10billion Watts of Lighting really necessary???

[Anonymous]

When i am browsing threads, especially ones with Lighting questions, i always see individuals suggesting 10billion Watts of light power for an aquarium(sarcastically speaking with the 10billion W of course)...Dont get me wrong, I understand many different parameters influence the amount of lighting such as types of corals, tank depth, etc...It sounds like the car stereo industry with lights...you need billions of Watts of power to have an awesome tank...A prime example is that someone, i dont remember who, suggested if you want to keep Xenia, you need MH's and like 250W...IMO Xenia would do fine under PC...Mine do...now i have a rather small tank compared to most of you out there but if im not mistaken Xenia is a mid to upper placement coral so regardless of depth of your tank IMO it outta do fine...Exception is if you have NO lights...then you might have problems regardless of size of tank...

 

[BOMPH]

A prime example is that someone, i dont remember who, suggested if you want to keep Xenia, you need MH's and like 250W...

That would have been me, in terms of the Xenia. I guess it didn;t go accross like i meant it. It was a blanket statement, not just in regards to his Xenia.

My philosophy is this. You can make shade, you can't make light. Get as much light as you can, and if something needs it, you have it. If not, you make shade. If it's mobile, it will choose for you.

I started out on NO flourescents ( 240w over a 2' deep tank), because the LFS told me it was OK. Note they only sell NO flourscents....

I had some low light corals. Mushrooms, a toadstool leather, star polyps, and an open brain . I even kept an anemone under it for quite a long time. However, the open brain and the anemone developed a very boring brown shade. I assume this was increased zooanthellae to harvest as much light as it could. THey lived, but they did not thrive. The anemone did grow quite large, but I fed it too....

So, like you said in the post about the Xenia, it is possible to keep things under lower light levels. I did it with lights less intense than what you have. But the general consensus it that Light = Good.

 

[Anonymous]

Honesty i dont even remember who said it and besides im not trying to bash anyone in general. i agree light=good, 10000W subwoofers=good but is it really necessary?? thats my point..Its the OBSESSION with the light that just gets me...Im not blaming you at all, so dont take it personal...I have LPS under 130 PC..polyps fully extended and loving life...granted its only a 20 gal AGA....

 

[BOMPH]

Honesty i dont even remember who said it and besides im not trying to bash anyone in general. i agree light=good, 10000W subwoofers=good but is it really necessary?? thats my point..Its the OBSESSION with the light that just gets me...Im not blaming you at all, so dont take it personal...I have LPS under 130 PC..polyps fully extended and loving life...granted its only a 20 gal AGA....

I know youre not bashing, and I took no offense because you are being civil, but I remember the post and it was me telling the guy he needed more light.

As for your tank, there used to be this BS rule of so many watts per gallong. If you go by that rule, you have 6.5w /gallon, which was in the mid/high range of that BS rule.

The real rule is depth and water clarity. And superceding that is the species itself.


As for 10000w subwoofers, i feel those people should be tarred and feathered. I used to work with this guy who had a $500 'hooptie' car and a $4000 stereo in it. The vibrations from the subs ( yes, plural, he had 3 actually ) screwed his car up, and then he had a $4000 car stereo with no car

ANyway, good luck with your tank. My new tank should be up by the end of the month. Im puting 1.21 gigawatts of light over it. j/k

 

[Anonymous]

:lol: dont forget the flux Power head :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

another consideration is coral appearance....as in whether your corals are surviving under PC or they are thriving under MH.
IME, many corals will do fine under PC but if you want to keep something like a hot pink Stylo. or a white Acro. you will find it hard to do so without intense lighting...
you may be able to keep them but they will turn color and take on a generally less appealling look.

i want to upgrade to 400w MH for appearance purposes only. the 175W MH i am using now would probably suffice for survival.

 

[Anonymous]

It really is a matter of what you want to keep. SPS and clams require alot of light. I have 175 W MH over my 75 and the SPS in the upper parts of the tank do grow much faster than the ones on the bottom. I would prefer more lighting than that over my tank if water temperature wasn't a concern. I don't want to buy a chiller!

