Lighting questions

[superclown]

Hey guys ive been at reefing a while now but there are still some things in lighting that I don't quite understand.

I have heard time after time halides give fastest growth and t-5's produce best color in corals.

obviously im not the first person to think well maybe I should do a halide t-5 combo to get the best of both worlds.

How much truth is there to these statements in general. I am sure it is not as cut and dry as this.

I was looking for some examples and opinions to this from lighting schedules, combination of bulbs used obviously color spectrums.

I was also thinking to myself If you had say a 10k from what ive read puts out the best par rating without being completely yellow looking. Then you compensated by doing a t-5 atinic light that you ran in conjunction to help give the blue look. Would this be counter productive? I guess what im getting at is would the combined spectrum of the bulbs affect the light source in terms of par?

honestly in the past my corals always seem to have grown slower in my tanks not sure if it is more to do with water quality vs lighting or what but looking for a solution so not only will my corals produce faster but also have better color

 

[superclown]

Maybe the cree's eventually when I see a little more result. I know they work dont get me wrong I have ecoxotic led's in my nano right now they are only 1w led's and seem to hold enough par for softies no problem so im sure 3w would cut through the water quite well. I am just trying to understand why is it that halides produce growth and t-5 produce color that concept confuses me lol

 

[superclown]

right now I got a 12g nano but its just a fowler, but I picked up last week a 30g cube from a good friend who could no longer keep it due personal reasons. It came with a sunpod I believe to be a 150w it was a complete running setup with a couple corals he had just started it a few months back. I am not sure how old the bulb is thats in it. For the time being I am going to run what I got simply cause I will not have the funds to invest in anything until around feb.

However the reason I started this thread is related to my coral success in the past that I ran the ecoxotic led's in.

I had a rainbow monti I picked up for example insane color, member i got it from had great color in everything in her tank's she ran t-5 on pretty much all of her tanks and swore by it.

As a test I took a picture of the coral first day in my tank, 4 month's passed under the led's took a comparison pic and it didn't even look like the same coral it was so dull in comparison, and was very very little growth within the 4 months. and this was in my 12g and the coral sat about mid level of tank

 

[KrisDeitz]

150w metal halide with a 14k bulb. De.

Most the people I know with tanks who I talk to run halides and have incredible growth

 

[superclown]

Hey do u know how old the light is?

 

[KrisDeitz]

Lol im the one who sold the tank to Mike..

 

[superclown]

I know that's why I'm asking u lol you would know

 

[KrisDeitz]

Lol wow I'm rerarted. I thought it said how.

It's like 14 months old

 

[superclown]

It's all good man I guess as soon as the first rolls around I may try to get a new light bad thing is I got a brand new 250 mh with a pendant never been used sitting right next to me but I know that would be overkill

 

[KrisDeitz]

Not really i know a few people with 250s on them. Id go 250

 

[superclown]

Hmm I may try it just to see its dimmable so maybe iI could turn it down some