t5 & hqi question

[WILL2002]

i have a 150w hqi on my 29g acrylic tank. i think that i may be able to get some h.o. ballast around $5 a piece. my question is would it make my corals grow better if i use the h.o. ballast to hook up 2 blue t5's or would i just be waisting some dough?? i'm tring to get the colors to really come out in my corals. i know that watts per gallon isn't really a good rule of thumb butt i have 5.3 wpg.

any suggestions will be appreciated

Will

 

[fishdoc11]

Depends on lots of things:
Type of bulb you are using
water quality
current coral coloration
age of existing corals, species, type, where they came from
etc.......
The 450 nm spike you get from the blue bulbs might very well get you improved coloration but it might not do anything, or if you allready have lightening corals the T5's may make it worse....really hard to tell without a pic, some params and the reason you are unhappy with your coloration in the first place.

And what type of ballast are you getting for $5 a piece?

Chris

 

[Ti]

Use both, ii do, I like e setp of both

 

[Malolo]

A couple of blue (actinic plus) T5s would allow you to go with whiter, higher par MH bulbs, which should enhance growth rates without sacrificing color. Coloration produced by corals themselves are controlled by a multitude of factors only one of which is light intensity.

 

[WILL2002]

Thanks for the replies to my question. i have one sps that is still green with the polyps barely coming out, the other is turning brown. my current light is a current 150w 14k sunpod & my params i'm working on. i just got a phosphate test yesterday and did a major water change b/c of hair algae problem. as for pics i'll try and get those tonight if my wifes camera decides to work.

fishdoc - i'm not sure of the name of the ballast but there's a guy at my local flea market that has army surplus stuff and he said he got them off of ships and subs and i'm pretty sure they said high output on them. i got a bunch of muffen fans from him one time for a $1 a piece and they work awesone on the tank to keep it cool.

 

[PrangeWay]

Water Quality

Water Quality

i just got a phosphate test yesterday and did a major water change b/c of hair algae problem

Water quality is as big a factor on coloration as lighting, make sure to get this under control (0's) before you spend to much dough/time worrying about if your lighting is enough.

Good Luck!
PW

 

[WILL2002]

here are my 2 sps-i'm not even sure what they are. when i got then there they were both a medium green all over. i just got done doing some test. no3-0ppm , po4 - 0ppm. now i am lost at what to do to get there color back. like i said before, i think it wouldn't cost me much to retro some t5's on my tank so i guess i'll go for it. can anyone tell me what type of sps's i have??

 

[WILL2002]

sorry about the second pic

 

[PrangeWay]

WQ

WQ

If hair algae is growing you have a nutrient problem. You won't measure nitrates or phosphates (unless you have a major problem) because the hair algae is sucking it up. So on the bright side it's a small problem, but a problem none the less.


PW

 

[WILL2002]

Ok, so that means quit feeding so much right?? and if i did a water change this past weekend (20%) can i do another this weekend??

 

[PrangeWay]

WQ

WQ

There are all sorts of ways to improve water quality, a search should yield you a bunch of results to look into...

A few woudl be.
- Weekly water change alwasy a good idea
- Improve skimmer production
- You have a refuge, how's the macro (cheato ideally) growing?
- Install Filter Sock / Clean Daily

I'd do a search, there are alot of good ideas/activities to help.


PW

 

[GTR]

Many tests have a difficult time reading low levels of PO4 like <.02. But still if there's enough to fuel algae growth one should try and find a test kit able to test those low levels so that changes in husbandry are visable. Otherwise you'll just have to wait for weeks if not months to see any effect.

SteveU

 

[WILL2002]

PrangeWay - none of the lfs have cheato they keep saying no we don't have it or what?? i have some sort of macro algae in mt fuge that has a vine of about 1/16" with leaves on it and it's very hard to get out of my main tank ( i put it in the main tank before, that was stupid on my part.) second i think i'm going to have to order a filter sock b/c i've never seen my lfs have them. i'm going to dyi a skimmer that i saw on here and try it out hopefully in the next couple of weeks. not sure if you saw it but it made a maxi jet powerhead into a needle wheel. i'm thinking of trying that on an 802 powerhead that runs my turboflotor 1000 and see the affects even thought i am pulling 1 liter of green crap out of the skimmer a week. what do you think of this for cleaning once a week:
-waterchange
-carbon change
-fuge cleaning
-blow off rocks w/ powerhead
-skimmer cleaning (complete cleaning)
-use toothbrush that i clean skimmer w/ to get exes algae off back
glass
-and only feed corals and fish twice a week

my live stock is in a 29g:
2 firefish, 1 clown goby, 1 clown fish (all very small)
1 frog spawn, 2 feather dusters, 2 acros (i think, see above pics)
1 hammer, and 3 small colonies of zoas.