Giesemann Tropic 6500K vs Home Depot 6500k T5 bublb
- Thread starter cwk84
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There can be, but the recipe changes as the tank matures and evolves. Is your tank a year old and very stable yet? If not, then you are chasing your tank and you are best to just wait.
Dosing NoPox does more harm than good and can inhibit the anoxic bacteria from forming in the sand and in the rocks which is needed to truly finish the cycle. Starting with dead/dry rock also can slow this down.
I have very low N and P numbers, but do dose no organic carbon and use no GFO or LC. There is plenty in my tank the import and export is good with some always available - throughput is more important than an actual number. Having low N and P numbers is not bad on it's own - if you drive them too low with media or chemicals, then this can get bad. I grow coral as fast as anybody and color it as good as anybody with .1n and .01P.
This needs to get back to the beginning. How old is your tank? What is the basic setup? Is Coralline algae thriving yet?
Dosing NoPox does more harm than good and can inhibit the anoxic bacteria from forming in the sand and in the rocks which is needed to truly finish the cycle. Starting with dead/dry rock also can slow this down.
I have very low N and P numbers, but do dose no organic carbon and use no GFO or LC. There is plenty in my tank the import and export is good with some always available - throughput is more important than an actual number. Having low N and P numbers is not bad on it's own - if you drive them too low with media or chemicals, then this can get bad. I grow coral as fast as anybody and color it as good as anybody with .1n and .01P.
This needs to get back to the beginning. How old is your tank? What is the basic setup? Is Coralline algae thriving yet?
Yes and No. I have a SunBlaze equivalent over a fuge that mostly grows chaeto, but I do use it for excess storage for acros and bounce mushrooms. Anything that I leave in there for long really thrives. I do NOT have an over a display. You can have a very nice reef with very good true colors just with 6500k bulbs, but the illumination is a bit yellow and most people prefer it a bit more white or blue.
Adam at Battlecorals uses a good amount of 6500k, which is why some of his corals look so good, but he does not use 100% 6500k that I know of. People have commented about how his corals look better when they get them and some of the color fades over time without the daylight.
Adam at Battlecorals uses a good amount of 6500k, which is why some of his corals look so good, but he does not use 100% 6500k that I know of. People have commented about how his corals look better when they get them and some of the color fades over time without the daylight.
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cwk84
Active Member
Coralline is thriving I'd say. When I changed over to T5's it started off growing like crazy. Also, my zoas didn't really grow before but with the T5's they're forming tiny new heads every couple days. I can literally watch them grow every day. My mushrooms are splitting, my anthellia has exploded in growth (it's like weed), my hammer and frogspawns started splitting and coloring up BUT my bird of paradise, montipora and BTA look like crap. Especially my BTA looks really sick. It's deflated and it has shrunk over the past couple months despite me feeding it weekly. My tank is over a year old. The setup is very basic. It's a 40g no-sump setup with a canister filter. I clean the canister filter every couple days and it's never really dirty. I keep it as clean as possible. I have one hang on skimmer.
Bpb
2500 Club Member
I guess I’m just always wanting to use MORE white bulbs. I’d be ok with having blue looks just for a couple hours a day to enjoy that visualization but in my 8 bulbs I’d not mind having 6 of those be white bulbs. I like the look in its own way. But I have a hard time reconciling getting rid of the blue+ bulbs. I worry that will reduce the PUR by a lot by taking so much blue/violet out.
rockskimmerflow
Well-Known Member
IMO an aquablue special 'white' bulb is a pretty good compromise in terms of retaining most of the blue plus bulb's spectrum while adding a bit more green and red into the mix. If you wanted to roll with more pronounced daylight look in an 8 bulb you could run 3 -AB, 2 -TA, 3 -6500k
There is a lot of blue in daylight... just a lot of the other colors too.
BigJohnny
2500 Club Member
The 6500k tropic is designed for aquariums, the home Depot is not. The "6500k" can actually be achieved in many very different ways so I'd do yourself a favor and go with the product designed for your reef. Adam from battlecorals loves the tropics btw. I'd say that's a pretty good endorsement.
mcarroll
10K Club member
Throwing out Evidence #1 is not a good plan. 
This is an extra demand on nutrients in general, including phosphates. (Not to mention the specific demand from reacclimation of your corals to the new light.)
This is consistent with phosphate limitation.
It all adds up IMO.
If you make changes to anything it should be phosphates.
I'd do it the safe way with a little ferilizer that you can dose down to the mL AND test for afterwards if desired. (Vs trying to "feed more"...which is imprecise, indirect and not-advised....unless you're under-feeding.)
If you change alkalinity anyway, I'd do it in very small increments over a long period of time.
This is an extra demand on nutrients in general, including phosphates. (Not to mention the specific demand from reacclimation of your corals to the new light.)
This is consistent with phosphate limitation.
It all adds up IMO.
If you make changes to anything it should be phosphates.
I'd do it the safe way with a little ferilizer that you can dose down to the mL AND test for afterwards if desired. (Vs trying to "feed more"...which is imprecise, indirect and not-advised....unless you're under-feeding.
)If you change alkalinity anyway, I'd do it in very small increments over a long period of time.
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cwk84
Active Member
I’m really exhausted. I’ve been researching a lot he last two days and It has only caused more confusion. I had around 0.5 Po4 before i started runnijg clear fx in my canister filter. I didnt see mucu growth from any voral not even my softies. Once I got phosphates down to 0.04-0.08 my softies and LPS started looking healthier and growing. It also controbuted to a cleaner tank. I honestly don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. Should I take out the filter media and let PO4 do its thing?
What about dosing trace elements and reef energy? Maybe it’s not the phosphates but the carbon in my canister filter. Maybe it’s sucking out all the trace elements?! That would explain why the corals look slightly better after each water change.
What about dosing trace elements and reef energy? Maybe it’s not the phosphates but the carbon in my canister filter. Maybe it’s sucking out all the trace elements?! That would explain why the corals look slightly better after each water change.
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.04 to .08 P is way better than .5. I would not let it get up much above .1.
Carbon does remove some stuff, but it has never been an issue for the many people who have ran it over the decades. I would not sweat activated carbon.
Carbon does remove some stuff, but it has never been an issue for the many people who have ran it over the decades. I would not sweat activated carbon.
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