ultra crocea.. lighting

[Chris Mu.]

i have a 90 gallon and 660watts of vho lighting ... recommended height positioning?

they were open and happy at the store under 2-175mh10k+2-65watt pc

and they were on the bottom..
should i start these guys on teh bottom and work their way up?

i have a horseshoe crab .. so i dont think i want em on the bare bottom... think he might get hungry .. heh heh

i have one on the bottom on a rock about 4-5 high ... then i have the other a little higher than halfway up...

i have 4 attinics and 2 white atinics...


suggestions? they are opening up slowly ... i have more light than what they were used to for the last week...


Thanks!

hope these guys do well.. they are my first clams .. they are about 3.5-4.5"

 

[Chris Mu.]

^^^

 

[Chris Mu.]

^^

 

[Chris Mu.]

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[Typhon]

Well Chris,
First off Croceas are one of the most light demanding clams out there. I don't think it will do well under your VHO setup. I only recommend MHs for clams such as croceas and maximas. Saq and dersas are know to survive under PCs and VHO.
I would recommend keeping the clam closest to the top as possible. I would recommend thinking about getting 250w MH if you plan on keeping the clam.
I don't want to burst your bubble ,but the watt per gallon should only apply to Softies and LPS. When you are dealing with SPS and clams you need the intensity of MHs. Do a search on clams and MH. You will see the majority of people on Reefcentral would agree with me.

Good Luck..

 

[Chris Mu.]

question.. this watt per gallon thing ... if i had a a 90 gallon tank that was 6" deep .. wouldnt that kidna throw off the whole "scale".. not a big beliver in the wpg... now having a 250 watt halide vs 660 watts of vho .. what makes the halide better ? im getting more wattage and more light with the vho...

i have sps that grow like weeds in my tank .. my montiporas in the 1.5 months that i have had the 660 watts have grown about a 3rd bigger .. i've gotten about 1/2 to 3/4 growth on my acros...

the montiporas are growing hte fastest prolly out of all my corals

 

[Chris Mu.]

what people are recommending and what works can be two different things.. like the dsb ..i've never been a believer in that .. is a nitrate trap and it limits o2 levels in an aquarium... im expecting my sps in 3-5 months to have nearly doubled in size ... not to mention the great colors that i am getting now that i have the 660 watts...

 

[Typhon]

Your tank is only 6" deep?? Is it some type of breeder tank??

Well Montiporas are one of the few SPS that are not high light demanding SPS. If your tank is only 6" deep then that does make a difference. The clam maybe ok them.

VHO normally has a spread effect. They are able to cover large areas ,but the lack the intensity of MHs. You can the difference by looking directly at a MH and VHO bulbs. VHOs are bright but you don't really have an issue looking at it. I am unable to directly at any MH bulb with out almost going blind.

I don't have any real numbers, but I would say that for every 1 watt of VHO light is comparable to almost 2 watts of MH lights..

 

[Typhon]

Sorry I mean vice versa.. 1 watt of MH comparable to 2 watts of VHOs..

 

[Chris Mu.]

no my tank isnt 6" deep .. i was saying that if a tank was 6" deep it would kinda kill the whole Wattper gallon thing

 

[Chris Mu.]

well i'll see how they do .. i know some people that have 2 175watt hamilton pendants .. bulbs/balllast/pendents .. brand new that they only want 175 for ... im thinkin they will do just fine .. my acros are growing rather steadily if i notice the clams dont look happy i'll get em a late xmas gift . heh heh .. but im thinking that they will do jsut fine .. a kid that i worked with had a maxima under 130 watts of pc in a 46 bow and had the clam at the very bottom of the tank .. that thing did very well .. he ended up getting rid of the tank about 3years after he got the clam .. i think that if you can get a good ballance of nutrients and light that clams will do just fine ... i know that the halides have a bight source .. but im not sure i understand how they put out more light .... a 4' vho will cover a 90 .. a mh will cover like a 2x2' area ...

so to cover 2x4 i would need two lights .. 500 watts . .then i would need atinic in addition .. so say 160 watts of attinic...

it seems like its the same thing to me.. i like the look of the vho better ...and i like the low heat and longer bulb life... mh dont seem like a great thing .. granted the shimmer effect is nice .. i have a slight shimmer to my tank .. having bulbs with internal reflectors and having an aluminum reflector over all 6 my light source is evenly spread and rather bright..and i get a slight shimmer off it.. idk we'll see what happens ..im not forseeing a problem

 

[Typhon]

Oh.. I see.

If your tank was 6" then you have to factor in many other things. Like all of your corals would not be more than 6" from the surface of the water.

Well.. I have a 90g tank. My VHOs lose a great deal of intensity even going thru the 6" of air before hitting the water. I know that many people have great success with VHO or PC light on SPS and clams tanks. The studies have been done and MHs are far better than VHOs or PCs.

Do you feed your tank anything?? Phytoplankton??

If VHOs work you.. More power to you..

I have just seen many thread where people would post that they have a clam under VHOs and PCs without feeding. Then 2 or 3 weeks later, they would post that the clam has passed away.

 

[Typhon]

Well MH normally last longer than VHOs (6-8 months) unless you are running SE bulbs with DE (HQI) ballast. I know people that run MH bulbs for up to 1 year. With the addition of Electronic MH ballast, I except the bulbs to last longer.

 

[Typhon]

With MHs.. if you choose bulbs with a kevin at 10K or higher, you don't need actinics. At that point they are there just for looks and the dawn and dust cycle..

 

[Chris Mu.]

my vhos are sitting right on top of my tank.. they wil lbe liek 2" away when i get the permenantly affixed via clips .. but for now they sit on the tank..

i have one of those tanks that never needs anything ...

i have done one water change in the tanks entire history and top off about a gallon a day in evap...

i add tropic marin calcium and tropic marine trace elements once a week..

last i checked my cal was at 500 and my alk was at 13..
that was last week so im prolly a little lower on both of those...
no nitrates, phosphates, ammonia, silica, nitrites... etc ... i have great artesian mountian well water .. heh heh .. so nice ..we have a water purifier on the house feed that pulls out any metals and such...

 

[Chris Mu.]

we haev a20k bulb at work on a show tank .. not the same look .. i dont like it...theres nothing like the color that a uri vho brings out in the corals ...

 

[Typhon]

Best of luck.. Keep me updated with the progress of the clam..

 

[Chris Mu.]

aight .. i wish i had a nice camera to take some pics for ya .. but i dont .. i have a really crappy camera from what you can see in my gallery

 

[Typhon]

I know how you feel. I am trying to save up for a better camera.

 

[Chris Mu.]

after xmas i was gonna get the canon rebel .. lol i spent like half my camera fund on snowbaord stuff ... tough when you have a friend that owns a snowboard shop..lol... everything is such a good deal.. my boss has the rebel .. doubt he'll let me borrow it