PAR vs. Water Chemistry

[magdelan]

Which is more important when managing a small reef: Photosynthetic Available Radiation or the actual water chemistry?

 

[Dapg8gt]

IMO depends on the coral but I would say water parameters..

For instance softies lower light more forgiving of water.. SPS high PAR and clean water so...

 

[pascal32]

treating PAR as general lighting, I say equal - you need both to be successful.

 

[magdelan]

The reason I ask is because I have had my little 5g tank truckin along for at least three months now. My corals seem to be growing a bit but are lacking in the color department. I've read that people seem to have issues keeping sps with the ecoxotic strips even at 5 strips. I'm just wondering if it would be beneficial to me to add more strips since I'm already seeing some growth or if I should look into a diffent type of lighting. Here are some specifics...

Some corals that I am keeping are: Plating Hydnophora, Lemonade Acro, Blasto Merletti, Meteor Shower Cyphastrea, Caulestrea, and Purple Echinopora.

Lighting: 2x Ecoxotic strips totaling 2x white & 4x blue LEDs.

Salt: Reef Crystal

Parameters:
Ca 450
Alk 9 dkh
po4 0
no3 .5
SG 1.026
temp 78

Flow: 1x Koralia 425

Mechanical filter with carbon

Water changes: 3g once per week.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

only that Acropora would need very intense lighting for best color....

 

[magdelan]

The Acro is at the tippy top of the rock stack. I'd love to see a bit more light in there anyway. The Cyphastrea is a very dull drab grey-blue with yellowish polyps. It's at the bottom of the stack. I'd love to see more color on that one as well. It has also doubled in size in the three months that I've had it. I'll try to get some pics up later.

 

[NirvanaFan]

I voted for the wrong one. ahahha. Take one vote away from "More important than the water's parameters?" and add one to "Not as important as the water's parameters?"

I think corals absorb more from the water than we give them credit for.

 

[Ellery]

Hey Mike - Glad to see you didn't abandon the hobby completely! It just seems nanos are even harder to take care of due to the constant swings.

 

[magdelan]

Fortunately, I am on such a strict water change regiment, the parameters barley ever change. I just need my corals to pop!!!

 

[Bluephish13]

Maybe its neither. If your getting good growth and poor color your lighting spectrum may be a cause.

 

[pyronus]

Hey Mike - Glad to see you didn't abandon the hobby completely! It just seems nanos are even harder to take care of due to the constant swings.

Not if you do it right, although with all the equipment running my "nano" I should have just put together a 90 and called it a day.

With high quality ATO like the Tunze and a doser or kalk reactor and an oversized skimmer my water quality is incredible. I'm also obsessed with parameters, testing and log keeping.

As for the Poll; I think water quality is paramount for smaller tank sizes since there are numerous ways to light small reefs that are all more than adequate. Both T5 and LED are valid options for small tanks. I used a 75 and 100W MH over my original 10 gallon reef with great success.