Lighting for softies?

[April F]

I have a 58g tall tank (36" wide and 21" tall). It is my seahorse tank, but I have limestone rockwork top to bottom and would like to add some softies (mostly mushrooms, sponges, xenia, colts, gsp, etc). I am also working on growing quite a collection of caulerpa on the sandbed.

I have been looking at Coralife flourescent lights. I have 2 fixtures for the tank, and probably need to change the bulbs from the regular flourescents they came with, but am unsure what might be too much, too little, too yellow, etc.

I would like to find something with a happy medium - enough to grow the softies and caulerpas, but not so much that the inhabitants feel they are under spotlight and being interrogated, while raising my tank temperature. I also do not like a "yellowish" cast to the tank. Does anyone have any guidelines I could use to help choose - such as mushrooms grow best with 3 watts (or K) per gallon, etc? I think I am leaning toward purchasing 2 of the Coralife 50/50 bulbs, but fear it may not be bright enough for the depth.

Also, I am recently seeing some "dyed" softies in some of our local LFS. Mostly flourescent colors of yellows, greens and pinks. Has anyone had experience with these? How long does the dye last? Will the dye eventually cause the death of the coral? What can you tell me about them?

Any help &/or opinions are appreciated!

 

[April F]

WOW - 42 views and not one single opinion..... No wonder I can't make up my mind. It must be a really hard question....

Kidding aside - I have been looking at other brands of bulbs - Reef Sun, and the one that ends with "GLO". Can't remember, but it has aqua glo, day glo, etc. I also looked at the bulbs I currently have on the tank. They aren't "fish" bulbs, but they are 30w, 5000K each. The tank is too "bright" for my liking - somewhat a stark white. I'd like to get something to soften the light and let me see some of the natural colors in the tank, but I don't want to get it so dim that it won't support corals. These bulbs are much less expensive than the Coralife bulbs, so I won't feel so bad buying them and not liking how they end up, and since they are coming from a LFS and not a retail chain, I'm pretty sure he will let me take it home, try it out and exchange it if it's not what I want. Any opinion, good or bad, on the comparisons between the bulb brands?

Also, I would really like to hear any experiences on the "dyed" soft corals. Anyone?

 

[Orochimaru]

I have a 58g tall tank (36" wide and 21" tall). It is my seahorse tank, but I have limestone rockwork top to bottom and would like to add some softies (mostly mushrooms, sponges, xenia, colts, gsp, etc). I am also working on growing quite a collection of caulerpa on the sandbed.

I have been looking at Coralife flourescent lights. I have 2 fixtures for the tank, and probably need to change the bulbs from the regular flourescents they came with, but am unsure what might be too much, too little, too yellow, etc.

I would like to find something with a happy medium - enough to grow the softies and caulerpas, but not so much that the inhabitants feel they are under spotlight and being interrogated, while raising my tank temperature. I also do not like a "yellowish" cast to the tank. Does anyone have any guidelines I could use to help choose - such as mushrooms grow best with 3 watts (or K) per gallon, etc? I think I am leaning toward purchasing 2 of the Coralife 50/50 bulbs, but fear it may not be bright enough for the depth.

Also, I am recently seeing some "dyed" softies in some of our local LFS. Mostly flourescent colors of yellows, greens and pinks. Has anyone had experience with these? How long does the dye last? Will the dye eventually cause the death of the coral? What can you tell me about them?

Any help &/or opinions are appreciated!

I think PC lighting should be fine. As for dyed corals, stay away from them. They never last. I bought a few of those before without knowing and sure enough, they died eventually.

 

[ultraxr]

softies in general aren't too picky with lighting. PC lighting would definitely be sufficient but T5's would be a "happy medium", IMO.

 

[April F]

Now I'm really confused - PC = power compact, right? These lights are just like your basic, run of the mill flourescents with a round bulb with 2 pins on the end. I don't really want to change the fixtures, just put the right bulb in them. So are you saying none of the flourescent type lights I've been looking at will be enough?

Also, the 2 other lights I've mentioned (Aqua glo and Reef Sun) say they are T8's. Is that better than T5's for my application?

 

[aquadonkey]

I'm a little confused about this topic as well. The guy at my LFS told me I could have soft corals with my current lighting which is just 20 watts (for 29g). Is this true? I'd love to get a few!

PS - sorry for not answering your question April

 

[April F]

If we're going to go with wattage only - I can understand where I have 2-30 watt bulbs on a 60g tank = 1 watt per gal.

Aquadonkey - you have 20 watts on a 29g tank = almost 1.5 watts per gal.

Seems I read somewhere that most softies need about 3 watts per gal, especially since my tank is so deep. However, all of the other bulbs of this type that I have been looking at are still only 30 watt bulbs, so no matter what I go with, the wattage isn't going to change, so maybe wattage isn't that big of a factor.

I know shrooms are carnivorous and can be fed. Believe me, with seahorses there is a nightly supply of mysis floating around. But what about the other softies I mentioned? Some of them are photo-synthetic, aren't they?

I bought captive bred horses on purpose so that the wild populations wouldn't be depleted. I don't want to buy corals - many of which are from wild populations - just to let them die in my tank because I don't have enough light. Any clarification to my confusion will be greatly appreciated.

 

[va_blue_stang]

Regular t-8 lighting is not going to be intense enough for coral. The absolute minimum you are going to want to go with is power compacts. Also if your going to invest in new lighting your better off to at least go with t5's you will not be replacing the bulbs near as often as power compacts. I picked up a new 250w metal halide setup with a 20k bulb for $100 shipped and my softies absolutely love it.

 

[oldreefer76]

We have been running 250w Reeflux 20k MH on a softie tank with the same dimensions and they love the amount of light PC are obsolete imho I would goT5 minimum

 

[arrowheadpuffer]

You would be fine with two bulb VHO, heres a good price:

http://www.hellolights.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=184

75$+bulbs

But really 4 bulb T5 would be best if not a single MH

You can have 'enough' light for softies, but they will start to turn more brown and less vibrant with less light, so more is better kinda.

 

[April F]

I appreciate all of your responses. I have found someone local who has a Coralife 250 MH with 2-65w pc's (single unit) for sale. I am very seriously considering using that on this tank. That way I think I can pretty much get anything I want and not have to worry about it.

At the very worst, I went scrounging around in my barn loft storage and found the light we used when we had this tank set up as a reef before. It doesn't have a MH, but it has 2 PC's. The bulbs need replaced, which is why I'm probably going to buy the other fixture - it'll be about the same price in the long run, and the Mh fixture has all new bulbs.

Anyway, the flourescents have found a spot in the loft storage, and I feel better about being able to put corals in the tank.

 

[jhildebrand]

Might as well stay away from the PC fixures, especially if you need new bulbs. As stated, if they live under it you still will be unhappy with the colors and probably lack of growth. The MH fixture sounds great. They're still the best bang for the buck and the bulbs last a long time.

As for "getting anything you want", for lighting yes. But if you're talking about hard corals you won't want to be mixing them in a tank with seahorses and caulerpa by any means.

Run far away from any pet store selling dyed corals. I'm shocked that anyone would still be pulling that garbage as far as this hobby has come. I'd tell the owner/manager that I wouldn't even shop there for anything as long as they do that.