- Joined
- Nov 30, 2015
- Messages
- 136
- Reaction score
- 43
Sorry, my bad. I am used to people getting really aggressive and nasty about lighting - for no reason I have ever figured out! I shouldn't have assumed you were doing that.
IME the growth is really about feeding coral appropriate sized foods. More the better if you can keep up water quality that is.
I had a biocube 14 that was all SPS - it was cool, but I had to frag those coral every single week, and it was so dense I couldn't reach to the bottom of the tank. It was like a little bonsai garden because I would take some of the frags and reattach them to the original colony to drive growth in neat ways or to make super thick stalks. Sadly I never took photos before tearing it down, but it was LED too. I had to be really conscious of the shading in that little tank, but since I had to frag all the time I just trimmed the colones so shading wasn't bad doing that.
I do think recomendations really depend on the type of tank too. Mixed reefs have a lot more leeway with coverage and LPS or softie only tanks shadowing isn't nearly as bad since the corals move around and get light on different parts (at least much more than SPS). I think most manufactures are getting better with recommendations though saying full SPS only tanks need more coverage and not just more power.
That is a tough choice on what to do. Hope to see what you eventually decide though!
I personally hate buying bulbs. It's silly I know, but to me it's like buying tires which I also dislike and put off. I never really list that as a factor for most people, because I think it's just me that gets terribly annoyed by it and puts it off way too long!
It's all good and yea there are some seriously unhappy people on here and the PC police are out in full force. I'm the last one to get pi$$ed over silly stuff. I'll give someone my .02 and they can take it or leave it. I've had people go totally out of their way to disagree and make a point to continue going on and on I'm assuming it's because they are unhappy people with crappy lives that live behind a keyboard with their wealth of googled knowledge and they have to be heard--that really is laughable. I'm not going to say who but they were showing off their tank the other day and I'll just say what a joke (I'm not one to judge but they sure were) but they sure knew it all and just couldn't let a suggestion be. People are funny!
lol I had a 18 viaAqua that I never took photos of (wish I had) oops. That tank grew acros like your tank I needed 18'' long tweezers to get to the bottom. Most of what hit the bottom stayed there and typically would take off- there was so much acro that it just didn't matter. I was in the business and hobby for years and everyone that saw that little tank couldn't believe how crazy the growth was. I even made a point of not doing any water changes (only fresh water TOs) for a good 6 months and nothing slowed down. I finally changed the water because I just couldn't keep abusing it but it really seemed like everything was so balanced that as long as I kept the skimmer cleaned and topped off with fresh water it could've gone indefinitely. I did add chemicals when I got around to it but I never tested anything. Thats something I think people put way to much time into--if the tank is established and the bio-load is on point the tank should be some what self-sufficient but thats my .02.
What are your thoughts? Right now I have 4 very old lol 54 watt T5s 2 white 2 blue it's an oceanic tank with the splash guard going all the way around the top of the tank (it looks like a 4" lip so I'm losing out on 8"s of potential lighting space) so I'm thinking----
1 replace the T5s and add a LED strip light -- just laying both sets of lights across the top like the T5s are now.
2 replace the T5s with E5s and add a LED strip light
3 get a whole new 6 or 8 light (I'll have to measure to see what will fit) T5 fixture… up in the air about the T5s or E5s (input appreciated).
4 go all LED.
have you heard anything about any of these products I'm pretty clueless about LEDs and I'm all ears as far as which route to take…
http://www.ebay.com/itm/300W-LED-Aq...d=100010&rk=1&rkt=22&mehot=pp&sd=131416676956
http://www.ebay.com/itm/2PCS-165W-L...soffType=SaleAndClearence&_trksid=p5731.m3795
strip lights
http://www.amazon.com/MegaBrand-36-..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=0XCN2FQ0SNCBA5SNP1QP
http://www.amazon.com/Yescom-Multi-..._UL160_SR160,160_&refRID=08S517B2KR1K47T5GV0K