Help me win a Grow Out Contest - Lighting or Feeding?

[cleverbs]

I am part of a local grow out contest, We are all getting a frag of "fire & Ice" (sps) I am trying to figure out the best way to grow it. heres my current options.

just stick it in my 220g with 3x 250w radium MH and 4x t5ho's or I could put it all by itself in the frag tank that is part of the system. the frag tank is 24x24x12 with a 175w MH over the top. I can move the MH up and down any way I want as well as have the frag in the tank in place I want. The tank has a RW-8 In it for water movement. My thought is to keep it in the frag tank to spot feed it because I can turn the frag system off so it doesnt skim anything to allow the food to really circulate through the frag tank. With the amount of flow in the frag tank and fact that its BB any food could stay sespended for ever and I could just turn the frag system back on after an hour or so to allow the frag to feed.

So I am torn between using higher light to grow the frag or food. what do you guys think?

 

[1MP3R1AL]

I'm sure you mean ice fire echinata... What local club are you a part of?

 

[cleverbs]

Yes I do I'm sorry.

So my plan is to put it under a 10k 175mh bulb that I just bought and have it in it's own tank connected to the system so I can control the flow for feelings.

 

[JPMagyar]

I do not have any hard scientific evidence to support my comment, but I do have real world anecdotal evidence. I use a combination of ESV B-Ionic , Salifert amino acids, Brightwell's ReefSnow, and 250 watt metal halide lighting. As you can see from the photos below, this combination has resulted in fast growth of my Oregon Tort frag, a coral notorious for slow growth.

Personally I do not think you will get fast growth under 175 watt metal halide and would be better off placing the frag under 250s. Just a thought . . . Good Luck!!

January

March

 

[Bpb]

I hate you joe. Not really. At the pace Oregon tort grows for me it would have taken me 5 years to get that growth you got in 3 months.

 

[cleverbs]

I do not have any hard scientific evidence to support my comment, but I do have real world anecdotal evidence. I use a combination of ESV B-Ionic , Salifert amino acids, Brightwell's ReefSnow, and 250 watt metal halide lighting. As you can see from the photos below, this combination has resulted in fast growth of my Oregon Tort frag, a coral notorious for slow growth.

Personally I do not think you will get fast growth under 175 watt metal halide and would be better off placing the frag under 250s. Just a thought . . . Good Luck!!

Do you think it matters though if its under the same amount of par? the 175watt MH can be placed right over the frag and 4" off the water with the frag only under about 8" under water. Also the bulb is a 10k 175w MH. The 250w is a radium. I have heard you get much better growth out of 10ks over radium 20ks. Please explain more

 

[JPMagyar]

Yeah, the growth rate under differing kelvins has long been an issue of reef mythology. In the 90s 6500k lamps were the Holy Grail of the best tanks, and it wasn't until Tyree's great successes that folks slowly warmed up to the higher kelvin bulbs. I have used most of the popular bulbs over my decade and a half of growing coral and it is my personal experience that if the light is of good quality and it saturates the coral from all sides then it doesn't really matter what the kelvin is. I do believe strongly though that surrounding the coral with light is important. In that sense, a lot is riding on the reflector or the fixture. You can absolutely get great PAR out of a 175 up close, but then the sides of the coral are not truly being bathed in the same amount of light and that makes a difference. I believe you said your 250 was supplemented with T5s so assuming for the moment I remembered that correctly I would think you'll get better growth under the 250 with T5 supplementation. Here's one of my favorite series of photos from ReefBums tank. He used Radiums and I'm not sure any tank can document growth much faster than this . . .

June 2007

December 2007

April 2008

January 2009

July 2009

 

[Hockeynut120]

Wow now that's growth!
I try not to use any suplements that are store bought. I make my own fish food from fresh clams and othe whole sea creatures ground up, I have never seen polyp extension as good with suplements. Others have great success with suplements but why not go the natural way and feed your fish and your corals will grow without any additional suplements