Observations

Hello everyone, Welcome to this thread.

First off let me just give a small intro for those who don't know me. I am new to salt water. I have a 40b with 20L sump with about 50-70 lb of live rock that has been up for 2 weeks.

Everyone always talks about having the correct lights for growing coral and such, and I have heard that you must have expensive lighting fixture to get the job done. I have also heard that to grow Coralline algea you need to have good lighting and such, also to keep an anemone you need the same. Well, I (being as impatient as I am) decided to buy a condy anemone for my tank. I acclimated it into my system. At first it was not very happy, it shrunk in and such. But soon after it started moving, found a good spot, and is now completely open and appears super happy. Also, I started with one small (fist sized) live rock that is completely covered in coralline. I noticed 4 days ago a little bit of coralline on one of my rocks. today it is a much larger patch, and it is growing on all my rocks. By now you all must be asking "so what?" well it so turns out that what i am using for lighting is a 15w florescent spiral type bulb. Just one. What do you guys think?

 

I think your on borrowed time are u feeding the nem? Coraline does well in lower light as long as there's a good calcium source.

 

im not feeding the nem, and im using red sea pro salt, that might be where the calcium source is coming from. i also have 2 clowns and a six line wrass. tomorrow i receive a 4 bulb t5 fixture and today i installed a skimmer so we will see where this goes. hopefully everything keeps going smoothly. i was just wondering if it might be luck or what

 

There are many exceptions to tried and tested established principles

congrats on the lighting upgrade IMHO things should get even better once your lighting improves

could be luck or you could have reef keepers fingers ( the aquarium hobby equivelent of green fingers for gardeners)
I know one thing for certain, whilst you may recommend a 4 lamp T5 light fixture for keeping nems and corals in future, I doubt you would suggest to anyone new to the site, that all they need is a 15 watt CFL , because despite the fact it has worked for you thus far, you have decided to upgrade your lighting to something you feel is more appropriate for long term success.

coraline IME seems tp do better in the more shady areas of my tank ( under the rim, on the dark coloured plastics and around the caves and overhangs ) it does then spread out into the better illuminated areas, but it always seems to start to spread fastest in the more moderately lit areas)

congrats on the health of your nem, and well done for taking the decision to improve its enviroment for it

 

Thank you steve wright. I agree that i would not recommend a 15w bulb for reef keeping, the only reason i was using it was because i purchased it to be used as my fuge light. I always had in mind of having at least a 4 bulb t5 fixture for my aquarium. I received it today and i am very happy with it the fixture, i knew that the bulbs would not be good (odyssea) and i will replace them sometime in the future. Anyways i am going off topic. I would love to think that i have reef keepers fingers, (i think everyone in this hobby does) only time will tell.

 

The only problem I have with this thread is there is a lot of anectdotal evidence (i e the nem appears super happy) How do we know it was super happy, or that it wasn't subsisting on fish poo? Its cool it worked for you, I've had coralline grow under 20 watt 10k T8s. Youll love the color of t5s thiugh.

 

Sometimes, corals that look open and happy are really stretching as far up as they can to get light. That being said, if its working for you, congratulations.

 

Congrats on your new light. I suggest mounting the fixture on the tank or on the legs if it comes with it. Odyssea appears to use NO T5 ballasts or low output T5HO ballasts hence the suggestion to keep the light lower.

 

my brother does freshwater and has been working with the spiral compact lights for some time. Some one on APC took some par readings at his substrate and found that they (as long as they are upside down and not flat sideways) have a lot more penetration for their size than they thought. They are a t5 all wrapped up, and are comparable in wattage to one of the bulbs I run in a 24in current fixture, but they are not so good on spectrum. I have seen some great fresh water tanks running with them. I'm not saying they are good lights, but there have been quite a few people that have noticed that they are better than most people think.
Being some one that has not always had the best experience with controversial posts I'd like to say that it's nice to see the positive response to this rather than some one going off on this guy.

 

Thank you for all the responses guys.thepanfish you make a valid point, i really am new to this so it just appears to me as if the nem is happy. i will post pics once i get my phone back though so i can get some opinions from more experienced reefers