Growth t5 vs MH

T5HO will perform equal to or in some cases better than MH. It depends on reflectors, bulb quality and depth.

Heres some growth shots of a M. digita over a matter of a few months. It was 14" under a Nova Extreme Pro 6X39 with ATI, UVL and GE bulbs.

 

Tank is a standard 90. 48w, 24 high, 18 front to back.

Maybe Im having some other undetected issue. I feel the lighting is top notch t5. All bulb are geissman and korellzuct (company that makes fiji purple and coral light). From front to back the bulbs go
Coral light
Geissman powercrhome actinic +
Coral light
Geissman powerchrom actinic +
Fiji puple
Geissman pure actinic
The reflectors are icecap and top notch. The fixture sits about 10-11 inches off the water. Photo period is 12 hrs long, 2 hrs actinic, 8 actinic and day lights, 2 hrs actinic. Theres a 4.5 inch fan in the canopy that circulates fresh air 8 hrs a day.

I just feel like I buy some beautiful pieces at the store and they do not hold their color well, and end up looking kind of dull. Furthermore, with the few sps corals I have I do get god polyp extension, but for the 6 months the nice piece I've had has spread at the base, but not raised a single new stalk.

Params currently and regularly test at
temp 78
ca440
alk6-7
ph7.9-8.1
phos under 1
nitrate 0
nitrite 0
ammonia 0

For a while, my alk has not been as stable as it should, fluctuating between 6-8. The only reason I can think im having trouble is coraline algae growth. I used to scrape it off the sides frequently, but have let it cover them recently. I'm going to scrape the sides again so I can see through them.

 

If you are not running a ULNS you should probably pump up the alk to at least 9.

Try to get the phosphate down to at least 0.05 ppm and they should better able to keep their coloration.

 

We always tend to get caught up on lighting...like others have said...lighting is an important factor, but there are sooo many other things that can come into play...I would guess lighting is not the issue from what you've said so far.

 

I think your alk is a large part of the issue. Bump it slowly up to 9 or 10. Keep your Mg between 1250 and 1350 to help keep your parameters more steady. You could change your bulbs for a more even color distribution to front to back
Powerchrome
Coral
Fiji
Pure actinic
Coral Powerchrome.

I would cut 2 hours off of the actinic time so that you have 1 hour before and after the daylight. You may be having photo inhibition issues with the lighting period.

 

great, i will lower the photo period. I was already debating that.


Do you all think running gfo would help get rid of the last bit of phosphate. I have a reactor with only carbon in it. I was thinking of putting gfo in the reactor and the carbon just in a bag.

 

The GFO would definitely help.

 

+1 on GFO helping

one of the reasons (not the only reason) for coral brown out, or color loss
is an excess of nutrients in the water such as Phosphate
these are used by algaes, which include the symbiotic algae in SPS corals Zooxanthellia
thus with elevated phosphate levels, you get an increase in Zooxanthellia and a dull or browned out coral as a result


NB
if you have never used GFO on your system before, combined with the fact you have phosphate
its better to start with about half the suggested amount in the reactor
and slowly improve the conditions by removing the phosphate and not using a full qty and improving things to quickly
even water chemistry changes designed to improve things shoud be done slowly so as not to shock the tanks inhabitants.

Steve

 

Once the dkh and phos. are squared away. Try adding a couple Gieseman aqua blue+. From looking at you bulb list you are really blue. You have 4 actinics, 1 true actinic, and 1 fiji purple. Me i would replace 3 of the 4 with aqua blue+.

 

I did have some aquablue plus, but they have a little blue to them. Right now i dont like the tint of the tank, too blue for me. I have the two actinic plus which are very blue, 1 fiji purple which is obviously purple, 1 pure actinic which is kind of purplish, and two coral light which are very white. The next two to be replaced are the fiji purple and pure actinic. I think ill be replacing both with aqua blue +, or maybe one of those and a plain 10000k white.

As far as the GFO i think Ill look into that at the LFS tomorrow. The guy is very knowledgable and its more of a pure coral/reef store than a fish store.

On a side note I had a tang die, he was decent size and I couldnt find him for a day. Unsure why he died he was new to the tank when it underwent a good cleaning last week, i think being new and teh cleaning stress got to him. Everything else looks good though. No spikes and params

Oh and alk is slowly rising, Ive been using baking soda adding a little bit per day. Alk is right at around 8. I hope I haven't raised it too fast. Its up 1.5-2 dkh over the last week if I had to guess