WillWorkForFish
New member
Just curious if a large pearl coral would do ok under 4x54 T5's in a 120, 4x2x2.. I will eventually be adding 2 more 54w T5's but not for a few months..
Question about pearl coral and T5's
- Thread starter WillWorkForFish
- Start date
Justin74
New member
PEZBEAN: I would start him on the bottom just to be on the safe side. Theres a few different varieties so there tolerance may very, I cant personally speak on all of them. My green bubble was happiest on the sand partly shaded, but I had 6 over my 55. I ended up puttin him in my 30g w/175w MH though and he seems just as happy getting less light.
-Justin
-Justin
WillWorkForFish
New member
Well thanks for the help, but the pet store near me sold the gorgeous pearl they had, but i've got my eye out for another.. thanks again
LPSgirl
Premium Member
Right now I have six D&D bulbs on my 75G tank. From front to back they are:
Pure actinic
Actinic +
Aquablue
Midday
Aquablue
Pure actinic
When I ordered bulbs last year I didn't pay attention to the brand. In another 4 to 10 months when I replace my current bulbs I will research the latest news/opinions of the best bulb to get (seemingly ATI is a better bulb right now, but that could change).
Pure actinic
Actinic +
Aquablue
Midday
Aquablue
Pure actinic
When I ordered bulbs last year I didn't pay attention to the brand. In another 4 to 10 months when I replace my current bulbs I will research the latest news/opinions of the best bulb to get (seemingly ATI is a better bulb right now, but that could change).
LPSgirl
Premium Member
Wow, beautiful tank! Filled to the brim 
Mine is a lot more empty compared to yours. As promised here is a pic (I am not the best at doing tank pics, but here you go)
I can't seem to stop the lighter areas from over exposing. The pearl and bubble coral look way white in that picture. Here is one of them so you better see how they look.
Mine is a lot more empty compared to yours. As promised here is a pic (I am not the best at doing tank pics, but here you go)
I can't seem to stop the lighter areas from over exposing. The pearl and bubble coral look way white in that picture. Here is one of them so you better see how they look.
reef211
New member
Wow, very nice. What is your timing on the light and how big is your sump/refugium? Do you have a picture of you sump? On some of my corals there don't seem to light the t5 light at all. I use to have PC and all my corals open up like your, but since i switch to the t5, my bubble, frogspawn, open brain corals, seem to hate the light. But my SPS love it. I think i'm going to set my light up like your and see what happen. What do you think?
LPSgirl
Premium Member
I was away on a long weekend up in Mammoth, sorry I haven't responded. Ok, to answer your questions about my tank:
Lights are on 12 hours a day, each set of 2 coming on a half hour apart from each other. They are a retrofit kit from reefgeek mounted in my canopy. Each bulb has its own reflector. From my tank picture you can see the hammer on the far left, the frogspawn in the lower right and the huge torch on the far right. There is no lack of expansion of their polyps.
My sump is just a small 10 gallon wet/dry used as just a sump not wet/dry filter. It barely holds my skimmer, return pump and circulation pump for my chiller and UV. I do have a very small HOB fuge (maybe a gallon), that just has some cheato in it. I also have a tunze 6000 pump in the tank for circulation as well as a canister filter that sometimes has chemi-pure and phosguard.
If your lights are the only thing you have changed in your tank and you appear to have recession problems with your LPS, I would first try moving them. See if they might like down or to the sides. Switching bulbs might just upset your SPS and still not change how your LPS react. Changing lighting is always a tricky prospect, but I made the switch from pc's to t5 2 years ago, and I won't go back.
HTH
Lights are on 12 hours a day, each set of 2 coming on a half hour apart from each other. They are a retrofit kit from reefgeek mounted in my canopy. Each bulb has its own reflector. From my tank picture you can see the hammer on the far left, the frogspawn in the lower right and the huge torch on the far right. There is no lack of expansion of their polyps.
My sump is just a small 10 gallon wet/dry used as just a sump not wet/dry filter. It barely holds my skimmer, return pump and circulation pump for my chiller and UV. I do have a very small HOB fuge (maybe a gallon), that just has some cheato in it. I also have a tunze 6000 pump in the tank for circulation as well as a canister filter that sometimes has chemi-pure and phosguard.
If your lights are the only thing you have changed in your tank and you appear to have recession problems with your LPS, I would first try moving them. See if they might like down or to the sides. Switching bulbs might just upset your SPS and still not change how your LPS react. Changing lighting is always a tricky prospect, but I made the switch from pc's to t5 2 years ago, and I won't go back.
