Does any one have an opinion about which 250W halide HQI lamps bring out coral (mostly SPS) fluorescence and colors best? I recently purchased an 72in Aqua Medic Oceanlight with 4 x 250 Watt HQIs (Aqualine 10Ks) and 4 x 39 watt T5s (Aquamedic Ocean Blues) for my 215. The Aqualine 10K are supposed to be very good and although they are very bright and very white I get almost no fluorescence out of my corals and the 4 T5s don’t seem to help out all that much against the 1000 watts of HQIs. The colors in general seem kind of drab, I’ve bought really cool looking Acroporas at my LFS but when I put them in my tank that don’t look that great at all. My water parameters are almost perfect and everything is growing pretty fast, the colors just don’t look very good. I’m thinking of switching out two of the 10Ks for something bluer like the Giesemann Megachrome Blues or Ushio 20Ks. I’ve also heard that a lot of people like the Phoenix 14Ks and have thought about those as well. I will probably be switching out the Ocean Blues T5s with something like the ATI True Actinics sometime too. Basically I’m looking for opinions as to what you would run for 4 x 250W HQIs and 4 x 39W T5s over a 30 in deep tank that would bring out the best colors and fluorescence in SPS corals.
Halide HQI Lamps and Coral Fluorescence
- Thread starter scribble
- Start date
samsfishnchips
Premium Member
scribble,
what are you parameters, and filtration, have a pic?
alk(test kit brand name)
mag(test kit brand name)
cal(test kit brand name)
Salinity(test kit brand name)
ph(test kit brand name)
nitrate(test kit brand name)
phosphate(test kit brand name)
photo period length?, how many fish?
lets see if light is the issue here, which I know is not, you have good light( which by the way is the easy part) harder ones are
-coral placement
-fish load
-flow
-additives
-water chemistry
sam
what are you parameters, and filtration, have a pic?
alk(test kit brand name)
mag(test kit brand name)
cal(test kit brand name)
Salinity(test kit brand name)
ph(test kit brand name)
nitrate(test kit brand name)
phosphate(test kit brand name)
photo period length?, how many fish?
lets see if light is the issue here, which I know is not, you have good light( which by the way is the easy part) harder ones are
-coral placement
-fish load
-flow
-additives
-water chemistry
sam
Thanks for the response Sam. I have listed my parameters below. The reason I have doubts about the lighting is that there have been several times that I have bought a beautiful piece of Acropora from my LFS (with similar lighting) and when I take it home and put it in my tank it is almost a different color. For example I bought a 4in tall piece of Acropora that had a beautiful lime green base and was glowing purple/blue on the tips. The guy in the store had just unpacked it that morning. As soon as I have it in my tank (one hour later) it is dull green with grey tips. Will the color go that fast? It’s grown really well since I bought it but the color has never changed. I have bought several pieces pretty much with the same story.
I’ve kept coral for quite a while now but I’m kind of new to Acroporas and metal halide lighting. My previous tank was a 90 gal with 4 48in T5s and everything looked great. When I moved up to the 215 gal 5 months ago things just never looked very good under the metal halide lights, even the corals I moved over from my old tank. I’ll post a few pics when the lights come on tomorrow. (Sorry this post has got quite long, I just really want my SPSs to look great. They are the whole reason I set up this new 215 gal tank. I guess it’s easy just to blame the lights)
Tank description:
It’s pretty much an ecosystem tank with a 4in sand bed (200lb sugar fine aragonite, 100lb wild Florida sand, 200lb Tonga Deepwater). It has a pretty big (75gal) refugium with 5in sand mixed with miracle mud and lots of cheato and Fiji branch rock. I have only a few fish: flame angel, neon gobies, mandarin (only 6 fish total). I don’t really do a lot of additives, I just do 10% water changes every two weeks (30 gal in my case). I do use kalk and the seachem calcium and buffer additives, but that’s about it. I only run a small skimmer, an AquaC Urchen. There is quite a lot of circulation, 1200gph return pump, 2 Seio 2600s, 2 MaxiJet 1200 (about 7000 gph total). Photoperiod: actinics 12 hours, halides 8 hours.
