Lets talk about lighting an SPS tank

[Jahkaya]

reef raf:

Were the bulbs the same wattage? If so it could be an intensity issue. I agree that most corals look different from bulb to bulb. a True Test would be to look at the coral under natrual sunlight as you said after it has been under 10ks for several months or 20ks for several months.

I have natural sunlight shing on my tank in the morning and the corals have color, but nowhere near when my 400w radiums and actinic on.

The Natural sunlight should be a "control" for colors.

 

[AlgaeMan]

My observations are:
10k's are needed to keep yellows. Yellow turns green under 20k
20k's are better for keeping blues and deep purples
Mixing 10k's and 20k's are optimum for keeping all colors.

 

[invincible569]

Anyway, I believe that depending on the coral different spectrums are needed for it to color to it's full potential.

Thats right. The more diverse you are on your spectrums, your chances of a beautiful colored coral are high. Your not just limiting your coral to one, but all of them. And with this, they will thrive on what you feed them (light).

I've tried to put most of the spectrums in my AQ. It doesnt all have to be MH, but I have noticed a difference just by adding a T5 Blue 450nm that brings out the blues in my blue corals!

 

[coral Bum]

I've found that Intensity is just as important. Especially when using lower wattage like 175's.
I had 2 10k Ab's over my 54 corner pretty bright, I wanted to add some blue because the 10k's are pretty harsh.

So I Put a XM 20k in and it looked nice but i started to lose color on some things right away. Intensity was cut in half with the Dim 20k lamp.

 

[joefish]

My observations are:
10k's are needed to keep yellows. Yellow turns green under 20k
20k's are better for keeping blues and deep purples
Mixing 10k's and 20k's are optimum for keeping all colors.

I totally agree with that .
I'm down to 10k only though because of the inconvenience of trying to run both .

 

[JB NY]

So do you think there is a big difference between 420nm and 450nm coloring wise? True actinics put out all their output at 420nm and 20K lamps at 450nm. Do you think 450nm get such a good rap because it's so much more intense than a 420nm VHO lamp? Or do you think the slightly higher wavelength of the 450nm is the reason?

 

[ejocam]

Joy riding

 

[Aged Salt]

Joe, the spectrums really are almost the same, but not the intensity,Bob

 

[rbattle]

Joe, since there is plenty of 420nm in the XM bulbs we run, wouldn't blue (450nm) supplementation be more ideal? I am thinking of switching to T-5 blue supplementation rather than my VHO actinic. Maybe even leave the actinic in, and run the blue in addition. Either that, or leave the actinic bulbs in, and switch to the 20k XM's. Any reason to prefer one over the other?

Rush

 

[Florida Reefer]

So, these corals that people are blasting with a particular wavelength to bring out a particular color are what color in the wild/nature? How many have been on a reef flat in Fiji? It doesn't look like the tanks people try to keep. Corals will respond to the light they get. Have you ever thought that bright blue coral in your tank is actually not liking the spectrum, just reacting to it?

 

[Aged Salt]

FR, good point. One of the most colorful reefs I've ever seen, used 6-400W Iwsaki's. Nutrient-poor water, as mentioned in the previous posts, discourage Zoox. overgrowth, allowing bright colors to come thru. That's the one common bond all colorful SPS reefs must achieve,Bob

 

[Jahkaya]

If I am correct there are Three MAIN types of zooxanthelle. Each deriving the most benefit from different spectrums. The Reason that an intense spike in the 450 works so well is because it Just hits 2 of the 3 types in a big way and hit the third type moderately. The 10K bulb has great intensity, but really focuses on just one type of zooxanthelle, therefore lacking in some colors. From the presentation that Tyree gave based on sanjay's and others studies it looked as if the 20k with the 6.5k provided a better all around spectrum than the 10k and 20k. The combination of a Radium and a Saki hit all three zooxanthelle types rather hard. The radium by itself was not enough to cover all three. I believe there is also a type that benefits from peaks in the 680nm which no bulb has yet to have a spike in.

I intend, depending on how bad my electricty bill is, to try a 250 saki, along with 2x400 Radiums, and 4 Actinic VHOs all within a 3'x2.5' area. We will see how things color. I almost want to see how things do with the raduims and VHO alone to use as a control before I start the experiment.

 

[Julio]

This is an issue that will be hard to tackle, as alot of the PAR values that are offered to our sps tanks might be too much in some case and not enough in others. This has to do with the depth at which the corals were collected, they are not always marked as far as depth and the light reading is not taken for sure. It will take some one to go down to the reefs (ahum...JB) and measure the PAR values while SCUBA diving.

