help with corals and light

[keith1974]

i have 1 pc 65x4 light a 65x2 light and a mh 175 watt on a 55 what kinda corals can i do mushrooms and yellow polups and a leahter is what im looking at easy thing for now

 

[sir_dudeguy]

So you've got 6x65w pc's and then a 175w halide?

You should be able to grow whatever softy you want right now, but personally i'd sell those pc's. You could easily get enough to buy either a second 175w halide (allowing you to grow pretty much whatever you want in that tank) or buy a decent t5 setup, which combined with the MH would have GREAT color, and you could grow just about everything...

 

[keith1974]

ya im runnning 565 watts on my 55 i dont want 2 mh no need on a 55 im staying with softys corals

 

[crabbejoe]

Any type of leather, kenya tree, zoanthids, they're all pretty hardy and fast growers.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

ya im runnning 565 watts on my 55 i dont want 2 mh no need on a 55 im staying with softys corals

Then why not just sell all your lights and buy a t5 fixture? You'd be saving on electricity a TON and you could grow any softy, any lps and prolly lots of sps too.

Get either the 4x54w tek light, or the 4x54w Icecap retro from reefgeek.com. Both really good fixtures.

You'd drop to just over 200w total. When i switched my 4x96w pc for a 4x39w t5 fixture i saved 10 bucks a month just on electricity, not to mention i can grow whatever i want.

Then the bulbs last a year to a year and a half, and are cheaper than pc's (and MH for sure).

Personally i see no downside of selling your lights and getting t5's to replace them. You'd probably have some left over money for other stuff too because thats a lot of pc light you'll be selling, plus the MH...

 

[keith1974]

t5 are not what thay say thay are that do not penatrat down but 12-14 inches at the most and that bulbs dont last as long as a pc t5 i dont think are that great

 

[sir_dudeguy]

t5 are not what thay say thay are that do not penatrat down but 12-14 inches at the most and that bulbs dont last as long as a pc t5 i dont think are that great

And why do you say that?? I'd like to see something to back that up. I know many people (including myself) that use only t5's and get great growth from all types of corals. I'd like to see where you found that they only penetrate 12-14" down, because my tank was 18 inches tall (2 inch sandbed) and i had sps growing at the bottom, and then the lights were another 6 inches off the tank.

Dont get me wrong, not all t5's are good. Most are bad. Its all in the reflectors though. Icecap has them down very nicely.

 

[keith1974]

man my tank took off for some damm resone the damm mushrooms spred thrw out my tank in 2 weeks times the zoozs are al over the damm place im pumping 175 watt mh on it now 6 x65 watt pc bulbs and 150 pounds of live rock this tank the frog spawn went for 1 to 2 in 2 weeks its crazzy in this tank its looking good i need 50 more pounds of live rock i want take full full

 

[keith1974]

just set up a 125 reef 200 pounds of live rock 2-250 watt mh hamiltion 1 400 watt mh 55 gallon sump 100 pounds of live sand 4 power heads still need to add more live rock filled with ro water this is 3rd reef tank this year 2000.00 in tank so far going to be sps and lps and running 14k mh bulbs me and a buddie did this tank its in a walll in basment will have pics of it really soon