Reef Lighting = Overrated!

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Reef Lighting = Overrated!

Well is it or isn't it?

Over the past several years we have seen an influx of many different types of lighting and lighting fixtures. I have tried several from Compact Florescent (CF) all the way up to LED's and all those in between. While these different trends are interesting and fun to configure for our aquariums the question begs to be answered. Is all this light necessary?

A revelation of the mind and the hobby begin to form one day while my precious corals baked under a Lumen Max Elite reflector powered by a 250w metal halide bulb. The fact of the matter is that our corals and especially our fish do not need nor want all of that extreme light!

I agree it's nice to have a well lit tank and pretty corals, but this is something that can be accomplished without all the hoopla of the word par! Yes I said it! But then again your definition of pretty corals may be entirely different if you're into those pastel stick corals we call sps! Funny I know but now I hear there are other ways to obtain the Easter colors besides blasting the algae out of them. Does that make sense? HA!

So back to my "epiphany" if you will. I had noticed that my acan lords were looking like they wanted to recede and the flesh was really drawn in tight even in the lowest lit part of my tanning bed aquarium. So I decided I would try out a few in a frag tank that was lit by a single, cheapo as they come, T-5 Bulb fixture. Guess what happened? They started to recover, gain their color, fatten up and grow! Yes! So I eventually moved all my acan lords, even zoas and palys and almost all of my lps corals to the lower lit tank. They all thrived and are thriving. Saved a scolymia as well as a fungia coral in the process.

So many of us know that most lps prefer lower lighting but what I am finding out is that most if not all of our coral do not need to be excessively lit in order to thrive and be beautiful. I think in the long run our whole aquarium including our fish and electrical bill could benefit with a reduction in lighting.

Reef Lighting = Overrated!

Well is it or isn't it?

 

[geckoman2003]

Interesting concept.

 

[Speg]

Well...sorta...some coral color up in that lower lighting but some will turn brown in the lower light. Acans, like you mentioned, tend to look great under that low light but try to get insane color out of most acropora.

I agree with you though...can't be good for the fish!

 

[drainbamage]

Reef lighting is a horrible phrase IMO for all hobbyists- it's trying to lump together animals from 40m of different depths and millions of miles of oceanic separation into one category- not going to happen!!

So yea, when we come up with phrases like "my corals like XYZ lighting" or anything that encompassing, it creates a lot of informational problems. My SPS tank (30 gallon) is lit be a 4 bulb teklight, my LPS/Zoa tank (4'x2') is lit by a double bulb-gro light. Weirdly the Yuma's have thrived in the SPS tank though :squigglemouth:

 

[BlazinNano]

I agree. I think some people are going way over board with their lights. You see fixtures with T5s, MH, and LEDs. Every bulb is for a different coral. Well they are all in the same tank. I truly think all corals will adjust to lower light and still be able to color up and thrive. But not all corals will take the higher light. Plus can you imagine what the super bright lights are doing to the fishes eyes. Some peoples lights will light up their whole house. How do the fish like that. My fish only system is 6 feet long with 2 - 2 foot VHOs on it. I notice my fish swimming around more then the ones in the reef. The reef fish tend to hide in the rocks a little more. I say all this but I am not an SPS guy. If I wanted colorful stick I would spray paint trees.

 

[SDguy]

It really all depends on the specific corals you are keeping. Sweeping statements saying corals do need powerful lights are just as bad as sweeping statements saying they don't. It's the responsibility of the keeper to research as much as they can how much lighting their particular corals require, IMO.

 

[Alpha Aquaculture]

Its all about photosynthesis. I think its awesome how amazing a non-photosynthetic tank looks and I wish more people posted pictures of them. If we are talking about a photosynthetic reef then I must say I can't wait until a par meter is as cheap as a refractometer. It provides a way to quantify useable light and I believe it will make lighting discussions more factual in the future upon mainstream use. I think its great to think about this concept just for the electrical savings alone. Lowering the amount of light is a great idea for acclimating new corals as well. I think its a great idea to have a higher and lower light area within the same tank. I think its great that people start thinking about each coral and how to design a tank for that species. Not just lets get a tank and add corals. Many people recommend mono-species displays. To complicate things, I believe their are individual exceptions to each lighting rule for each species.

How are you quantifying the difference in lighting from your tanning bed tank to the frag tank?

We have to find a way to test, record, and plan lighting as a community for each type of coral. We are not quite there and I remember when learning corals that I became frustrated that the info was not more centralized. There are very fragmented informational sources for specific quantifiable lighting requirments for different corals. Its always been a high light, medium light, low light thing. But what really is high light and low light? Light needs to be measured like salinity. You don't hear people saying just keep your fish at a low salinity and corals at a high salinity. You say corals at 1.025 and fish at 1.023. Lighting needs to be defined better.


