How much light

[ka0s1]

Guys new to the hobby I have been in the fresh water world for years and now I've taken the plunge to salt. The tank I have was a craigslist buy from a guy that managed a LFS in my area till they shut down. He was moving to Maryland and had to let his tank go and was in firestorm sell mode. It was in need of some upgrades and TLC that I have done but now its time to start corals as its now stable and all life is happy and very colorful.

The tank is a 48x24x30 150g with a 55 sump and UV light canister. It has 180 lb of live rock most up top some in SUMP. The light was being held up by salad dressing bowls (he was a chief as well) on a warped piece of acrylic (I'm assuming warped by the heat of the bulbs). Anyway I paid a friend to build a canopy for this thing to sit on top of. Going to get it 8 inches from the water to help keep the heat from the water and might even add PC case fans to the side of the canopy (I'm a computer geek so I can wire that up).


Now the question is light. How long to leave it on? What bulbs to run at night and what to run in the day? The light I got from him was massive. 4 t5 on each side 2 halogen and 5 large blue LED. Its a ADV plus series Metal Halide Model MHADVP-48 config MH250 / T5HO. It works but this thing puts off a ton of heat.

Either way I want be sure I am not giving the coral too much light and have no damn clue if I should just run the blue LED at night. The T5 give off a blue glow too they aren't giving off white light the halogens of course is where the real light comes in. I don't want to over power the tank with light and I also don't want to rob the tank of light and how long to use the light. I have a hammer coral, rose bubble tip anemone, some kind of frog spawn, and other very small coral frags I got dirt cheap at my pretentious LFS.

I did dip and was going to put it in a QT tank but my LFS told me that QT for coral was not needed just dip and add. I will say I call them the pretentious LFS because everything they have is really top end stuff and fish I have gotten there through the years have all been really awesome quality nice fish. Thoughts on putting corals in a QT tank or just dip and go?

So again QT new coral? How long for lights on and what lights to run at what time with my current light?

Thank you for any help you can give and I did read the angry lighting post guys post but decided it wasn't going to give me the answer I needed 7 pages in when we were still talking about light spectrum.

 

[ka0s1]

Also I am tech geek and have 3 kids who have no clue what a light switch is let along how to use one so I was looking at the Radion LED but after 45 mins of reading I still couldn't figure out what damn light I needed and how many so if someone has a suggestion a nice LED that will work so I don't have to use my current 6 switch space heater I am all ears on that. I got this tank cheap enough I have no issue putting some $ in the right lights.

 

[SnowManSnow]

You can do 2 radions on 48". At that depth I'd go w the pro.
I have 2 and really like them a lot for what it's worth.

 

[TrevorHenry]

With the little bit of knowledge I have on lighting you want anywhere from 8-12 hours of light on your tank. Metal Halides run very hot but are trusted in the reefing community to provide enough light to light the ocean. Your main focus will be what do you wanna keep? You can run T5's get excellent results just from that or LEDs and not worry about the heat. The corals you have now do not need high PAR to thrive. You could get away with 2 radions and just keep them turned down so you don't bleach your corals and determining on your rock work you could get away with 2. You could always start with 2. See if you had dim spots and possibly up to 3. Patience is key with any tank. It might not look good one month but it might look fantastic the next. Play around with it. Have fun with it and learn from what works and what doesn't work in your tank! Best of luck I hope the little info I gave could help.

 

[TrevorHenry]

And for QTing coral yes you should. Corals have all kinds of pest you don't want eating away at colonies. Look up the coral you want to buy and check what pest come along with them and then be sure to check before you buy one. If you decide it's what you want QT it regardless.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Our corals need more than just a little bit of light before the zooxanthellae start doing photosynthesis. In the tropics it's about a 6 to 8 hour window (9 or 10am through 3 or 4pm) with enough light getting into the water at a good angle to provide enough PAR. And once they start, they only do photosynthesis for about 4 to 6 hours and then stop. This is built into the DNA and just because you can offer more light for a longer period, it isn't going to change the zooxanthellae's ability to make food for the coral. So running high lighting for more than 6 to 8 hours is OK for your viewing pleasure, but it does little if anything for the coral.

