Toxiq Reef Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 4 or 6 bulb t5 vs BML's led recommendation, 2 48" fixtures @ 75 and 90 degrees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funkness Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 I like bml on mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Bml Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxiq Reef Posted February 1, 2013 Author Share Posted February 1, 2013 Sps ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 100 PAR on the bottom of your tank will grow most of your stoney corals. Keep in mind coloration is influenced by intensity AND spectrum (and if you are starving your corals in a low nutrient system lack of the golden brown Symbodinium spp. dinoflagellates) so growing a coral and getting good coloration may require more or maybe less but it's a good starting point. BML has the tools to determine your PAR readings before you buy plus being able to adjust the spectrum either when you buy or, as I understand, being able to send a fixture back to them to have the LEDs changed makes their fixtures very attractive (plus not needing fans unless it's a closed canopy). Pink Birdsnest is a good example of coloration and growth form being effected by intensity. Under 100 PAR it will be mostly brown. Increasing to 200 PAR gets some nice pink coloration. Above 350 PAR some purple or violet starts showing up and around 500 or 600 PAR pink birdsnest has a very pleasing violet pink coloration and the branches grow so thick and dense light is completely choked off just a couple of inches into the colony. (As an aside one of my peeves is are the terms Large Polyp Stoney, LPS, and Small Polyp Stoney, SPS. Neither term has any scientific validity and neither term has any relavance or validity in regarding the husbandry requirements of species.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxiq Reef Posted February 1, 2013 Author Share Posted February 1, 2013 So in terms Tim, you suggest 14k reef spectrum over 12k? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 anything over 10k is aesthetic preference only. natural sunlight is much yellower than what we run in our tanks generally speaking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Sunlight is 5500K, blue sky is 7000K. I've seen very good coral growth with just 5000K bulbs, although coloration was mostly brown. Richard Perrin from Tropicorium (has been aquaculturing corals since mid '90s) is on record saying they only use 6500K to grow their corals1. To a large extent it is aesthetics but generally the higher kelvin ratings produce less light per watt so there is an element of efficeincy in choosing between Kelvin ratings. (Many of the fluorescing proteins used by corals are excited by wavelengths in the blue spectrum which is a motivating factor for choosing higher Kelvin ratings which reduce the red, yellow and green spectrum.) There is some research showing different corals prefer different lighting conditions but I have always said there is such thing as an "ideal" set of lighting conditions, it is always a compromise. Research needs to be done on the part of the aquarist to match coral specimens and lighting conditions to each other. 1Coral Vol 2 # 3, June/July 2005, pg 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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