Is my 12g nano lighting enough?

[glb]

I have a 12g nano with 24w compact fluorescent bulbs, the kind with two tubes per bulb. The tank came with one 10000k white (both tubes white) and one 50/50 white/blue actinic. When I changed them a few months ago, I asked the lfs how to get more flourescence in the tank. They told me I could do 1 50/50 and one with all blue actinic. So now I have 75% blue actinic and 25% white instead of the other way around. My corals don't seem to be growing and I'm wondering if the light change could be why. Is this enough white light for softies and lps? My water parameters are good so that can't be it. I'm planning on upgrading to LEDs but I'm curious about this. Any thoughts?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Softies and LPS need more of the white lights, not so much the Blue like SPS does. I ran into the same trouble you are, gotta keep it in the 14k or under range for those guys.

 

[glb]

Softies and LPS need more of the white lights, not so much the Blue like SPS does. I ran into the same trouble you are, gotta keep it in the 14k or under range for those guys.

So I should use more white light? My zoas stopped growing and I think it may be because of the decreased white light. So I guess the initial setup was better. Do you think LEDs would help?

 

[Reefing Madness]

Doesn't matter is you add LEDs or not, you need to go with more white light. So your initial lighting set up was better suited for softies than what your currently running. If you did add LEDs I'd add a unit that just used Cool White Leds.

 

[Wrx5803]

If I were u I would run 2 50/50 bulbs and add a strip of blue leds to make it look a little more blue and add some pop to the coral. I run a 6 bulb t5 and have no white light. Instead I run 1 white/purple 1 red and 4 blue plus. All growth is great

 

[Reefing Madness]

If I were u I would run 2 50/50 bulbs and add a strip of blue leds to make it look a little more blue and add some pop to the coral. I run a 6 bulb t5 and have no white light. Instead I run 1 white/purple 1 red and 4 blue plus. All growth is great

From Softies?
I can't get softies to grow using 250w 22k Halides. They maintain, but grow very slowly. They grew like weeds when I was using 14k.

 

[Wrx5803]

I have a fully stocked mixed reef with no issues. The main "softy" coral I have are zoas, and a few bright shrooms. I would rather have the color then growth but the red bulb I have does bring the lower color spectrum to my tank without having any white bulb

 

[Wrx5803]

Its also hard to compare the light of diff tanks because it is so much more then that. Feeding, flow, if you target feed, light cycle, if and what u might dose, water changes. Everything effects growth. My darth mauls zoas have grown alot since I got them and evan if more "white" light would have a slight increase I am ok without it. I love the color of my tank.

 

[glb]

Thanks everyone! Sounds like I need more white light, but I don't like the look. My corals don't glow like they do at the lfs. Maybe more white light and a stunner strip would do it. I don't know much about lighting but sounds like I got bad advice from the lfs. What a surprise.

 

[Wrx5803]

My buddy made my led strip with 14-3 watt leds over a 48" tank. I was amazed at the color tint it added to my previous 6 bulb fixture that had alot of white. I dont think you would be unhappy with a nice strip to help with what ever combo you decide to go with.

 

[glb]

Thanks everyone for the advice! For now I changed the blue actinic bulb to 10000k daylight white. So now I'm 25% actinic blue and 75% white. The tank is a lot brighter! This is what I had before so hopefully everything will start growing again. Here it is:

 

[glb]

Well, so far so good. The zoas seem to like the higher light. They're more open and not stretching as much.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Good stuff!!