Howdy Reefers!
Wondering at what height are folks running their T5 lights off the surface of the water ?? And/or is everyone just setting their height based upon how the corals seem to be doing or how they like the corals to look ??
I keep getting mixed reviews by my corals using a 36" Tek light with 6 bulbs, two ATI blue plus, two 75/25s, a 10 k, and an actinic plus. It seems that the farther away my light, the bigger and apparently happier my predominately LPS corals are....Acans, Frog, Torch, Duncan, and Hammers. I've got a bunch of zoas in there that seem to be happy whether they are sitting on the bottom or up on the rocks. (although their colors seem to be a bit washed out in more light) I'm basically keeping my light at around 12" off the top of the tank.
I assume the bigger size of the polyps is due to their wanting more light, but when I bring the fixture down to say 4" off the tank's top, many of the corals shrink up with the torch and duncans completely receding back into their "shell". I've got a bright GBTA that just runs and hides when I bring the light down. I'm assuming that the corals are getting light shock and I have to get them used to the brightness by maybe keeping the light say at 8" for a week or so and then bring it down to 4"
One thing that has got me wondering is I have a 48" six bulb Tek light I'll be suspending off one of the 4' frag tanks I just bought, it came with the "legs" which keep the fixture off the top of the tank by about 4-1/2" ----- Is that just a standard height that everyone should be using with that light, I mean how did Sunlight Supply come up with this dimension for their legs ??
Lastly, I've got two Hamilton pendants with 175w 14K SE MH bulbs (gotta love the alphabet soup) that I'll be suspending off the other 4' frag tank I got, any thoughts on how high off the tank I should suspend those fixtures ?? I'm consider hanging them independently of each other so I can adjust each fixture although it would be simpler to just hang them on a single bar or something.....
Any thoughts, suggestions, or offers to buy all my gear and livestock for twice what I paid for it will be appreciated.
Wondering at what height are folks running their T5 lights off the surface of the water ?? And/or is everyone just setting their height based upon how the corals seem to be doing or how they like the corals to look ??
I keep getting mixed reviews by my corals using a 36" Tek light with 6 bulbs, two ATI blue plus, two 75/25s, a 10 k, and an actinic plus. It seems that the farther away my light, the bigger and apparently happier my predominately LPS corals are....Acans, Frog, Torch, Duncan, and Hammers. I've got a bunch of zoas in there that seem to be happy whether they are sitting on the bottom or up on the rocks. (although their colors seem to be a bit washed out in more light) I'm basically keeping my light at around 12" off the top of the tank.
I assume the bigger size of the polyps is due to their wanting more light, but when I bring the fixture down to say 4" off the tank's top, many of the corals shrink up with the torch and duncans completely receding back into their "shell". I've got a bright GBTA that just runs and hides when I bring the light down. I'm assuming that the corals are getting light shock and I have to get them used to the brightness by maybe keeping the light say at 8" for a week or so and then bring it down to 4"
One thing that has got me wondering is I have a 48" six bulb Tek light I'll be suspending off one of the 4' frag tanks I just bought, it came with the "legs" which keep the fixture off the top of the tank by about 4-1/2" ----- Is that just a standard height that everyone should be using with that light, I mean how did Sunlight Supply come up with this dimension for their legs ??
Lastly, I've got two Hamilton pendants with 175w 14K SE MH bulbs (gotta love the alphabet soup) that I'll be suspending off the other 4' frag tank I got, any thoughts on how high off the tank I should suspend those fixtures ?? I'm consider hanging them independently of each other so I can adjust each fixture although it would be simpler to just hang them on a single bar or something.....
Any thoughts, suggestions, or offers to buy all my gear and livestock for twice what I paid for it will be appreciated.
