VHO vs. Metal Halied

[adamRS80]

I visit the GARF.org site pretty often and am amazed at how terrific their corals look. I was reading on their site and one bit of information mentioned that metal halides can "burn" or "scorch" coraline algae or something along those lines...and I've also noticed that the best coraline algae I've ever had was when I was running PC's. Can anybody shed some light on this topic. I've love to just keep running the same lights I am but I'm kinda thinking since my tank is so shallow (24") maybe my MH light is frying this stuff. Is this possible? My lights are about 6-8" above the water surface, and there is an Oceanic glad lid on top.
I'm running a 250w XM and 1 75w VHO Actinic over my tank. I'm keeping SPS corals, and some clams.

[OrionN]

The coraline algae I have with MH is lighter in color than in lower light. Still there are pleny of high light Coraline algae. Really depends on what kind of coral you want to keep. I would not choose light so that I have the best coraline algae.

[matt]

Adam;

24" is not a shallow aquarium. If you're keeping SPS coral and clams, it's almost a certainty that you're keeping them under lower lighting conditions than they would get in nature, even with MH lighting. You might consider removing the class shield, though; this will allow better gas exchange and heat dissipation. Just make sure the MH bulbs don't get splashed with water. GARF uses techniques that are often outside of the mainstream of thinking for most reefkeepers; this is why their ideas are controversial in the reefkeeping community. It doesn't mean they're wrong, just unusual. Don't be sure that their corals look EXACTLY like the photos, though; I've heard lots of stories about people receiving frags from them and finding the colors much more muted.

Just to be clear: In a 24" tank, it's not possible to harm clams or SPS corals with a 250W XM bulb, assuming the animals are in water!

HTH
Matt

[adamRS80]

Thanks guys for the advice. What you say makes total sense. I've read a few articles from reefcentral.com about lighting and it definitly seems that MH is the best method for what I'm keeping, I'm just really impressed but Garf's success with VHO's but like you said things might not always be as they seem. One more question...should I try to move the lights closer to the water? I've got the temp under control so would there be any detriment to doing this?

[MikeP]

Just to clarify is this a single ended bulb or a double ended? DE bulbs do not have UV protective coating on them like SE and removing the glass shield from a DE fixture can cook your corals pretty quick from UV radiation.

[adamRS80]

It is single ended, but I've got the lid on anyway so things don't get splashed. Just curious is anybody one this forum running a Garf style system with good results?

[Instar]

I run one of the GARF bullet proof reef style tanks. Its a 125, 6 feet long, shallow tank. Got some frags from them too and some of them are the greatest colors when they are lower in the tank. Not saying all is perfect from them, but it is colorful and pretty much like the pics on their site. The sps frags are small, but, after they get used to the tank, they grow quite well. The deepest most purple colored coral I've ever seen doesn't care too much for a higher spot or much current in the tank and its taken me a long time to acclimate it to pc's. I opted for the pc's over the VHO's b/c of the few watts brightness and it was easier at the time. Got the plenum, grunge, janitors and a couple coral packs. I have more diversity of life in there than I ever thought would happen from a cultured tank. No live rock at all. Things spawning... my yellow clown gobies have spawned 3 times in the last 2 weeks, tiny brittle stars reproducing like mad and two spontaneous tubastrea corals on the aragonite base rock. Wild coral colonies are high up in the tank (violated their captive grown thing here) and have held colors well and are growing like crazy. I've fragged my pipe organ once and am considering doing it again because it grows quite fast. I really don't care for the lack of some parts of the blue and red spectrum with the 10000 K pc's, (can't see some colors in the coral or zoos at all - whole sep subject on that) but, have resisted changing lighting systems in this tank. I really want it to be primarily like the GARF system just to see how things work out in the long and short of things. It does get some daylight on the tank late in the afternoon and when its not cloudy b/c its by a wnw window. Although the light is filtered thru thick oak trees and tinted windows, its still there. Best part of the plenum is that I don't really have to add any calcium or buffer at this point of maturity to the tank. I do add a little now and then just to see what will happen, but, don't need to as even with all the sps in there, it still holds from the plenum reactions. My lights are as close to the water as possible, no shields. Have to clean them from time to time, but, its worth it. At night the water column is alive with all sorts of little critters. Tank is 1 year old this month. I just found an interesting clam like thing in the middle of one colony of sps and am constantly discovering things in there. The rocks are really clean and gives me the feeling that I am looking at real piece of the ocean b/c of the cleanliness of the rocks and shells. Coraline growth is excellent and I have near 100% coverage on some of my self cultured rocks. I'd be happy to answer any questions about it. My gallery has one pic and when I can upload some more, I will.

[GaryP]

Larry,

Its hard to argue with that sort of success. Do you have a power head on your plenum or do you use passive flow?

Gary

[adamRS80]

Instar thanks for the teriffic information. Glad to head the GARF system is someting that really works. I'm going to keep my lights the way they are but plan on moving a few of my Garf corals around a bit to see if that makes a difference. I'm also thinking of setting up a hang-on style refugium to keep some marco algae, and a place to put corals I've fragged. Could you give me an idea of how much you've spent on your tank aside from the cost of the tank itself. Have you ever ordered and specific corals from Garf or just the usual packages? I've been thinking of ordering 3 or 4 of their "rare" SPS frags such as the Blue Hair (milleapora) and the Mike Paletta Bule coral that is often the center of many of their pictures.

[Instar]

Gary, My plenum standpipe is now capped. I capped it after 8.5 months cause the flow nearly stopped. That followed the GARF recommendations. I do run an overflow and rubbermaid $6 tub sump, so I am not totally dependant on surface aggitation for gas exchange. My sump is cheep, cheep. A cut off 3 liter plastic soda bottle catches the water from the pipe. The pumps are on timers and change up for wave generation and the return from the sump is thru an opposing port pulsar to help generate waves. I have both waves and linear (laminar) current that reverses like the ocean rotary currents.

[Instar]

AdamRS80, I have spent a lot of $$$ on this thing. I really have no idea. Lights: about $850.00 so far and am not done with that yet, aragonite base rocks about $150.00 also still adding and building, aragonite for plenum about 180 pounds, nylon screen, pipe and egg crate for the plenum, not too much at home depo. 3 power heads, three larger pumps from DrsFosterSmith.com so they were $10 to 36 dollars plus the small shipping. Even the large pumps were cheep there. Maxijet 1200's were $20.00. Timers, man there are a bunch of them for lights and pumps. I just got 2 digital ones b/c 2 of the pumps switch so frequently during the day. I just ordered their starter pack specials to begin with. And visited LFS's. I am also thinking of ordering some of their special pieces too, like you are. As for livestock in there, I've spent thousands. The stand was built by my son and I with about $60 worth of material.

[adamRS80]

I was considereing ordering some frags to be shipped Tuesday. I talked to Norm at garf and he mentioned that they should have lots of new stuff on Monday. If you'd like to order something along with me let me know. The shipping is killing me so I thought you might be intersted is splitting it. If not no big deal.