6500k lighting question

[Andrew00000]

Alright here is my situation.

I have recently finished school and have a job I will soon be upgrading from my 10g to about 50g (haven’t decided exactly on what tank yet) I am planning the upgrade after January when I have made a dent in my student loans. Now at the moment I want to set up a grow out system as cheaply as possible to allow my softies to frag and grow as much as possible so when the new tank is done cycling. I have had a lot of luck doing this in my 10 so far.

Now here is my question. From what I understand around 6500k is the best bulbs for growth if you don’t care about how it looks to the human eye. I have found a good deal on 6500k NO bulbs and I was wondering if acentic supplementation is necessary. The corals are already under NO lamps and have been growing well. I know there are better ways to do this, but I have the chance to buy a 4 bulb system which would be 160 watts very cheaply and I have access to cheap materials to make a tank that is approx 48*10*12. (BTW this is softie only) Im thinking of throwing in a 40watt acentic tube, but that will pretty much double the cost.

What do you guys think?

Thanks
Andrew

[outy]

6500k also favors macros and hair algea

10000k and atinic will be your best bet

[NuclearReefs]

6500K is close to natural sunlight.. but you will get the yellowing.. its a trade off..

What configuration of bulbs are you thinking?

If you do 2X6500 with 2X actinics you should do well.. IMO

I use 6500K halides with actinics over my tank and love it.... great growth too

[ST33LR4T]

i ran 3 175w 6500k with 4 ho actinics and loved it, i had great growth.

[cristhiam]

Hi, I run 4 40W 6500K from Home Depot and 2 110W superactinics with 2 icecaps 660. Here is a pic of my tank. The big acro on the top was grown from an inch :) I got that one Nov 04, and I have fragged it many times. I had it in my 55 before the upgrade, but I did the same 3 40W 6500K and 1 110W actinic. Works pretty good. I did have a xenia problem before :)
125
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~pinatas/sidetank2.jpg
55G
http://www.home.earthlink.net/~pinatas/fulltank003.jpg

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8077292#post8077292 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by outy
6500k also favors macros and hair algea

10000k and atinic will be your best bet

Its a softie growout tank. Theres NO reason to use actinics. 4x6500K bulbs would work best.

As to the favoring algae, thats silly. You can't light limit algae. Period. 10kK/6500K/20kK, whatever, algae is still getting plenty of usable light. You have to fight algae on a nutrient level.

[silverwolf72]

In our club meeting we had Anthony Calfo talking about growing soft corals he basicaly said you just need cheap grow lights 6500k. The Actinics are pertty much just cause we like how they look.

[NuclearReefs]

Yep, 6500 is where you get the best growth.. I saw one tank not long ago with 4X40 watt 6500 NO Output florescents with 20K halides.. incredible tank! I'll try to get some pics to post...

cristhiam - Ayep,, Xenia Village will runneth over you not careful,,LOL

[Shawnts106]

6500k also favors macros and hair algea

As to the favoring algae, thats silly. You can't light limit algae. Period. 10kK/6500K/20kK, whatever, algae is still getting plenty of usable light. You have to fight algae on a nutrient level.

I was waiting for someone to say that.



Bottom line:
6500K is good, use it
Actinics are just going to make greens greener/etc...


For growth, use the 65K...


and happy fragging! :)

[outy]

i stand corrected :)

i wrongly poted it thinking that most of the popular fuge lights are 5100-6500k as well when my 10k bulbs get older and more yellow ive seen HA start and then with new bulbs the HA is gone.


again thanks for the lesson

[Andrew00000]

Thanks for the responses. Now all i have to do is figure the cheapest way to get flow and its all good. This reef thing is a lot simpler when you don't care what it looks or sounds like! I will keep you posted about how it goes

[The Grim Reefer]

Actually 6500K WILL grow algae better. Think about it people, they grow corals better:)

[HowardW]

I recently changed out a 54W Aquasun and a 54W Actinic white for 2 of the GE 6500K bulbs in my 4 X 54W T5 fixture to see what the difference would be, and I did notice that the bit of hair algae in that tank seemed to really take off and spread with the GE bulbs. I think both the color spectrum and overall light intensity has a noticable effect on algae growth assuming nutrient levels remain the same......in my experiences anyway.

[RichConley]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8086754#post8086754 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Actually 6500K WILL grow algae better. Think about it people, they grow corals better:)
Lol. You're right grim. 6500k will grow photosynthetic organisms better.


What it wont do is give algae an advantage.



Howard, you probably had a 50% increase in light there. That could cause algae.

But bottom line, if theres algae, theres nutrient issues.

[WarrenG]

Around the coral reefs I've dove on, algae tends to grow most in the top portion of the water column (0-20 feet deep) where the light is in the range of 5500-6500K, whereas many/most of the corals we like to grow in reef tanks are found deeper (15-90 feet deep), where the light is more blue.

[The Grim Reefer]

If you look at the hydroponics sites they usually have 3000K lamps and 6500K's. One is for growth and the other is for flowering. Honestly cant remember which is which.

I do know that algaes respond better to different wavelengths of light. It is pretty common to hear about people having algae outbreaks when PC lamps get too old. I was running some 14K halides and got a nasty hair algae outbreak. I tried adding snails, cutting back on feeding etc. One day I was looking at some pictures of the tank and noticed the lights now looked kinda grey compared to when I had put them in. I swapped out the lamps with some 10K's and within a week the hair algae was noticably less. In less than 3 weeks it was gone. That was definatly caused by the lamps.

A friend in the lighting industry told me about a project the company he is with has been working on for quite a while. They make lamps in certain spectrums for a university that is doing research with different algaes. They make specific lamps for different kinds of algaes. I have no idea what wavelength they are.

[zuzecawi]

Hmm... would be nice to get one specific to turf algae for our scrubber....

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8090730#post8090730 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zuzecawi
Hmm... would be nice to get one specific to turf algae for our scrubber....

PM me with the question so I don't forget you and I will see if I can get you an answer.

[WarrenG]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8089487#post8089487 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
If you look at the hydroponics sites they usually have 3000K lamps and 6500K's. One is for growth and the other is for flowering. Honestly cant remember which is which.

I do know that algaes respond better to different wavelengths of light. ...A friend in the lighting industry told me about a project the company he is with has been working on for quite a while. They make lamps in certain spectrums for a university that is doing research with different algaes. They make specific lamps for different kinds of algaes. I have no idea what wavelength they are.

Here are some links that may be of interest...
http://www.edbergphoto.com/pages/Tip-fluorescents.html

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2002/2/aafeature

[The Grim Reefer]

Two good articles WarrenG.

I have seen the second one before. They conclude PAR is more important than spectrum for coral growth. Of course that is such a short term experiment it is hard to say if they are 100 percent right. The Iwasaki 6500 halide is known for providing great growth but is it due to the spectrum or the massive PAR they provide?


The first has a great explanation of CRI. That is why I have been encouraging people to run as many different lamps as possible.