Another Lighting Question

K so i have a 260w Power compact 2 12k's and 2 03atenics
I only have softies in my aquarium (72G Bowfront).
I am wanting to upgrade my lighting for several reasons.

1. All my softies have faded in color. Turned a dark brown color, Are they not getting enought light?
My Green star polyps are brown.....
My Zoa's turned brown on the outer rim.....

I am wanting to keep Hard corals down the road but im not wanting to overkill my softies.

I am looking at a fixture with 2 250w MH's and 4 03 Atenics t5's
I think the total fixture is around 700w. Is this overkill?
And will my softies be ok with this?

Currently have
Gsp's
Hairy Shrooms
Green Stripe Shrroms
Anthelia
Kenya Trees
Zoa's
Paly's
Frogspawns
Torch.

When i first bought my frogspawns, and torch they were beautiful...
Now there just kinda bland....
They are healthy, they do open all the way.
But color has severly faded.


Thanks in advance

 

I think you will melt your softies with that light. I would look into a nice 4 bulb T5 setup with SLR's and quality bulbs.

~Will.

 

An often misconception about softies is that they do not require a lot of light. Yes they are easy to maintain and are beginner corals, HOWEVER the majority require a lot of light. Depending on your tank depth, dictates what lights are needed.

PowerCompacts are only good for about 13"s of depth. You can keep SPS under PC's, but you will color up to their true potential. Which is also why all of your corals are turning brown (growing zooanthellae to help feed the coral). When corals "color up" that is a defense mechanism to protect theirself from the intensity of the light.

250w MHs are good for up to 24"s of tank depth depending on color temperture of the bulbs.

T5HO's are good for up to 18"s of tank depth for SPS corals and up to 30"s for soft corals and LPS.

When it comes to "watts", all that is telling you is how much electricty the light consumes. Lumens is how the light intensity is measured.

Those measurments are all general rules of thumb. Water quality plays a large role in light penetration as well.

 

So i wouldnt have to go with MH?
I could get t5ho and grow say like some monti cap?
And would the coloration be better on my sofites?
I am running a 72g bowfront.
It is 22inches deep.
Would a 4 bulb be suffiecent 2 12kday and 2 03 atenics

 

Bump

Anyone????

 

geek, while you are true that most softies can handle more light than even SPS your statement in regards to depth penetration of light is somewhat skewed and old news... A photon of light produced by whatever source will penetrate the same depth as a photon produced by another source. Problem lies with each different lighting style to produce a photon or to have an efficient reflector to maximize light. PCs for example are physically inable to have an effective reflector do to the shape of the lamp.

scuba, in regards to your question, bow tanks, are prime canidates for MH do to the shape... I know you are all shocked that I am not recommending T5, albeit they would work on this setup, MH would give you better coverage do to the bow. Most bow tanks widest part, the portion that you would mount the T5 fixture is 12" but they bow to about 16" at the max, sometimes 18" in other brands. So you with T5 on a bow you are usually limited in your number of lamps you could go with. GRANTED many people will put the SPS or higher light corals under the lamps and put their LPS such as favias and acans in the "bow" portion of the tank. So long story somewhat short, a four lamp decent to good T5 fixture(Tek-ATI) will give you plenty of light. A TX5 for examle is 9.5" wide yet gives you 5 lamps. A Tek 6 lamp would work as well, but you would most likely need to hang it.

If you so choose to use MH I would say 150 or 175w would be more than sufficient esp if you were planning on any kind of supplemental bluing from T5..
In my eyes, why pay for more electricity and more expensive equipment than you need?

 

I noticed my green star polyps turning brown when my salinity was way low, around 1.020 SG. I've since got a refractometer.