Lighting questions?

[TAXMAN]

Ok. What type of light does what job the best.
As in 6.5k, 10k, 12k, 20k..

Ok I know the first response. Answer to it is. " I'm going to buy the books when I can afford them" LOL

I have heard that the 6.5 is great for coral growth, but it also is great at produceing algae. I personally like the whiter/blue lighting. Like the 10-12K . The 400W 6.5k Iwasaki I just fired up is too yellow for me. I also do not know how old the bulb is. Do they get more yellow as they age because the intensity is less?

Until tonight I was running 1 Daylight T-5 and 2 Actinic T-5's. All 28 watts each. My LR Purple color started turning brown after 1 week. T-5's are supposed to be more light than the wattage would refer to. The 28w are supposed to be like 50+ watts each. Or so I have been told.

So now I have the 400w 6.5k running with all the T-5's. Plenty of light now. But what will this do for my tank? As far as algae goes especially. I know I'll get good coral growth "which I dont have any coral yet". But what else can I expect?

So basically I need help choosing a light for the MH. I am planning on haveing a few SPS. More of the LPS. I like Zoo's for sure. And I do want a clam or 2.
I am going to try to set up the tank and light where I can have different light intensities in the tank itself. So I can arrange the corals and livestock as needed. At least I am going to try. I will do away with the SPS if I need to. But I want to keep the rest. At least at 1st.

Dont worry about being too indepth about this. Just Basic info is fine.

Thanks in advance for the help.
Johnny L.

[dan]

TO OFF SET THE YELLOW ADD MORE BLUE.VHO WOULD BE NICE.AS FAR AS ALGAES GO TANGS AND SNAILS WILL TAKE CARE OF THAT.THE MORE LIGHTS YOU HAVE THE BETTER YOU CAN SET DIFFRENT TIMES.MY TANK STARTS WITH 2-40 WATT ACT.THEN 4-VHO 2 WHITE 2 BLUE THEN 1-20K THEN 2-10K :o

[R.Allard]

john feel free to call me and i can help ya out with lighting
830-792-9623
Robert

[TAXMAN]

I'm going to get a timer to stage my lights. But I was just wondering which lighting was better for proper all around tank health.

[TexasState]

65K bulb can last 2-3 years at least. 10K bulb usually last about 9-12 months b4 they need replacement. 20K usually need to be replaced at 6 to 9 months. The bulb color is up to your personaly preference. I like bright natural light, so I use 10K to 13K, supplemented with actinic 03. You can't always count on your snails and tang to take care of your algae.

[TexasState]

65K bulb can last 2-3 years at least. 10K bulb usually last about 9-12 months b4 they need replacement. 20K usually need to be replaced at 6 to 9 months. The bulb color is up to your personaly preference. I like bright natural light, so I use 10K to 13K, supplemented with actinic 03. You can't always count on your snails and tang to take care of your algae.

[TAXMAN]

Yea. Right now I only have the LR in the tank. I am hopeing to change that this weekend.

Robert. I'll give you a shout.
Day or Night?

[matt]

With regards to mh lighting, color temp is a matter of personal preference, with one caveat. The lower temp bulbs, like iwasaki, and to a lesser extent ushio/hamilton 10k, typically have much more intensity than the bluer bulbs, as measured in PAR or PPFD (That's photosynthetic available radiation, or something like that, and photosynthetic photon flux density, or something like that.) Those are the currently used measurements of the amount of light a given bulb will produce that is thought to be useful to coral photosynthesis. So, lots of people use the lower temp bulbs and supplement with actinic vho, or less often, P.C. bulbs to get a pleasing color without sacrificing needed intensity. This has worked well for countless reef tanks. A 400W iwasaki might easily have 3 or 4 times the PAR of a 400W 20k bulb.

You don't need a book to learn more than you ever wanted to know about lighting. Just go to reefs.org and reefcentral, and do a search for articles written by Sanjay Joshi.

Have fun, and don't get a headache from reading all those technical articles, or from staring at mh bulbs trying to choose! :-D

[TAXMAN]

Thanks Matt.

[TAXMAN]

Yea. I am going to run them in stages. Actinics early and late. then everything including the 6.5k while I'm at work. This way I get to see the color for an hour or so in the morning and evening. And still give the benefit of the 6.5k to the livestock all day.

[Instar]

You say you want a clam or two. No one can have just one clam, so, in the end perhaps it would be good to consider Jim Norris's light scheme for clams (the clam lighting expert). You can find it on Hellolights. Just do a search for the Norris Light.