lighting discussion

[johnanddawn]

i have recently redone my entire tank for reasons to many and not part of this discussion to list - but it has gotten me thinking about lighting once again

it seems that especially in this forum there are a lot of people who have very high light tanks that then shade or place their LPS corals very low in the tank and it has me wondering why
1) is it because you already had the lights before you went LPS
2) is it because you keep other high light corals with your LPS
3) is it because you think LPS benifit from more light
4) is it just a lag time between the more is better theory that many are just starting to realize maybe doen't apply to many LPS

I know this sounds a bit like a poll but i really just wanted to start a discussion about LPS and lighting. please don't take offence or start some sort of T5 vs MH thread - there are way too many of those already. I just want to know if you were doing just LPS how would you light them

I'll start -
i went from around 850 W of MH/VHO to 640W of T5/VHO saving me over 200$ a year in electicity and bulb replacement cost per year.
BTW this is on a LPS dominated mixed reef 125g tank

 

[kev apsley]

I think you answered your own question's I think the factors you listed are all true, many people either went with the biggger is better mentality as far as lighting their tanks, a lot of the stronger light=better colors has been pounded into our heads, which in turn can be true if you are keeping mainly sps corals. In my case I have both, I have MH lighting with sps up high and lps down low, so in turn I have to keep my lps down low. Many of the best LPS dominate tanks I have seen, mainly containing Chalice's, Acans, Favia, have T-5 lighting. T-5 lighting seems to be the idel type of light for growing and coloring lps, the greatest colors I have seen with lps were all lit with T-5...if you are considering doing mainly lps in your system really consider T-5's

 

[ct_vol]

I had an Outer orbit Pro, 2x250w MH and 4xt5's on my 58g... I thought it was too dim... I wasn't getting the SPS growth I would have liked, but my LPS and especially my Acans looked AWESOME... It was probably the cheap chinese ballasts... But I switched to 2x250w Lumenarcs with IceCap ballasts w/ VHO actinics... All my Aussies bleached and my Pink Watermelon is still recovering... Of course my SPS are growing like mad... I have since moved my LPS to a different tank...

I like shallow tanks because I'm a short little hawaiian with short little hawaiian arms... That being said, my new tank is a 30" tank... And thats because I want to be able to keep my SPS and LPS together happy so my wife doesn't fuss at me about too many tanks in the house...

I like T5's because of the spectrum you can cover, the energy efficiency and the low heat... But there is something about the shimmer of MH's... That and I always got better growth with MH's...

 

[catfisher]

I'm very happy with the effect my T5 HO's have on my LPS. I have a baby galaxia that is almost bigger than the mother coral it came from...I've had very good growth on my branching Hammer, wall Hammer and Frog spawn.

 

[johnanddawn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12932327#post12932327 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ct_vol
But I switched to 2x250w Lumenarcs with IceCap ballasts w/ VHO actinics... All my Aussies bleached and my Pink Watermelon is still recovering... Of course my SPS are growing like mad... I have since moved my LPS to a different tank...

That being said, my new tank is a 30" tank... And thats because I want to be able to keep my SPS and LPS together happy

I like T5's because of the spectrum you can cover, the energy efficiency and the low heat...

this is kinda what i was getting at i had the classic SPS on top LPS on the bottom thing for about three years but neither seemed completely happy - not only the lighting but the flow issues were actually harder to deal with especially as my SPS got bigger and needed more flow
i decided it was just easier for me to go LPS in this tank and do a different just SPS tank (in the future).

but it seems to me that many people still promote the whole bigger is better thing and that there may be some people coming to this forum or others thinking about upgrading their lighting and are being told more light is better... when maybe it isn't????
- thats the question