HTH
Justin74
New member
LPSgirl, very pretty tank
2 things I would change only, would be to move the favia on the sand, a concern you may have would be the lower polyps getting sunk and dieing in the SB, just use some rocks or even better a slice of PVS to suspend it from sinking to deep. The reason would be too much light in my opinion. Also light will be refracted to the lower polyps better from the sandbed and help prevent overshadowing itself. The bubbles would probably be happier under the torch or hammer as well. Just a suggestion though. Still a beautifull tank
-Justin
2 things I would change only, would be to move the favia on the sand, a concern you may have would be the lower polyps getting sunk and dieing in the SB, just use some rocks or even better a slice of PVS to suspend it from sinking to deep. The reason would be too much light in my opinion. Also light will be refracted to the lower polyps better from the sandbed and help prevent overshadowing itself. The bubbles would probably be happier under the torch or hammer as well. Just a suggestion though. Still a beautifull tank
-Justin
LPSgirl
Premium Member
Interesting, why do you think my favia has too much light? He has been happy, growing and eating in that spot for years.
My Plerogyra & Physogyra, are happy just about anywhere in the tank, with the exception of right where you mention. But light is not the factor there, it is the mated pair of clowns that make that torch their home. If I put anything near/under them they bite/beat it up something terrible. LOL And under the hammer is a galaxea, a very tricky coral to put anywhere else in the tank.
My Plerogyra & Physogyra, are happy just about anywhere in the tank, with the exception of right where you mention. But light is not the factor there, it is the mated pair of clowns that make that torch their home. If I put anything near/under them they bite/beat it up something terrible. LOL And under the hammer is a galaxea, a very tricky coral to put anywhere else in the tank.
reef211
New member
Hey Lpsgirl, Thanks for the info. Well this weekend i upgrade my sump/refugium from a 15 gallons to a 40 gallons, my old sump was a wet n dry system like your. The new 40 gallons sump should help the tank out better. But for the light i when ahead and add two more bulbs to it. My lighting is now, front to back
03 actinic
blue plus
midday
aquablue
auuablue
midday
blue plus
03 actinic
I know you guy think that, that might be too much light but the 03 actinic doesn't really count, it barely light up anything. Well i hope this work out for my tank, i will let you guys know how it go by this weekend. Let me know if i'm going crazy on this.
-Mike
03 actinic
blue plus
midday
aquablue
auuablue
midday
blue plus
03 actinic
I know you guy think that, that might be too much light but the 03 actinic doesn't really count, it barely light up anything. Well i hope this work out for my tank, i will let you guys know how it go by this weekend. Let me know if i'm going crazy on this.
-Mike
Justin74
New member
LPSgirl, Im not saying it can't be done, clearly it has been done for a couple years as you say(2yrs under T5 though?). I just know theyre not a high light demanding creature is all. But I can totally empathize with the potential clown situation, as they will ultimately have the last word 
Just that in the wild you'd be more inclined to find that specimen near deeper waters than up top near your SPS. Purely a generalization though, im a coral freak though. If that thing was on the bottom or in the upper corner, Id still think it's purdy
-Justin
Just that in the wild you'd be more inclined to find that specimen near deeper waters than up top near your SPS. Purely a generalization though, im a coral freak though. If that thing was on the bottom or in the upper corner, Id still think it's purdy -Justin
Justin74
New member
Mike, your going crazy on this
If all your bulbs have tek or IC reflectors, id say your in for the long haul with light acclimation being a very serious issue.If your using a prefabbed 8 bulb unit without "true" parabolic reflectors or by some other than the ones I mentioned or aquatinics, then you should be ok, although acclimation would still be wise.
Just to give you an idea I have a 6 bulb retro on my 55, you have 20g more than I do but were still pretty close in size. My tank is predominantly SPS with a 30-40% split going to LPS. The only piece that is happy with direct light is my frogspawn, the others are all on the sand or shaded,echinos,favia's,acans, leptastreas, calaustrea etc. Light is a very real concern and colors are more vivid and less faded as long as I place accordingly, which more often than not is low in the tank. Im even able to keep quite a few SPS on the bottom and on the sandbed with perfect color and health. I also went over 5 months with just 5 bulbs, and didnt notice a difference at all, but opted to use the 6th anyway cuz I like more blue in my tank. I just think it's a lil overkill UNLESS you want a predominantly SPS only tank.But again, another generalization
reef211
New member
Okay guys, what is your suggestion on the bulbs, i have 4 of each bulbs in stock, aquablue, blue plus, midday, 03 actinic, the only bad thing is that the tek lighting that i have is a eight bulbs unit, how should i arrange my bulbs to be on the safe side for the long run and what order?