I use all Salifert test kits.
alk(9.8 dkh)
mag(don’t test for it)
cal(420)
Salinity(0.024 Instant Ocean Reef Cristals, refractometer)
ph(8.3)
nitrate(0)
phosphate(0)
I’ve kept coral for quite a while now but I’m kind of new to Acroporas and metal halide lighting. My previous tank was a 90 gal with 4 48in T5s and everything looked great. When I moved up to the 215 gal 5 months ago things just never looked very good under the metal halide lights, even the corals I moved over from my old tank. I’ll post a few pics when the lights come on tomorrow. (Sorry this post has got quite long, I just really want my SPSs to look great. They are the whole reason I set up this new 215 gal tank. I guess it’s easy just to blame the lights)
Tank description:
It’s pretty much an ecosystem tank with a 4in sand bed (200lb sugar fine aragonite, 100lb wild Florida sand, 200lb Tonga Deepwater). It has a pretty big (75gal) refugium with 5in sand mixed with miracle mud and lots of cheato and Fiji branch rock. I have only a few fish: flame angel, neon gobies, mandarin (only 6 fish total). I don’t really do a lot of additives, I just do 10% water changes every two weeks (30 gal in my case). I do use kalk and the seachem calcium and buffer additives, but that’s about it. I only run a small skimmer, an AquaC Urchen. There is quite a lot of circulation, 1200gph return pump, 2 Seio 2600s, 2 MaxiJet 1200 (about 7000 gph total). Photoperiod: actinics 12 hours, halides 8 hours.
I use all Salifert test kits.
alk(9.8 dkh)
mag(don’t test for it)
cal(420)
Salinity(0.024 Instant Ocean Reef Cristals, refractometer)
ph(8.3)
nitrate(0)
phosphate(0)
paulhines
New member
I've just finished setting up a new 150g high tank (30 inches deep also). I've got two 250w HQI DE pendants with 14K Phoenix bulbs, along with 4x54w T5 - 2 10k, 2 actinic bulbs. I moved several existing sps corals, mostly montis over from my old tank.
While there hasn't been enough time to relly coment on growth, I am very happy wit the color appearance of the tank, both with the halides on and with only the T5s. I've got bright purple growth tips and the other colors are bright also. Wish I could add more... give me 6 - 9 months.
While there hasn't been enough time to relly coment on growth, I am very happy wit the color appearance of the tank, both with the halides on and with only the T5s. I've got bright purple growth tips and the other colors are bright also. Wish I could add more... give me 6 - 9 months.
I was thinking of the Phoenix lamps too. I’m thinking of putting two Phoenix 14Ks on the ends (where most of the SPS are) and leave the two AB 10Ks in the middle where the water is deepest (where my clams are). My tank has two high peaks on each end and a valley in the middle. Sanjay’s web site shows the Phoenix 14Ks putting out about as much 450nm as most 20Ks and a lot of people seem to like them.
jackson6745
Yeah Yeah
Scribble, definitely look into more than just the lighting. There is sooooooo much more to coloring corals. In general how are the colors of your corals? Faded? Brown? Tan with colored tips?
jackson6745
Yeah Yeah
Not sure exactly
Richard, thanks for the comments. I have included a few pics of my tank and one of the Acropora I mentioned. When I bought it at a LFS it had a lime green base and bright blue/purple branches, it was one of the nicest Acros I’d seen for sale in town, as soon as it was in my tank it looked like the picture below. This is why I was questioning the 10K AB lamps.
<p/>
Everyone seems to think it’s not the lamp choice that is a problem and after taking the pictures I’m starting to think they are right. In the pics lower in the tank the light looks much better than higher in the tank, like the clam pics. The fixture has 4 250W HQI lamps, one every 18 inches, and it’s only 8 inches over the water. I starting to think it’s too much light. Coral near the top of the tank is within about 16 inches of two lamps. I’m going to try raising the fixture and moving some of the higher corals lower to see what happens.
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918Acro2.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918TankRightSide.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918Clams1.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918TankRightPeak.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918TankLeftSide.jpg" />
<p/>
Everyone seems to think it’s not the lamp choice that is a problem and after taking the pictures I’m starting to think they are right. In the pics lower in the tank the light looks much better than higher in the tank, like the clam pics. The fixture has 4 250W HQI lamps, one every 18 inches, and it’s only 8 inches over the water. I starting to think it’s too much light. Coral near the top of the tank is within about 16 inches of two lamps. I’m going to try raising the fixture and moving some of the higher corals lower to see what happens.
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918Acro2.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918TankRightSide.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918Clams1.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918TankRightPeak.jpg" />
<br/>
<img src="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/135918TankLeftSide.jpg" />
xtm
Active member
What exactly are the Ocean Blues? If these are the Actinic Blues, aka 7100K then you won't get the flourescence that a True Actinic 03 produces. These are totally different bulbs- the Actinic 03's are dimmer and peaks at 420nm while the Actinic Blue is brighter blue.
Of course there are 100 other different variables, not just lighting (as mentioned above)
Frankysreef
Active member
mix 20k with 6500k and you'll see some awesome colors.
