As my mixed reef starts to incorporate more acros I am looking to add more light. The tank is 60x18x24. It's primary lighting is one Kessil a350 and 2 a360s. Where I have most of my sps now I have a reef breeders black box between the 2 Kessils. I seem to get pretty good colour with this combo but it possibly could be better. I said goodbye to T5's a long time ago and don't really savor changing bulbs again but it's a possibility.
The light doesn't look too bad over my tank despite being uneven but I potentially need to add 2 more black boxes and I will stay away from the real cheap ones, so T5 retrofit and at least the first round or 2 of bulbs is comparable cost.
Now that I'm actually typing this out maybe the obvious answer is to add a 4th Kessil? To be perfectly honest I am looking for a cheaper fix but nothing is broken per say so I could just wait longer and get another Kessil later vs a black box now.
Picture one shows an acro that was a much deeper purple when I got it. It was also a fresh cut frag and now the plug is covered. There is a tiny bit of upward growth but not a lot and I've had it close to 3 months. The green acro above started around this size, and to the left you can see a fuzzy milli that is maintaining great pe and fine colour but hasn't grown much other than encrusting to the rock.
Picture 2 shows the Milli better as well as a real bright pocillopora plus the lighting from above.
Picture 3 is the green acro that unlike most of the other sps is actually growing well. I have had it the longest.
The rest of the tank does not have the black boxes between the kessils. I'd need 2 more to duplicate this, or at least one more to cover the other island that houses sps. Tank is not new, I just lost a lot of livestock in a long distance move that also included 6 weeks in limbo a year and a half ago. I have a ton of leathers, + other softies and lps so they potentially can be as much or more of a limiting factor for sps growth and colour as lighting but that's another thread for another time.
Looking forward to some suggestions!
The light doesn't look too bad over my tank despite being uneven but I potentially need to add 2 more black boxes and I will stay away from the real cheap ones, so T5 retrofit and at least the first round or 2 of bulbs is comparable cost.
Now that I'm actually typing this out maybe the obvious answer is to add a 4th Kessil? To be perfectly honest I am looking for a cheaper fix but nothing is broken per say so I could just wait longer and get another Kessil later vs a black box now.
Picture one shows an acro that was a much deeper purple when I got it. It was also a fresh cut frag and now the plug is covered. There is a tiny bit of upward growth but not a lot and I've had it close to 3 months. The green acro above started around this size, and to the left you can see a fuzzy milli that is maintaining great pe and fine colour but hasn't grown much other than encrusting to the rock.
Picture 2 shows the Milli better as well as a real bright pocillopora plus the lighting from above.
Picture 3 is the green acro that unlike most of the other sps is actually growing well. I have had it the longest.
The rest of the tank does not have the black boxes between the kessils. I'd need 2 more to duplicate this, or at least one more to cover the other island that houses sps. Tank is not new, I just lost a lot of livestock in a long distance move that also included 6 weeks in limbo a year and a half ago. I have a ton of leathers, + other softies and lps so they potentially can be as much or more of a limiting factor for sps growth and colour as lighting but that's another thread for another time.
Looking forward to some suggestions!