Btw, I have been feeling the same emotions lately. My 6 bulb ATI PM fixture which was recommended for my 18" wide tank might be too much for some corals. In the future I will be choosing my lights not based on general recommendations but on the specific needs of the corals I will be aquaculturing.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Well my point kinda is that yes some corals need that extreme light to get those awesome colors, but just because it's colorful doesn't mean it's healthy! :D Ever seen corals in the ocean? HA!

trust me when I say that if I am going to keep corals then I want them to look the best they can color wise. I am just kinda stirring the pot and provoking some good debate!

 

[nixer]

overrated i dont think so, perhaps the better suggestion would be that the market really lacks quality lighting. sure there are a few good eggs out there, but there are way more bad ones in every lighting type.

 

[BlazinNano]

Alpha makes a great point. What is high, med, and low lighting? Is low lighting having a very dim tank like the lighting in a fancy restaurant? Is high light turning a stadium light on in your house? I do think if par meters where as cheap as alot of other stuff in this hobby the lighting recommendations would change. It would be awesome to see this coral needs be at a par rating of XYZ. Also you could make parts of the tank with different light levels. It is just gonna cost you and be a pain. Say you run T5s well you want the back of the tank to have more light because that is where the SPS is. You can run bigger bulbs. But you want "low" light in the front of the tank so you run smaller bulbs. Now you have 6 bulbs all different strengths, each bulb has a controller or its own ballest. That is a pain. Almost all lights no matter what style are all made the same. They all do the same. Just some are better quality then others. I know wil LEDs they are controlable but what if you made a fully controlable T5 fixture. It would be expensive and you would have all different size bulbs. But you could make different parts of the tank look different. I don't think anyone will come out with the perfect fixture because what is perfect?

 

[Demonic]

How are you quantifying the difference in lighting from your tanning bed tank to the frag tank?

I can show you the difference. My tank is next to my wifes bed and the tank lighting is almost twice as strong, probably because of the better reflectors. but I will tell you that the bulbs are almost 3 times as much on the tanning bed and I get less time out of them before they need to be changed.

Lighting is all about pleasing ones wants. I have kept corals under just about any light....CF, 250 and 400 watt halides, T5, and about to order LED's. To me its just like electronics, of course my older TV works just fine, but I want what everyone is talking about. I had a Plasma and thought it was amazing, then I heard about LCD, of course I had to have it. Then LED, mindblowing, had to have it. The same goes with lights, protein skimmers, pumps. That Euro-reef could probably do the same job as my SWC 300A does, but does it look as cool in my signature, heck no. LOL

Its all about what you can afford, the same as what car you will drive. I am sure I do get different colors out of the corals but I am sure changing the spectrum in my bulbs will do the same thing. JMHO

 

[greg0385]

the local reef club here has a par meter, that you can borrow to find out what the par level for your own tank. and it has helped alot of the members to know where to put the corals. i think everyone should have access to one, if not then your local club should purchase one to have for their members. just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[hydroinnovations]

I have a 11' long tank and started out with (5) 400 watt lights and recently swiched them all out to 250 watts instead because my corals weren't really growing. The color was great but not much growth. What tipped me off is that coraline algae was growing really slowly in my DT and I had heard that its because of intense lighting which I now know is true. I thought about it for a minute....if coraline doesn't grow well under intense lighting why would this be any different from my coral.

I have a friend that he and I bought the same coral frag, he has the same amount of light per foot as I do but he runs them 6 hrs a day and I was running mine 12 hrs. Long story short his frag was growing twice as fast as mine. I reduced my light cycle to 8 hrs and reduced my total wattage from 2000 to 1250. This hasn't been very long but already my zoas started growing noticeably faster, can't really tell what the sps are doing just yet. There are several points about lighting that have to be considered, kelvin rating is one of them. For instance 250 watt 10k is brighter over my tank than a 400 watt 20k. Another is reflector quality which demonic brushed on. I have a different friend that also has 250 watts over his tank. He bought a par meter to test lighting and my reflectors were putting out 3x's the par than his reflector was...HUGE difference! There are even significant PAR rating differences between bulb manufactures of the same wattage.

PAR meter is really the only way to tell how much light is getting in the tank, wattage alone is not a good standard to recommend lighting for tanks. I was under the assumption that the more light you have the faster everything will grow, I don't believe that now.

 

[BlazinNano]

I was under the assumption that the more light you have the faster everything will grow, I don't believe that now.

+1 my chalices hated my MH. They love my T5s. I got a couple favias from a friend who runs all LEDs. The favia look nicer and grow twice as fast in under my T5s then under his LEDs. I think to much light could cause a problem with some corals. Maybe not all but some. So you have to think about what you actually want to keep.