 192W PC lighting. 1x 96W 10K, and 1x 96W Actinic. Swapping the 10K for a 50/50 was too much blue, and made the tank look dull...

Now we've got a bigger tank with 2x 400W 10K halides and 190W VHO Actinics and the color is amazing. I am interested in trying a 14K bulb to see if it helps color, but the 10Ks still got a lot of life in them.

[manoverboard]

Ive got a 55 with 110 watts 10k and 110 watts actinic i thought the colors looked good untill i installed a frag tank with a 175 watt reeftec man what a great difference

[manoverboard]

The reeftec bulb is 14k btw

[cmc5dc]

Jeff,

I don't have any other links but you can e-mail MUCHO and ask him what he mentioned in regards to the extra PC.

IMO, your fine even if you did the 96 watt upgrade. Skip the MH and go with T5 if you decide otherwise. You won't have to re-mod your canopy and they'll be more cost efficient while still getting the results your looking for. Look to Grim Reefer on this board he's seems to know a lot about T5 set-up plus he has pic to back up what he's talking about

Also search bllfish as a user he has a nice tank using T5

[jeffrey_ropp]

Thanks cmc5dc.

You must have read my mind. I sent him a note last night.

Since I would have to buy new 96W bulbs (figure $130), maybe I'll look seriously at the T5 option. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll definitely look at Grim Reefer and bllfish's setups for some ideas too.

Do you think the guys at reefgeeks or hellolights would have valuable advice?

Many thanks!
Jeff

[JnS]

having had zoa's under all lights, I prefer my zoa's under VHO.
T5's are nice, but the actnic bulbs just don't seem blue enough IMO.

[tangey]

i have zoos under pcs and are doing great