 

[AcroNewbie]

For the amount of money you are gonna splash on some radions, I would suggest looking into an ATI powermodule or a Giesemann Hybrid, it provides a ton of light with great PAR and the spectrums are easily managed with changes in bulbs.

As far as photo periods go it really depends on the PAR value at specific depths of the tank and types of coral, on average 8 hours should be enough but always start the corals on the bottom first and slowly move up until at the desired PAR level.

Also as a side note dont put any SPS in a tank until its been set up and maintained for at least 8-10 months, once you get the hang of maintaining the stability of the tank then add the SPS or you might as well set your money on fire now and save the headache.

 

[AcroNewbie]

Whoops skimmed over the first post and missed that this is a second hand tank, how long has it been set up? Been testing paramters? Rocks not leaching? Lighting is secondary to water conditions thats why I ask.

Also, QT is not always needed but you have to know the source and whether it's reliable, if your LFS looks like their corals are all healthy with good PE and color then dipping and adding might be ok, especially for aquacultured frags, for maricultured and wold colonies I would recommend QT'ing first. Especially if it is a colony, as dipping only removes the pests but not their eggs, and with colonies its really hard to get into the branches and see/remove eggs so QT'ing for anything bigger than a 1" frag where you can see/reach all sides of the frag and the plug it is on is recommended.

 

[daquan44]

Unless you are concerned with the heat or your electric bill, I would stick with the metal Halides. I have Radions which grow coral very well. They are expensive, but they work. The issue I have with them is having enough. My tank is 72" long and I have three over it. My corals that don't have a Radion over head grow slow, and those with a Radion over head are growing like champions. I think I need to add a fourth light. Four Ecotech Radions, you do the math.

 

[DubiousMaximus]

One thing no one mentioned, is a PAR meter! Its the oly way to truly know if you have too little, enough or too much light for a given coral sp. (Some LFS will rent them out)

LPS all have a lower rage of needed PAR in comparison to sps. A PAR meter helps not only identify bulbs needing replacement but location of corals for your given lighting. Ie; shaded ledge for some lps or at the crest of your rock work for sps

Edit: MH lights are sps lovers choice bc it offers the most intense light per $ with high end LED in 2n, though my sps show that my radions are more than enough @75%
All this brings light acclimation in focus, is the 2n most important part following acclimatization to your water. With that said, t12' & t5's grow sps just fine too

 

[ka0s1]

Thanks for all the replies and I have done quite a bit since posting this. The tank is running great and I've had a few issues but I believe it to be old bulbs that I have now replaced with 3x ATI Blue Plus and 1x Purple Plus. I have also ordered 2x Phoenix 14k 250W MH bulbs but I am still confused on rather or not I run all the lights during the day or just the MH? The current MH bulbs are 10k and I feel it’s just too much light. Heat isn't an issue as I have built a canopy and added some fans and it does not affect the tank's temp now at all.

I have been running both MH and T5's for 6 hours a day then to LED night lights. Any more than 6 hours and I start seeing negative effects on the corals. I have a mix of corals but most corals are LPS but I do have 2 SPS corals placed at the top of the tank. Now I just need to figure out if I run the 4 t5 and the MH or just the MH or what. I am unsure of the spectrum of light needed by my corals but reading over the ATI site they suggest the mix of t5’s that I ordered. Also it appears the 14k Phoenix was well reviewed. Either way I would love suggestions and I am going to look into finding a way to measure the PAR in the tank. Anyone know a good site with a cheat sheet on what is needed for the tank?

Maybe the 10k MH's are just too damn bright since I found out the bulbs in the fixture were close to 3 years old I have not turned the MH back on and waiting for the new bulbs to arrive. (new bulbs were ordered Tuesday and expected in on Monday this week).

 

[BrickFishHouse]

I like your approach. At the start, maybe 4 hours of halides until everyone is acclimated and happy, and let your t5s do the work before, during, and afterward.

You could think of it like dawn, full sunlight, dusk. I would keep the t5s' total light timespan in check, maybe no more than you are already doing for now, to help control algae.

See how it goes for a little while and then adjust up some if you'd like.

Thoughts?