Frags just don't seem to thrive in my tank. Aneomes, hammerhead, and frog spawn all survive but grow very little even with direct feeding. I am wondering if I need to add lighting to my tank? I currently have 2 - 175w Medal Halide Lamps with parbolic reflectors. The lights are about 3 inches from the water surface and the bulbs are replaced ever 6 months. Any ideas? Tks
lighting help
- Thread starter oscar89
- Start date
zombiereef
New member
what kind of bulbs? what kelvin temp are they. hammers and frogs are pretty slow growers. they will look like they havent done anything and all of a sudden you have twice as many heads as you did 6 months ago. lighting will play a part also, so let us know more particulars.
bigsittingrock
Premium Member
Thats plenty of light with good bulbs. The only thing it may be with your lights is if your ballast is going out on you. Mine went out on me once and I didn't notice because they still came on but not full power. I would check your calcium and alkalinity.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
XM 15K lamps pretty much suck as far as PAR goes. If the reflectors are decent they should still give you pretty good growth with the lights that close to the water. Unless your tank is over 20 inches tall your lights should be fine. Next time you re-lamp try Iwasaki 15K's. They have an incredible amount of PAR for a 175 watt lamp.
runningstix
New member
Xm 15k are garbage as grim said. Par levels are lower than their 20k bulb. What are you feeding? Mine never grew in 2 years started feeding a crap ton of home made food and coral frenzy doubled in a month, who knows.
zombiereef
New member
i am a huge skeptic of additives, but started feeding coral frenzy to my tank about a month ago. i have to admit that i think it actually works. seems as though my corals look better and growth took off. i have also tinkered with seachem fuel and i swear that it works too. be aware because i got a huge amount of algae growth due to low mag. my phosphates didnt go up (that i could tell) because i have never had a test read above zero. fuel is mostly aminos and vitamins as far as i know. keep the mag up over 1350-ish and the algae shouldnt be an issue.
FWIW I have run the Iwasaki 175w bulbs for a few years and I get awesome growth. I could grow sps and clams on the sandbed of my 58g using a Hamilton hammertone reflector. Also, you probably don't need to replace your bulbs every 6 months, once a year is usually fine or even every 9 months to save you a little cash :thumbsup:
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