A lighting question for my sps corals.

[Hingeback]

I am using Iwasaki 6500k bulb ( 150w ) to light my reef giving good results for growth. I am losing colour as expected. I am now feeling more confident about my sps keeping skills and would therefore like to develope some of my corals colours as well as growth. I would also like to keep the colour as nice on this Acro that my children bought me for fathers day.

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e261/Hingeback/P6056424.jpg

So !!!!

Going to add a Iwasaki 150W Double-ended 20000k Metal Halide Lamp

http://www.omnima.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=16

My plan is to run the 6500k for 5 hours and the 2000k for 5 hours with a cross over period of 2 hours. Will this be beneficial or detremental the corals, obviously i may lose some growth but the upside is I may get some of the colour back. I cannot run them both together for the 10 hours due to the electric costs. Prices are getting seriously crazy over here in the UK. With my other tanks ect I really do need to economise.

Or would you advise another regime of lighting. your veiws would be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes

[hiepatitis]

go to 250w

[Hingeback]

hi hiepatitis,

Thanks for the reply. 250w of any type is out of the question. 250w for 10 hours is more expensive than 8 hours of 150w and 2 hours of 300w, which is what i am proposing. The 2 hour of 300w is so as not to shock fish / corals on switching over. I might even be able to cut that to an hour.

The full range of Iwasaki 150w bulbs are supposed to be as good as some of the 250w on the market.
www.reefsuk.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=26102
www.omnima.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=9
www.omnima.co.uk/forums/index.php?showtopic=8.

Unfortunately I was seriously injured in an accident a number of years ago, leaving me quite seriusly disabled. My tanks are and have been a godsend to me and I can pass many hours just watching them.
I am not in a position to work, so cannot do overtime ect to earn extra to pay for my hobby. I have a set income and my wife works and I cannot justify spending more on electric or expect my wife to work more hours just to pay for my hobby. Everything is rising, food, fuel, electric, gas, water ect. I have to economise somewhere.

My object is to try to improve lighting without feeling I am draining the national grid. :D :D

[graveyardworm]

Are you currently running the 6500k for 10 hrs?

[Hingeback]

Yes I am running the 6500k for 10 hours and as mentioned I have good growth but you do lose colour. I have a beautiful green Monti that is now an orange brown, phenominal growth on it but not as pretty as it was.

Thankyou for your reply.

best wishes

[graveyardworm]

I dont see any problem with your plan, but I cant say whether it would help things to color up. Why not just switch to a crisp 10k? Best of both worlds. Plenty of PAR for growth and some blue spikes for color.

["L"]

250 14Ks will bring out great colors.

[Hingeback]

The address below is the unit that I purchased. You can only get 6500k or 20000k bulbs at present to fit the unit.
As you can see the unit is a very good price compared to most units.

www.omnima.co.uk/store/home.php?cat=250

So what I am going to do is buy

www.reefsuk.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=51&t=25348

with a 20000k bulb. This unit as you will see is the normal mh fitting and also has the full spectrum of bulbs to fit. If the above plan does not work I can then swap bulbs to suit.

''L'' Thanks for your reply. As already stated I am not / cant go up with my wattage. I had originally took off a 250w 10000k unit to reduce costs.

Best wishes

[Rouselb]

20k are low PAR. If you only want to run 150W you should stick closer to the 10k range IMO. Look at sanjays page to get an idea of PAR ratings for bulbs.