Louey

 

[Revstarky]

I couldn't agree more, Podman. I have 400 watts of VHO over a 90 gal. I've been keeping a T. derasa for years, and it has grown a considerable amount. Its mantle, however, lost most of the beautiful golden iridescence it possessed when I bought it. Same thing with a Montipora digita frag. Purple to brown in short order, although it did maintain white tips and continued to grow.

 

[reefann]

The vibrations from the subs ( yes, plural, he had 3 actually ) screwed his car up, and then he had a $4000 car stereo with no car

LOL I had a friend with the same thing happen to his T-bird. One time I got out of the passenger seat and a couple screws fell into my lap. He bottomed out the car before the stero could destroy though.
As for the light, I have see BEAUTIFUL DEEP tanks lit with PC's. You just need to know what will do ok. I choose 400watt MH's for my 210 because I wanted clams in the sand and Acro growth.
_________________
hash oil

 

[Anonymous]

I have a five foot 150, 24 inches tall and I run 3 48 inch VHO actinic's 2 250 DE 20K and 2 250 watt DE 13K. I recently (2months ago) cut the 13k down to 5 hours from 9 hours with no change in growth or color. I was reading somehere, or perhaps just discussing, that you only need to reach peak intensity of your light for a couple hours a day.

 

[ricky1414]

Im puting 1.21 gigawatts of light over it. j/k

Simply put, if you mix that 1.2 gigawatts of energy with a mid 80's DeLorean, you could very easily travel back in time!!!!!!! 8O 8O 8O

 

[PeeJ]

Honestly, only 9 billion are needed...anymore is a waste.

 

[nanocat]

You can never have too much light.

Well, I guess if your acrylic is melting that might be too much

PC's fine for most LPS and softies, MH for SPS and clams (general statement).

 

[BOMPH]

Im puting 1.21 gigawatts of light over it. j/k

Simply put, if you mix that 1.2 gigawatts of energy with a mid 80's DeLorean, you could very easily travel back in time!!!!!!! 8O 8O 8O

Dont forget the necessary flux capacitator.

 

[Anonymous]

No its a flux power head...HELLO REEFS..duh.... :lol:
OK scientifically, my point with this is, is it necessary????

 

[Anonymous]

No its a flux power head...HELLO REEFS..duh.... :lol:
OK scientifically, my point with this is, is it necessary????

that depends on the result you wish to obtain

 

[Anonymous]

you dont want a flux capacitor to discharge in your tank...bye bye fishies :lol: just being fecicious

 

[Irie Eyes]

I think a lot of the recommended lighting schemes are fine and dandy as a general figure, especially for beginners. Sure, if you have an sps/clam tank, you're generally going to want to employ MH lamps. PC lamps are fine for softies and LPS, and maybe a few low light sps (heavily depending on placement, obviously). NO lamps are fine for mushrooms, especially the darker variations, as well as most of the asymbiotic corals (low-light plankton filterers). I think the deciding factors are aquascaping and coral placement, for obvious reasons.
I have a 20H tank with a 55W pc and 15W NO bulb, and although most would figure this to be insufficient, it most certainly is not (well, not for my set up, that is). I enjoy the look this amount of light gives off; I used to run 130W and I have since switched over. I have a thriving neon green finger, yellow fiji leather, a purple frilly gorgonian, ricordea, anthelia, zoos, parazoanthus, and many types of shrooms. I love the look of a tank with plenty of shady areas, as well as a well lit upper section. Obviously I do not have the option of placing many softies and leathers near the bottom, as I would be able to with double the wattage, but that is of no concern to me. Nor is it what I am aiming to accomplish, in terms of aquascaping. My leathers are in the upper third of the tank, my xenia/anthelia/ricordea in the middle third, and my shrooms in various caves and shady areas on the bottom. I love it

 

[Anonymous]

maybe ill have Clark W Giswold do the lighting for my aquarium

 

[ricky1414]

maybe ill have Clark W Giswold do the lighting for my aquarium

I can hear the drum roll in the background!!!