Are we GROSSLY OVERlighting?

i found this out the hard way. when i first made the switch to sps i bleached a lot of my frags. i did not give t5s the respect they deserve.and i gave sps a lil too much as far as lighting is concerned.

its also odd how some soft coral(leathers) had very high photo saturation poinst, some requiring more light than some sps.

i think its time to rewrite the books on lighting and corals. cause ive found that most of the common all around info that circulates out there does not match up with my experinces.
"soft corals low light/sps intense light upper portion of tank" false

 

theres more to it than par, spectral analysis's are also an important part.

 

Great thread guys and dolls. Thanks Doc for starting it up. Very informative. It helped my decision.

 

You bet!!

Happy debating!

 

I tend to agree. After switching from PCs to T5s my low-light requirement Colt Coral took off. It has grown much taller in two months and the polyps are very hairy and fuzzy for lack of a better term. It barely looks like the same coral that it was under PCs.

 

what brand do you use?

personally i would like to see some statistics on different sized bulbs, because i heard it makes a difference.

 

size and brand. Some brands have a higher PARA then others. And the different sizes work differently because of the watts they push out

 

Speaking of literature that is wrong/outdated, most places say zoanthids are low light liking corals but all the best zoos I have ever seen were under high intensity light, and grew MUCH faster!! According to that article by Riddle many softies and clams have no know photoINHIBITION level, so the more light the merrier!! Many people put LPS in a fair amount of light but I have seen some take over in tanks that aren't overtly bright as long as they are fed once or twice a week!!

This is a whole new light on lighting isn't it!!

Glad I can be one of the few to prove T5 CAN grow SPS 24" deep!!!

Happy lighting!

 

Do you have any clams that you have kept alive and healthy at the bottom of your tank? A Maxima by any chance, or do you know folks who have? I've seen and heard success stories of SPS under T5, just no conclusive evidence of people keeping a high-light requirement clam under them.

 

I don't have any clams yet as I haven't found one I like.... If I do find a crocea or something I wouldn't put it on the sand bed I would put it in the rock working, as dereasa and croceas are rock boring clams, no clue why people put them in the sand as it irritates their byssal organ....
I HAVE seen a clam on the bottom of a 75 with T5 but that was it, no larger tanks.
If I DID put one in the sand of my tank I would put it dead center under the 270uMol/m2/sec

Sorry for no definitive evidence!