Less lighting - no need?

laxing22

New member
OK, this is not ment as a feel bad for me thread, just a lighting question.
These all start the same, had great growth going on, all my SPS were brightly colored, LPS getting bigger every day, etc, etc. Well that week we had the really cold spell in mid April, I had a power issue (lost all to tank) but I didn't know, I left for work at 7am and was out of town for the night and didn't come back untill the next night to see the power tripped on the tank. Anyhow, anything I had gotten over the last 6 months (fish and corals) and all my SPS and LPS died (yes Jerry - all I got from you but the purple cap). The Percs survived (almost lost Big Momma), My Yellow Gobie survived as well (although it was over a week before I ever saw him), The Bangi was in bad shape when I got home and didn't make it (sorry Dan). I also lost the Rainsford and Clown Gobie.
So feeling a little down but not wanting to take the tank down, I'm not sure what to do with my lighting. Any coral that is left (softies and the anemone) survived for years with 2x65 PC's. My current lighting is 1 250 14k and 2x70 VHO actinics. I already brought the 250 down to 4 hours and have left the actinics at 10 hours. Can I bring the 250 down more? Do I even need it? Less actinics? (the actinics alone have more power then the old lights)
Any thoughts on this are welcome. Sorry to wine.
 
Hi Ben, that is a bummer :( I don't think you would need to shorten your photo period unless you really wanted to. The corals should be fine with your original photo period. If anything I wouldn't shorten them to less than 6 hours for the MH and 10 for the actinic. Just my opinion...
 
Well, not so much as a "need to lower" but am I paying NYSEG more for no good reason? Do softies even need that much light? It will be a while before I break the bank for more SPS or corals in general.
 
Oh I see. Well I use a MH over my softie/LPS tank and I don't feel that it is over kill at all. Even though most soft corals can live under less light than SPS corals they actually can use more light light than SPS. What I am trying to say is the minimum requirement for soft corals is lower than SPS, that is true in most cases. However the optimal or max amount of light for many soft corals is higher than many SPS corals. I think you could get away with 1 10K VHO and one VHO atinic if you want to save on electricity. If it was me I would just cut the photo period on the MH to 8 hours and have the actinic on for 12 hours. Your softies will grow faster under the MH and IMO the MH will look much better than the VHO only.
 
Yea, I do like the look of the MH and have gotten good growth. The tank is in my BR on the 2nd floor and my neighbor (semi-hippy) asked me what I was growing in my room. He seemed rather disapointed and confused when I said corals.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12531608#post12531608 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by laxing22
Yea, I do like the look of the MH and have gotten good growth. The tank is in my BR on the 2nd floor and my neighbor (semi-hippy) asked me what I was growing in my room. He seemed rather disapointed and confused when I said corals.

:lol:
 
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