Is there any site out there that shows a difference in light output and growth rate when using one of these without all the cal. reactors and kalk. reactors. What im tryin to figure out is which light would be best for me and what i plan on growing. And what would bring the colors out the best. The corals i plan on growing would be an assortment of acro's, milli's, monti's, basically hard corals with plenty of softies. My tank is 60"x19 1/4x 18". my canopy will give me 5 to 6 inches of room above the water. any recommendations or thoughts are welcome.
If you are going to have acros, you well need T5's, as VHO's won't cut it. You can't get enough vho par value as you can't get enough watts. T5's sit about 2" from center to center in their fixtures which lets you get alot bulbs close together. You well also need to get good bulbs and not the cheap T5's. Geishman is a great brand. Also only being 5 or 6" above the water you are going to have salt splash issues, which well corrode the reflectors, so you are goibg to have to stay on top of keeping them wiped off and I would be very nervous about splash causing a bulb to break and I think that would kill the tank if any of the fluorescence material was to drop in the water. Sounds like you need a different canopy or remove the top off of that one and mount the fixture up above, and it well run cooler too, as having the lites that closew to the water is going to transfer alot of heat into it.
My dad is growing orange gutatus birdsnest and a tricolor in a 14 gallon biocube w/ compacts. IMO both are great lights, but I would go with T-5'S because I know they are great lights and you can get tremendous growth with them; however, search GARF.org These guys will show you that you can grow SPS and acros w/ VHOs, yes t-12's this is all they used. Interesting...
I see very few acros in their setup, mostly posillaporas [spelling] and montiporas and zoos and other softies. Also it doesn't say how deep the tank is. If you want to keep your acros all at the top of the reef I suppose they might work, but personally I like mine up and down on the reef. Vho's produce alot of heat also for the amount of lighting you get. It doesn't take much light to penetrate the depth of a 14 gal. tank verses say a 400 gal that is 30" deep. It depends on the tank and where you want your acros growing on the reef. T5's well put more bulbs side by side for more watts in an equal width compared to vho's with reflectors, which in turn gives you more watts in the same area. And also T5's I believe have a depth limit too of about 24" unless you want to keep all the acros up high.
I would say a minimum of T-5's. Here is a good thread on RC that covers T-5 bulb usages and colors. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1677547&perpage=25&pagenumber=39 Read through several pages for bulb recommendations and applications. I actuall just bought a 48" four bulb T-5 fixture for my new fish only set up. I have read you can really grow corals (SPS) well with 6-8 T-5 bulbs. With a tank your size I would try to squeeze as many as you can into the canopy. On a personal note I prefer metal halides over the flourescent type lighting.
Years ago I saw a 75 gallon tank that had vho's only on it with very nice acros grown from frags in it. Granted they may not have put on growth as fast as they would with halides or even t-5's but the colors were great. I am soon to be setting up another tank and am debating t-5's for it, but I am old school and just like the colors of the vho's so that is which way I am leaning.
I disagree, as most acros well not do good under VHO's and I 've been doing acros for a ggod many years. Go to reefcentral and do some reading in the lighting and the sps sections. The problem as stated before is that because of the width of the reflectors you can't get enough watts of light over the corals. As for colors the T5's have even a better selection of bulbs and color hues then VHO's, or as good. You have been given some opinions here by several and sounds like you already have your mind made up. Good luck
i fought with these guys for weekes trying to get the blessing to do VHO's over a FOWLR tank...well I lost. I now have T5's. Trust me just go with T5 an never look back...just buy TEK reflectors LOL
lol wow i now remember a tank of the month on RC a few months back. it had a 100 gal like mine that had 10 or 8 t-5s on it the growth rate was crazy. im really leaning towards t-5s now for right now though getting all the reflectors will take some time. as a temporary fix couldnt i just paint the inside of my canopy with a highly reflective white paint? ive got 3 out of the 6 reflectors i need.
Whitney...as we discussed on the phone...this is not a hobby you just want to get a temporary fix. Wait till you can get the equipment you need and then make the change. Everytime you change something in a reef tank you cause all aspects of the tank to change. Some changes are subtle, but some could be considerable. Lighting and filtration, including water movement, make the most sugnificant changes. Relax, wait till you have the proper equipment and then make the change slowly.
