Isla Escondido - invincible569's Rimless 300g
- Thread starter JohnL
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jnarowe
New member
Well, I have to say that I am very please with my coral coloration and growth. My theory was to go with the high watt lamps and move them via Light Rail so that the corals would get enough PAR but also their colors would really "pop". So far that seems to be the case. The reef looks "natural" to the eye, and coral colors are fairly intense without special feeding methods etc.
What I do have trouble with is growing LPS and ricordia. They just don't do to well in my system with the exception of hammers, frogspawn, and a couple others. I think this may be due to the intensity of light, considering my 1000W lamps are only about 12 - 14" off the water surface. Recently I was told be Steve Weast that he felt the real cause was that my system was too low in nutrients for those kind of corals to thrive.
BUT, what is good is that SPS LOVE these lamps. I have had superb growth, although not at the level of some much more experienced SPS fanatics, but certainly good enough for me. Also good to note is that clams also seem to flourish with them. I have 7 beautiful clams that have been growing and healthy since day one. One teardrop in particular was brought in at about 6" and is now about 11" in about one year.
So all in all a very good experience. I had contacted Todd at Ushio prior to making my purchase and we discussed these lamps in detail. While I would not ordinarily lean towards an M47, that's the only way to fire their 1000W 20K lamps. If you look at the drawing, you will see that they are rather intricate with their own firing mechanism internal to the lamp.
The advantage for me is lighting a 1000g reef with just 3000W. I was going for efficiency. For instance, Steve has 14 - 400W lamps on his tank with a similar footprint. Not only do I save in electrical consumption, the lamp purchases are lower cost too. I buy mine through Custom Aquatic as I have found of the few companies that actually carry this lamp, they are the least expensive.
What I do have trouble with is growing LPS and ricordia. They just don't do to well in my system with the exception of hammers, frogspawn, and a couple others. I think this may be due to the intensity of light, considering my 1000W lamps are only about 12 - 14" off the water surface. Recently I was told be Steve Weast that he felt the real cause was that my system was too low in nutrients for those kind of corals to thrive.
BUT, what is good is that SPS LOVE these lamps. I have had superb growth, although not at the level of some much more experienced SPS fanatics, but certainly good enough for me. Also good to note is that clams also seem to flourish with them. I have 7 beautiful clams that have been growing and healthy since day one. One teardrop in particular was brought in at about 6" and is now about 11" in about one year.
So all in all a very good experience. I had contacted Todd at Ushio prior to making my purchase and we discussed these lamps in detail. While I would not ordinarily lean towards an M47, that's the only way to fire their 1000W 20K lamps. If you look at the drawing, you will see that they are rather intricate with their own firing mechanism internal to the lamp.
The advantage for me is lighting a 1000g reef with just 3000W. I was going for efficiency. For instance, Steve has 14 - 400W lamps on his tank with a similar footprint. Not only do I save in electrical consumption, the lamp purchases are lower cost too. I buy mine through Custom Aquatic as I have found of the few companies that actually carry this lamp, they are the least expensive.
invincible569
New member
GSM & jnarowe, those Ushio's are tempting. It's maybe the missing link I need to make my right side super blue. 
Sometimes I wish you could see all of these bulbs in person, but it looks like that would never happen unless your a vendor.
Dr.Begalke, yes it would. This was one of my earlier theme considerations (about 50 blue damsels), but was worried about the agressiveness of the damsels over other fish inhabitants.
nick, thank you.
Sometimes I wish you could see all of these bulbs in person, but it looks like that would never happen unless your a vendor. Dr.Begalke, yes it would. This was one of my earlier theme considerations (about 50 blue damsels), but was worried about the agressiveness of the damsels over other fish inhabitants.
nick, thank you.
invincible569
New member
I tried a little experiment and lowered the Giesemann Spectra fixture 1" from 9 inches to 8 inches from the water surface. This made a considerable amount of difference in how it affects the corals on the SPS rock and PAR right under the water surface. You can consider this positive, but the negative was that I lost PAR on both ends of the 40" wide tank from front to back. The left and right side ends jumped up tremendously in PAR readings. This is with all 3x250w SE's activated. Of course, this will also add more heat to the water. For now, Im going to leave it at 8" and see how my aquarium responds.
The Yellow is the new readings as the light is closer to the water surface while the red is the older reading.
The Yellow is the new readings as the light is closer to the water surface while the red is the older reading.
reef / aholic
New member
invincible569
New member
It lets me know how much is being lost when converting from air to water. It's kind of like a swimming pool.. the lower you go, the dimmer it gets. We can talk about how strong light bulbs are in PAR ratings, but when the water is too deep or dirty, you loose some of the effectiveness. Even so, if you had a prefilter such as a glass shield or cheap reflectors.
majesticangelfish
New member
Any more photos? :rollface:
. He said that the ushio is the same as the colorite. What it is, is that the colorite bulb is marketed towards stage lighting and the 20k for the aquarium. There the same bulb- Status
