Metal Halides question regarding supplementing lights

[zemuss]

I was wondering if anyone else is only running a MH light without any supplement lighting? The reason for the questions is because it seems corals that I still have turn brown or lose color over time.

Curious if I should add actinic bulbs or some other type of lighting to help keep the coral colors.

 

[lemonyx]

What Mh's are you running now?

 

[mike007]

May be that your lighting is too much. How long do you run them? With intense lighting corals require more supplements.

 

[zemuss]

I have a 250 watt MH over a Solana 34 gallon (dimensions 20x20x20)

I run the light for about 7 hours.

Its a birds nets that went from green to brown.

 

[BillyC]

Unless your bulbs are old, lighting doesn't seem to be the reason. Check your phosphates and nitrates.

 

[Tony_D]

That seems like it might be too much light! I run a 150w MH over my Solana and dont have any problems without running supplementation. I run a 9.5hours light cycle and just switched from 14k to 20k.

 

[zemuss]

Ok.. well the sooner I build my LED array the better.

 

[Jim_Dont_Care]

what brand and Kelvin are they ? if you have a ballast that produces 3.2 amps radium is a great stand lone build if you like the 20k look.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I run 250w 22k Halides over a 24" deep tank. Did you just get this coral from an LFS, and not acclimate it to your lighting? I don't run any supps with my lighting.

 

[mike007]

That a lot of light for that size tank. You might need to raise it higher above tank. Actinic light will not help much with growing corals. Also the bulbs nbeed changing every 8-12 months. Go led my friend.

 

[Tek]

That is enough light. Are you running a 14-15k bulb? Where is the birdsnest in the tank? Lighting at 9 hours seems to be the sweet spot for me and colors are dependent on water parameters also. I had to reduce my PO4 and supplement more to bring some colors back.


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