How much light can I get away with?

[msd2]

So here is a reverse of the question usually posed. After looking at my tank I realize I really enjoy softies and have gotten rid of my sps. I have a few clams left and am seriously thinking of getting rid of them also just because I don't get excited by them like I used to. I enjoy the zoo's, colt, carpet anemone and shrooms much more.
Anyway my question is how many hours a day can I run my lighting setup to maintain the animals safely. Not lookin for much more growth, they have been growing like weeds already and starting to overrun the tank if I dont prune. Thanks in advance!

Tank 100 gall, w/250-325lbs live rock dimensions 48x24deepx20tall

lights:
250x2 mh 10k
175mh 10k
2x3ft actinics vho

[jedininja]

In a 100 gallon tank with softies, you can get rid of that extra 175. Just run the 2 250w with the actinic. A 12 hour cycle with the vhos running 12 hours and the MH running 10 hours should be fine. Just position your corals accordingly to lighting requirements and make sure you acclimate your corals to higher lighting if you want them higher in the tank and you should be fine IMO.

[lukasnca]

I think that (s)he was looking for something more for something along the lines of "you can just run the vhos". You certainly don't need to run the MHs for 10 hours -- I have a 100g softie/LPS tank and run MH for 5-6 hours per day. I'm not sure about the colt and the anenome but zoos, shrooms and a lot of other soft corals don't need intense MH lighting.

[orientalexpress]

i agree with luke ,5-6 hours is plenty for your corals health,10 hours is over kill.gl lapsan

[darcitananda]

yes, i have been on halides for 8 months now and a lot of my softies don't appreciate the extra light/heat. lost all of my euphyllia sp to bleaching among some other things. this was partly my fault for not acclimating slowly enough, but, if it weren't such a pain in the rear, i'd go back to VHO's.

[Bamm Bamm]

I think you can ditch the MH's you don't need them for those corals if you get rid of the clams
just get some T5's or something

[jedininja]

I really have to disagree about dumping the Mhs. I had an 80 gallon tank running 2 175 with 110 watts of actinic PC on a softie/lps tank. Before I had 330 watts of PC and when I upgraded to MH my zoos and rics really started to color up.

Of course 5-6 hours of Mh would be enough. But longer wont hurt if you do things the right way and acclimate your corals to the lighting. Even discosoma mushrooms can adapt to very high lighting.

I think the trouble of acclimating your corals to MH is worth it in the long run for the color of growth of your corals.

[Bamm Bamm]

I hasve 2x96w pcs on my 90g for 2years when I got discouraged in the hobby I turned off my MH's..Everything all softies and LPS grew like crazy at that time. I also went skimmerless and only did water changes once every 6months..=)

[SanFranTodd]

just my .02 cents - I run MH over my softie tank 10hrs a day and they love it. I have a football sized colt, 20 head frogspawn, 15 head hammer, and a few other good sized colonies that seem to really enjoy the light. I was even contemplating adding another bulb in the canopy...

[msd2]

I am currently runnin the mh for about 8hrs a day for the 250's, 12hrs for the 175, and the actinics 14. Everything has grown well, too well actually. What I really want to do in part is start reducing the cost of the tank but not at the cost of the critters. I wont be shutting down the dosing systems, top off or skimmer, just thinking I could get my electric bill down some and still have the tank thrive. BTW I will be having some large frags of a healthy colt soon as I get off my butt and frag him. He is probably a good 14-18inches across.
I was just kinda banterin the idea around of less lighting, and it looks like I could cut the hours down considerably. Keep the suggestions coming! My one concern is my carpet anemone though, he is big (around 14inches) and I dont want to kill him off.

[jedininja]

Well as long as you keep your MH, you wont kill the carpet. It would be ok with a few hours less of lighting.

One other thing you can do is run each MH bulb for 5 hours and stagger the times that it turns on. That way you just cut your lighting down by almost half, but stil have the tank on for most of the day.

[Bamm Bamm]

for reference I only run my lights a total of 11hours on my SPS so you can definately get away with running your hours less my 3 MH's on my main tank are only on for 9hr a day and I get amazing growth with my SPS.. You could easily cut them back to 6-8hours no problems and that would help with your electricty. If you really want to look at electricity consumption. Start disecting your tank/equipments and go from there. alot of pumps use alot of unnessary electicity such as the mj1200's use 20w opposed to the mj900 which only use 8.5w or if your using a return such as a mag..they aren't very efficient either and by switching out that pump you could cut your consumption from that part in half possibly..

Now with your Carpet anenome.. You will definately need MH's....

[sfsuphysics]

Yah, you may have gotten rid of the SPS, but the fact you have clams & an anemone still means you have high light demands. Now What you could do (if its possible) is make sure those items are all in the same area of the tank, and ditch all but 1 MH bulb. Swap out one of those actinic bulbs for a 10000k or even 6500k bulb just so your tank doesn't look overly purple and you could be set.

I personally ran 4-55w 10000k pc bulbs over my 135g tank for quite a few months before finally going to halides, only had softies and a few LPS and they did fine.

[delusions]

Well, if its anything, i have my green carpet under 220w of PC's thats a little bigger than 14". Its been in my tank for more than 3 years so no flaming:P.

[msd2]

Thanks guys for all the opinions, very helpful.
BamBam I have been pretty good about getting equipment that was energy effecient as I went, seio's, euroreef, closed loop using a quiet one pump, qo again for the sump return, and a fl. lamp for the fuge. It would be pretty hard to drop power w/o just simply turning things off, lol.

I think I will give it a try for awhile and reduce the 2 250's to 4 hours, the 175 down to 6 and leave the actinics alone. Just lookin at it that alone is 3050 watts a day less! LOL i guess im just cheap but id like to get my electric is 70 bucks and considering I live in a large studio id like to bring that cost down some before summer and I start using the AC again :)