What Type of Lighting are you Using on your TBS Rock, and a Question for TBS?

[HowardW]

VHOs, Compact Flourescents, T5s, MHs, and how much?

And are you finding that some of the life on the TBS rocks actually prefer lower lighting levels? I'm thinking of switching from 4 X 65W PCs to full out 4 X 54W T5 HOs, but I think they may be a bit too intense, especially with the individual reflectors.

So tell us about your lighting setup.....and a couple pics would be nice too


.....and Richard, how much is too much light for many of the organisms, or is there such a thing?

 

[Safir]

175W MH mogul w/parabolic reflector - 46G bow

some of the organisms def. seem to be doing better in the lower light areas, but some seem to be doing great directly under the bulb.

 

[liverock]

Re: What Type of Lighting are you Using on your TBS Rock, and a Question for TBS?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7607319#post7607319 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HowardW
VHOs, Compact Flourescents, T5s, MHs, and how much?

And are you finding that some of the life on the TBS rocks actually prefer lower lighting levels? I'm thinking of switching from 4 X 65W PCs to full out 4 X 54W T5 HOs, but I think they may be a bit too intense, especially with the individual reflectors.

So tell us about your lighting setup.....and a couple pics would be nice too


.....and Richard, how much is too much light for many of the organisms, or is there such a thing?

The Gulf is a very turbid place......yesterday I jumped overboard, could not see six inches, and landed right on top of a jewfish that was at least six feet long...he barked at me, scared the #&^#%#$^#&* out of me!

The vis is usually not great.....so the rock does not require huge amounts of light...
TBS

 

[Jocko]

I started with 2x40W PCs on my 20H tank. The rock itself seemed fine. The orange tube corals often extended their polyps.

I upgraded to 6x25W T5 a few months back. The coraline color began to change slowly. Actually it seemed like the coraline from the part of my package from the FL Keys started to spread more to the gulf rocks. Good thing they are nice colors.

The most significant difference was the orange tube corals. They started to lighten significantly and I got worried so I rearranged things so they are in the shade. They darkened back up, but they almost never extend their polyps. At least not during the day. I guess they get enough nourishment from the light.

 

[HowardW]

<<< The vis is usually not great.....so the rock does not require huge amounts of light...
TBS >>>


That's pretty much what I had figured. I've noticed that many of the brightly colored orange and yellow organisms seem to do poorly and shrivel away under intense lighting, as well as the tube corals to some extent which tend to bleach out.

I am thinking that much of the life on the TBS rocks gets very low light levels much of the time in the Gulf as TBS said and certainly doesn't need or want high intensity overdriven T5 or MH lighting. I am thinking that 3-5 watts per gallon of PC lighting should be more than enough for most everything that comes on the TBS rock.......anyone have different experiences?

 

[flameangel88]

Ever since I added corals in the tank I switched over to MH and slowly the rocks been losing their colors and this could be too much light. I'm going to start cutting back on the MH and switch back to PC light and see it helps. I started a new tank with only PCs and the coraline is more lime and yellow on the white rocks.

 

[figuerres]

about 3-4 years now I have run my tank.

55 Galon AGA reef ready.
20 Galon sump

4x96 pc lights

less is more, and blue is better for the most part.

I went thru some of the huricanes and lost some stuff during the first 2 years learning more about what I have and such.

I have 2 *HUGE* (for a 55 galon tank) "deadmans finger" gorgonians that started as very tiny buds.

on some newer rock I got I have 2 small picces that look like the normal small tube coral but are growing more like a branching reef top coral, I put them up top with max light and so far they look good.

2 of my lights are 03 pc and 2 are "split" 10K and blue
I run the 03 pair in the morning and evening and the 10K + blue as my "Mid day" light

new tube and cup corals are near the bottom and are doing well.

check http://www.figuerres.com/ I have some photos there...

perhaps tomorow I'll update that with new ones ...

been planning on that for a while.

 

[HowardW]

<<< 55 Galon AGA reef ready.
20 Galon sump

4x96 pc lights >>>


Interesting.......although the actinic 03 PC bulbs don't put out much PAR, that's still about 8 watts per gallon of PC's which is nearly twice what I run on my 55 gallon, and I was thinking of actually reducing my 4 X 65W PC lighting.

