how much light do sps really need?

[am3gross]

how much light does sps really need? how many hours? how many watts? i am getting into a debate over this with a friend of mine.... help me out here...

i say that as far as the high intensity goes like metal halides that i could get away with 4 hours... i will still have other lighting but the halides will be on for 4 hours... i will stagger the schedule and have 1st one come on and then the 2nd and then the 3rd.. then have them shut off the same way.. so really the light from the different halides will still get to the other corals... tell me if i am wrong here.. help me settle this debate!!

 

[Alex T.]

I think there are just too many variables to answer definitively. Things such as clarity of water, reflector, ballast and bulb combination all play a huge part. Nobody really knows for sure what a captive SPS coral's photo saturation point is so it's too hard to tell. I would imagine that less is always better than too much, because you can always increase intensity but can never bring them back once bleached out.

 

[chefzif]

I feel 8- to 10 hours max and all depends on tank! You can tell if they are getting enough light. Each system has different corals and reef scapes as well. Basically go with gut and experience.

 

[am3gross]

well i am no where near ready to get sps.. i will start out going with 4 hours of metal halide light and see what happens.. i would really like to stay between 4-5 hours of metal halide and let the supplemental lighting do the rest... we will see what happens..

 

[Alex T.]

I know someone close to me that runs his halides 5 hours per day. He has incredible colors and growth is no slower than on a 10 hour per day regimen.

 

[REEF SMAC]

I guess "how much light do they need" is kind of an open question.

Depends on the SPS.
Some require more light. Some require less.

How much light do they need to stay alive?
How much light do they need to actually grow?
How much light do they need to grow and not be brown?

IME the more light the better. (unless its too much too fast)
Really they come from a place with crystal clear water, with intense tropical sun. Its pretty hard to come up with lighting brighter and more intense than that.

More light they grow healthier.
More light they grow faster.
More light they grow with better colors.

Eventually corals growing in the most intense light grow to the point where they shade themselves out. The lower braches eventually turn brown as they get more and more shaded. Eventually they are so shaded they begin to recede and die from lack of light.
I guess you could measure the light level at the base of that large coral and determine just how much light it needs to stay alive.
Then you can measure the light somewhere up at the top of that coral where you think it has the color and growth you are looking for.

 

[batt600]

I guess "how much light do they need" is kind of an open question.

Depends on the SPS.
Some require more light. Some require less.

How much light do they need to stay alive?
How much light do they need to actually grow?
How much light do they need to grow and not be brown?

IME the more light the better. (unless its too much too fast)
Really they come from a place with crystal clear water, with intense tropical sun. Its pretty hard to come up with lighting brighter and more intense than that.

More light they grow healthier.
More light they grow faster.
More light they grow with better colors.

Eventually corals growing in the most intense light grow to the point where they shade themselves out. The lower braches eventually turn brown as they get more and more shaded. Eventually they are so shaded they begin to recede and die from lack of light.
I guess you could measure the light level at the base of that large coral and determine just how much light it needs to stay alive.
Then you can measure the light somewhere up at the top of that coral where you think it has the color and growth you are looking for.

I disagree with what your saying more light the better wrong. The more light the more you stress your sps . The key factor here is if your par is good 5 to 6 hour of day light is fine any more will stress the zooxanthellae in the sps causing lake of color and slow growth. If your par is low then more light time is needed like 8 to 10 hours a day. So more light in sps is not a good thing at all. Its called photoinhibition

 

[mushroom head]

I run 8 x 54 watt ..but staggered light times for 10 hrs a day.And the 2 x 250 watt 20K halides for 5 hours a day.Acroporas grow like weeds.

 

[MammothReefer]

I have to double check I but I believe my DT lights are 5-5:30 hours a day (250w SE Radiums Luminarc over a 18" tank)

I just changed my frag tank light to be 4 hours a day It's an 10" tank and the frags are about 2-3" under the water surface (250w DE bulb 20k Reeflux). I'm hoping 4 hours of halide will be enough since they are so shallow.

 

[iwishtofish]

I would imagine that less is always better than too much, because you can always increase intensity but can never bring them back once bleached out.

Really, they'll never recover? Asking because I have a tri-color acro I bleached, and it's been many months now with no recovery.

 

[stevedola]

I think running high intensity MH on a tank for 4 hrs would be fine. Would I implement that schedule? no, Id go for between 6 - 8 hrs but thats me and I like to view my corals in a well lit tank. I used to run my MH for 6 (3-9pm) hrs and Vhos for 10 hrs (12 - 10pm) and had good growth/color.

 

[MammothReefer]

No, bleached corals can come back and regain original colour. Not sure why Alex would say otherwise.

I recently bleached a large % of my tank when I changed my lights, took a couple months but everything is back to normal, or is still slowly coming back around.

 

[karsseboom]

He means I just takes a while to come back after bleaching.

 

[iwishtofish]

No, bleached corals can come back and regain original colour. Not sure why Alex would say otherwise.

I recently bleached a large % of my tank when I changed my lights, took a couple months but everything is back to normal, or is still slowly coming back around.

He means I just takes a while to come back after bleaching.

Well, good. Maybe when I get my lighting straight. Switching to new T5 bulbs (Geismann) and have to be careful.

 

[MammothReefer]

He means I just takes a while to come back after bleaching.

lol he said never..

 

[Alex T.]

I did say never. I'd like to see someone show me bleached out coral skeletons without their "live skin" and polyps that have come back. I'm not saying from pale to colored. There's a big difference. I'm saying from bleached out...which is death.

 

[iwishtofish]

I did say never. I'd like to see someone show me bleached out coral skeletons without their "live skin" and polyps that have come back. I'm not saying from pale to colored. There's a big difference. I'm saying from bleached out...which is death.

Ah, I see. I thought "bleached" meant a major reduction in xoozanthellae, causing a light (or white) appearance, not dead!

 

[Alex T.]

If it's just a reduction in zooxenthelae then you may be in luck and can move it lower in the tank until it starts to brown a bit. Then once it brownbs up you can slowly move it higher into the light to regain its' color. But if the polyps and skin have recessed to the point where a white skeleton is all you're left with then it's safe to assume it's toast.

 

[MammothReefer]

I did say never. I'd like to see someone show me bleached out coral skeletons without their "live skin" and polyps that have come back. I'm not saying from pale to colored. There's a big difference. I'm saying from bleached out...which is death.

bleached out isn't death or the loss of tissue, bleached out is the expelling of it's zooxanthellae from the tissue.. but here you go. .

"Coral bleaching is the loss of intracellular endosymbionts (zooxanthellae) through either expulsion or loss of algal pigmentation.[1] The corals that form the structure of the great reef ecosystems of tropical seas depend upon a symbiotic relationship with unicellular flagellate protozoa, called zooxanthellae, that are photosynthetic and live within their tissues. Zooxanthellae give coral its coloration, with the specific color depending on the particular clade. Under stress, corals may expel their zooxanthellae, which leads to a lighter or completely white appearance, hence the term "bleached".[2]"

 

[d3hree]

I agree, I regard the term "bleached" to mean turned white. I regard the term "stripped" to mean all tissue lost. A coral cant come back from being stripped but a bleached coral can regain full colours once again.