Frag tank lighting

459b

459b

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Im busy settng up a few frag tanks and am a bit stumped on what lights to put in. I will be growing softies and maybe some LPS and SPS in the future.
The tank is 120X 45X 12cm.
I think T5's might be the best, but have been reading up on CFL and have read some good reviews on them.
What would your suggestion be ie. T5 or CFL, colour temp of T5, number of CFL etc.
thanks.
 
Dane has just posted a great read about lighting, have a look there. The best I can say is that the bacteria in the corals that do the work, works best at lighting temps of 6500K This will give faster growth but less colour. I would say you can put 85 Watt CFL's at 2/3 of the tank. There you can let the corals grow fast, then at the other 1/3 you can have T5 with high kelvin rating(14000-20000K) then you place the corals under those lights when you feel they have grown enough. A few weeks under the actinics and high kelvin lighting and they should have coloured up nicely and ready to put in your tank or sell to someone else.
 
What about using annoying's idea with the two differ K ranges but with halides? If you go the SPS route in the future then this would be the better option, and softies grow like weeds with this lighting
 
I have considered the separate lighting idea.
A big factor that i must consider is space, i only have about 15cm about the tanks.
Metal halides for 12cm of water is a bit much.
 
Ya I feel that the tank is to shallow for the need of MH, you can easily grow sps in just 12cm of water with T5's. CFL's and T5's like you have mentioned will be the most compact and cheapest route.
 
ah sorry i didn't notice the 12cm part, i just saw that its 120 long and assumed it was a standard four foot
 
my frag tanks are 1200x600x150 and I am lighting them with 4x54w T5's. 3x8000k and 1 actinic
 
What do you wanna grow?sps or softies?
also you wanna go for growth if sps or colour or both?

the cheapest option would be to get a couple phillips t8 36w 865's but this would be to maximise sps growth at a cheap price

if you going with softies or you want colour out of your sps i would add a few actinic and 20000k tubes to the mix also.
 
Thanks for the input.
Im going to be growing softies.
I decided t ogo with the lights that i have in my current setup as m getitng very good growth and colour with them.
Decided to go the T5 route and am going half 10000K and half 20000K.
 
How will you do flow? I am busy setting up my 2 new banks and I suspect I am going to have a problem with the 150mm high tanks as the sunsun's I have will suck in air?
 
459b said:
Thanks for the input.
Im going to be growing softies.
I decided t ogo with the lights that i have in my current setup as m getitng very good growth and colour with them.
Decided to go the T5 route and am going half 10000K and half 20000K.
Click to expand...

consider Osram 8000k's they far cheaper if you buy box lots (around R75 each) and then go with actinics to bring in the colour. When I get my par meter back from Rob I will test them and see if this is better par wise.
 
Tanks are setup Maj, they have been running for a few weeks now. I have a tank for live rock and then a very large sump with dsb, skimmer etc. Not had enough time to work on it as i would like because of studies and job hunting. Also waiting for end caps.
I am also having trouble with flow. I have a sunsun 3000l/hr but it makes too much flow for softies. Going to have to point it at a corner or something, will experiment when i put corals in. I have not had any trouble with it sucking air. Which rise pump are you using?
 
Hi David - if you want growth - then go for a 8000K Osram Skywhite T5....
If you want both growth as well as coloration, go for a few actinic T5's in addition to the Osram 8000K Skywhite T5.
 
I have a bank of 5 tanks...3x1200x600x150, 1x1200x600x200 and then the sump of 1200x600x300. I'm using a TS1 as the skimmer and a Bubble blaster 5000l as the return.
 
jacquesb said:
Hi David - if you want growth - then go for a 8000K Osram Skywhite T5....
If you want both growth as well as coloration, go for a few actinic T5's in addition to the Osram 8000K Skywhite T5.
Click to expand...

is that not what I said :p
 
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