My thinking is that assuming the TBS rock is collected between about 30-60' of turbid water and visibility is often times poor as Richard said, then this rock is probably not getting very much intense light down there, and all the life that thrives on it doesn't require much light to also do well in our tanks.........of course I could be completely wrong

 

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7622619#post7622619 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HowardW
<<< 55 Galon AGA reef ready.
20 Galon sump

4x96 pc lights >>>


Interesting.......although the actinic 03 PC bulbs don't put out much PAR, that's still about 8 watts per gallon of PC's which is nearly twice what I run on my 55 gallon, and I was thinking of actually reducing my 4 X 65W PC lighting.

My thinking is that assuming the TBS rock is collected between about 30-60' of turbid water and visibility is often times poor as Richard said, then this rock is probably not getting very much intense light down there, and all the life that thrives on it doesn't require much light to also do well in our tanks.........of course I could be completely wrong

you are right I think.

if I put the cup and tube corals up near the light they will turn white.

the only tbs I have up where it gets stong light is the ones that seem to like it.

the gorgoneans just grow up
the stuff I have on high places is from other purchases.
also my lights are not all on at one time most of the day...
so really its like 2x96 for say 4 hours of 03
then about 1 hour all on
then about 4 hours 10K plus blue
then 1 hour all
then 4 hours 03

and if I had only tbs rock I bet I could run 2 x 96 and make a good tank of cave corals and the like.... build a cave
put shrooms on the outside and non-photo soft corals in the cave.

 

[liverock]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7622619#post7622619 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HowardW
<<< 55 Galon AGA reef ready.
20 Galon sump

4x96 pc lights >>>


Interesting.......although the actinic 03 PC bulbs don't put out much PAR, that's still about 8 watts per gallon of PC's which is nearly twice what I run on my 55 gallon, and I was thinking of actually reducing my 4 X 65W PC lighting.

My thinking is that assuming the TBS rock is collected between about 30-60' of turbid water


Rock site is in 20 foot of water!

TBS

 

[figuerres]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7624175#post7624175 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by liverock

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7622619#post7622619 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HowardW
<<< 55 Galon AGA reef ready.
20 Galon sump

4x96 pc lights >>>


Interesting.......although the actinic 03 PC bulbs don't put out much PAR, that's still about 8 watts per gallon of PC's which is nearly twice what I run on my 55 gallon, and I was thinking of actually reducing my 4 X 65W PC lighting.

My thinking is that assuming the TBS rock is collected between about 30-60' of turbid water


Rock site is in 20 foot of water!

TBS

Hey Richard; perhaps you can tell us something about what you see if you do go down deeper ??

if you go to a location thats 40-60 foot what lives there?

Just wondering ...

 

[liverock]

Na Da

Na Da

From about 5 miles out to 30- 50 miles....nothing lives there since the year long red tide last year, wiped the Gulf out.....killed all the corals-fish-plants-snails-inverts....is a ghostland out there....


Sad as it was once an incrdible living reef system, now just all black.

You have to get to about 80 feet of water before it starts to look normal......

TBS

 

[HowardW]

<<< Rock site is in 20 foot of water!

TBS >>>


Ahhhh......only 20' of water, for some reason I thought it was a lot deeper. Well that's a big difference from 40-60', so maybe they do get a good amount of light on days when the vis is pretty good.

 

[liverock]

Bottom

Bottom

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7624840#post7624840 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by HowardW
<<< Rock site is in 20 foot of water!

TBS >>>


Ahhhh......only 20' of water, for some reason I thought it was a lot deeper. Well that's a big difference from 40-60', so maybe they do get a good amount of light on days when the vis is pretty good.

Yup

some days I can see the anchor on the bottom, but most of the time it is very turbid, which is why the rock grows so good here!

TBS

 

[HowardW]

<<< some days I can see the anchor on the bottom, but most of the time it is very turbid, which is why the rock grows so good here!

TBS >>>


Thanks, that's good info to know.

So now my guess is that 3-5 watts per gallon of PC or VHO lighting is probably plenty for TBS rock, and that the new wave T5s with individual reflectors like Tek fixtures or high watt MHs is probably overkill and may even be bad for many of the life forms.

I know that all the new tube coral colonies that have sprouted up in my tank have done so in low light or completely shaded areas