 

[Tom Berry]

I believe ReeferMac uses Iwasakis and Radiums, and is pleased with the results.

Tom Berry:fish2:

 

[Markk96]

FWIW I will only chime in and say every reeftank is different, just because it looks one way in another tank, you move it to your tank with the same lighting will not guarantee that your coral will look like it does on the mother colony that it came from.


I have learned that there are many things other than lighting that have to do with the coloration of corals.

Now for my lighting on my 75G I run 2 250W 10K Coarlvue and 440W of VHO Super Actinic light.

I turn my VHO's on at 7 am and they go off at 10 PM. My MH's come on at Noon and goes off at 8PM. I could not be happier with the coloration and the growth of my corals.

Mark

 

[crescent1]

here is a shot under overdriven 20k radiums plus vho.

 

[Leviathan]

Not to sound off key here, but since we are talking lighting.

Is there any research or information on how lenght of photoperiod effects growth and coloration. If spectrum/intensity etc... are a factor,,I would tend to believe that different exposure periods to theses varied levels would also change the coloration and growth rates of different corals.

Just a thought, though maybe no substance to it!

 

[Eugene Reefer]

I am a bit hazy on the Steve Tyree presentation on Reefs.org, but it seems to me that he divided the available "acceptable" bulbs into 3 categories: Violet, Blue, and Full Spectrum. He argued that both 10K bulbs and actinics fall into the first category; 20K and 12K in the second: and only Iwasaki bulbs in the third. According to Steve, the 10K bulbs are deficient in blue wavelengths and should be supplemented by a "blue bulb." Conversely, actinics or 10K bulbs can help add some violet spectrum to the 20K bulbs (he was talking, I think, only about radiums). Don't remember what he said about the 65K, except that it has plenty of blue and lots of people don't like how it looks. I've thought about combining 65K and 20K bulbs, but the former are so powerful (at least in the 400w version) that they tend to overwhelm 20K bulbs (unless you use a lot of them).

I think ballasts are also an issue here (both visually and in terms of output). For example, 400W Iwasaki bulbs are (visually) less yellow ))and have higher par, not that they need it)with mercury vapor ballasts; 400W radiums are much less blue (and have higher par) with PFO HQI ballasts, etc.

Just as an aside, yellows under 20K (+actinics) are yellow enough for me, tho' I have never done a side-by-side comparison with 10K or 65K bulbs.

 

[Flatlander]

Well, here are some observations.

A friend & I have switched some of the same sps back & forth between our tanks, We have used 400w Radiums/pulse starts and 400w Iwasaki,s. He currently runs the same combo I did on my 225. A center Iwasaki, flanked by a pair of Radiums.

Some of our observations are;

--the large soft corals seemed to like the Iwasaki,s brilliance the best. :lol:

--sps bleach much easier from 400w Radiums than 400w Iwasaki,s


--motipora seemed to like the Iwasaki light better than acro colonies.

--Radiums dont last a year, even on the so called "correct ballast", pulse starts.

--and here is the catcher... :eek2: .... all of the above corals did better in a standard 120g with 6 110w vho lights. {4-50/50 and 2-actinics}. All Icecap driven of course.

We had more growth from green digita, tha under the above 400,s. The caps had better colour, esp. around the outside rims. And here is the most stunning, an acro colony, that was usually a nice green colour under everything else, developed the most beautiful blue tips under the vho lighting. It has never got this brilliant under the halides.

Also another observation,
the sps in my old 170 cube, grew better under a center 400w 12K Sunburst and 4 normal output 40w GE ultra bulbs, than any combination since, with the exception of the vho set up.

While I,m in hiatus here, I have some frags from my friends tanks plus my digita colonies, sitting in a 55g rubbermaid tub. It has the above 400w 12K and a pair of 40w normals over it. The 12K is at least 18 in. above the tub. Nice growth and colour from the digita and one of the acro frags has turned a nice deep green.

So all this says to me, {all else aside}, it seems the lower light set ups worked better. :eek1:

 

[MiddletonMark]

Doug, I think this somewhat reinforces the initial point - that much as we'd like to focus on light as being the `key ingredient' ... sometimes it might lie in the system.

Who's to know what other differences factored into the VHO tank [not to in the least diminish your observations, though]. What really `gets' me is how sometimes `just enough' light can make an amazing tank/coloration ... where `all the light in the world' seems to have trouble coloring things.

I for one fall in the `lots more going on than light' camp.