chuckdallas
Tank Tinkerer
I just bought and installed what I THOUGHT was a T5 setup in the canopy of my DT. I swore the box said T5 on the side. Since I'm a newbie, I don't know what makes a T5 a T5, so I purchased that one. Got home and installed the puppy right away, so the 48 inch reflector would go almost all the way across my 5 foot long tank (less 6 inches on each end). After pushing the actinic bulb in too hard to the rubber gasket where the pins go, I broke one of the actinic bulbs. Since I went to go get a replacment, I now realize that I have a PC setup. I have a 4 bulb retrofit kit in the enclosed canopy over my 120 gallon tank. I asked a generic question here about lighting on a thread and someone wrote back and told me that I should get rid of the 65 Watt Coralife 10K white bulb and Coralife 65 watt Actinic 03 Blue bulbs. I think they thought I had a T5 setup, so they told me to get ATI Aquablue Specials and ATI Blueplus instead, to increase the PAR value, which is needed for the Carpet Anemone and BTA. I would like to add a Tridacna Clam in the next 4-6 months and my wife wants 3-4 soft corals. I favor the fish and she favors the corals, so we are trying to do a half and half, rather than All REEF or FOWLR. I don't plan to get hard corals. Some people mention 6.5K, 10K, 11K and even 20K. My wife doesn't think that the store will take the PC retrofit kit back, as I would want to do, to get a T5 kit from them, so I was thinking of getting an additional 2 or 4 bulb 48 inch T5 retrofit to screw into the top part of the canopy. Both will fit in the canopy. I would do that so I can use the ATI bulbs the other Reef Central person suggested. They also said that I should keep an eye on the Anemones and if they change color, then I need to upgrade the lights to something stronger, so an additional lighting kit was my first thought. The Carpet Anemone is on the bottom of the aquarium and the light is 27-28 inches from the bottom of the aquarium.
1) What do I need for lighting (Kelvin wise) for 2 anemones, about 8-10 small fish and maybe 3-4 soft corals requiring low-medium light in the future? We are discussing a Tridacna or Tridacna-like clam too in the future.
2) What's the difference between a 10K and 11K bulb, besides 1000K in temp or wavelength?
3) The reflector with this kit has a bend on the outer edges of the reflector, so the sides are about 2-3 inches long. The bulbs are 65 Watt, 21 inch bulbs and the actinic sits parallel with the 10K bulb, so the reflector isn't on each side of each bulb. Should I find a very shiny piece of aluminum to add to the reflector so that each bulb has a reflective surface on each side of each bulb? Should I make the sides longer so they extend down to the glass that sits on top of the aquarium? The canopy is wooden and keeps all of the light in the canopy until it leaves the side of the canopy.
4) I think the existing 10,000K white bulbs are just day/night indicators for the fish. Do they provide any decent PAR value for the Nems?
5) Do 2 Coralife 65 watt, 21 inch actinic 03 blue bulbs provide any PAR value for the Nems or do they just provide mood lighting? Someone said that because the reflector doesn't cover EACH side of EACH bulb, then they are just good for mood lighting. Are there higher output PC bulbs or do I need to buy an appropriate T5 setup and forget using the PC retrofit kit?
Thanks in advance.
1) What do I need for lighting (Kelvin wise) for 2 anemones, about 8-10 small fish and maybe 3-4 soft corals requiring low-medium light in the future? We are discussing a Tridacna or Tridacna-like clam too in the future.
2) What's the difference between a 10K and 11K bulb, besides 1000K in temp or wavelength?
3) The reflector with this kit has a bend on the outer edges of the reflector, so the sides are about 2-3 inches long. The bulbs are 65 Watt, 21 inch bulbs and the actinic sits parallel with the 10K bulb, so the reflector isn't on each side of each bulb. Should I find a very shiny piece of aluminum to add to the reflector so that each bulb has a reflective surface on each side of each bulb? Should I make the sides longer so they extend down to the glass that sits on top of the aquarium? The canopy is wooden and keeps all of the light in the canopy until it leaves the side of the canopy.
4) I think the existing 10,000K white bulbs are just day/night indicators for the fish. Do they provide any decent PAR value for the Nems?
5) Do 2 Coralife 65 watt, 21 inch actinic 03 blue bulbs provide any PAR value for the Nems or do they just provide mood lighting? Someone said that because the reflector doesn't cover EACH side of EACH bulb, then they are just good for mood lighting. Are there higher output PC bulbs or do I need to buy an appropriate T5 setup and forget using the PC retrofit kit?
Thanks in advance.
