6 Watts Per Gallon. What else to Add?

euphoria

Active Member
With them below your PC bulbs, they would reduce the amount of light actually getting to the tank from the PC bulbs. [/B]
How so?
 

euphoria

Active Member
I don't have VHO's. The two bulbs that I put under and in the middle of the PC's are regular 48" T12 bulbs made by coralife.
They sit about an inch below the PC bulbs and are sitting in the middle of the two rows of PC bulbs.
If you guys are positive that even this configuration will block the PC light and actually hurt me, please let me know ASAP so I can remove them.
Thanks a lot
 

viper_930

Active Member
Are they normal outputs? If so, then they don't even put out enough light for their watts to be counted, so you'd just have the 260 watts of PC. They are probably reducing your light going into your tank, so I'd remove them.
 

euphoria

Active Member
They each are 40W bulbs, so 80W total. I know it's not a lot of power, but isn't 260+80 better than 260W alone?
 

viper_930

Active Member
They are different kinds of bulbs. Normal outputs are as close to nothing as you can get. They aren't really worth mentioning. No photosynthetic coral can be kept under normal output lights alone anyways. They are probably doing more harm than good because of blocking light from the PC lights. Just as a comparison, 9 watts of PC is much better than 40 watts of NO.
 

euphoria

Active Member
Wow, I never knew that. I thought wattage is wattage.
So the fact that w/ my two T12's ON, the tank is brighter, doesn't necessarily mean that there's more light reaching inside?
 
K

kistheeze

Guest

Originally posted by ViPeR_930
They are different kinds of bulbs. Normal outputs are as close to nothing as you can get. They aren't really worth mentioning. No photosynthetic coral can be kept under normal output lights alone anyways.

I'm sorry - normally I don't get upset, but you've been spewing a lot of crap in this thread.
What you said is completely untrue. Saying something with the words In my opinion, or even in my experience is way different than stating what you're saying as fact.
There are PLENTY of people that have successful reef tanks with just normal output lighting. Granted, the SPS corals are either not there - or low light and non-impressive colored.
There is NOTHING wrong with NO lighting. And it can and should be counted.
 
K

kistheeze

Guest
ok. So - you're saying 100 watts of PC or 100 watts of VHO will make corals happier than 100 watts of NO?
 

flatzboy

Active Member

Originally posted by Mongoose
Ummmmm nooooo....certian SPS corals can be kept without a MH. I would recommend trying out some montipora digitata or caps, I've had great sucess with them in my tank...my acro is even showing some slow growth and keeping its color
Head on over to reefcentral thier was a similar thread over thier where another guy has similar results that I'm having keeping SPS's under PC's
With that being said my next tank is for sure going to have Mh's they are definatly better and you cannot get the intesity of of them with VHO's or PC's
BTW: I have a 130W of PC on a 29G

You can keep them under pc, vho, or t-5s but your better off going with metal halides. You shouldn't skimp on lighting for such delicate creatures, they might be able to get by but they wouldn't be the happiest or healthiest thing either. :D
 

euphoria

Active Member
I don't understand how people kept successful reef tanks less than a decade ago, when there was no such thing as PC or VHO or MH technology? They still managed to keep most types of corals w/ NO lighting? Now some of you guys say that it's impossible.
Anyways, the question I had at first is being diverged from. I just want to know if I should remove my two NO bulbs, that are sitting under and in the middle of my PC's (they are not blocking the PC bulbs) or should I keep them lit.....
Maybe I should buy one of those devices that measures light intensity and figure this out myself.
 

viper_930

Active Member
I have never heard of anybody keeping a reeftank with NO bulbs other than newbs that did not know better. NO bulbs are really really low intensity and do not provide enough light for photosynthetic corals to live and grow.
ok. So - you're saying 100 watts of PC or 100 watts of VHO will make corals happier than 100 watts of NO?
55 watts of PC or VHO will make them happier than 100 watts of NO.
JMO <---This better?
 

viper_930

Active Member
Kistheeze, when I said that NO bulbs don't even put out enough watts to be counted, I meant it in Euphoria's situation. Because 260 watts of PC + 80 watts of NO does not equal the same as 360 watts of PC, even though both add up to 360 watts (errr did I do my math wrong?) nvm that but the first one adds up to 340 not 360 watts.
It would be like I put a 9 watt PC ontop of my tank and add 200 more incandescent watts. This would add up to 209 watts, but it isn't nearly the same as 209 watts of PC.
 

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by EUPHORIA
I don't understand how people kept successful reef tanks less than a decade ago, when there was no such thing as PC or VHO or MH technology?

MH's have been around for a long time, HO's and VHO's too. I've seen some nice reefs with just NO's.
 

viper_930

Active Member

Originally posted by golfish
I've seen some nice reefs with just NO's.

Ok, I believe it now after hearing if from 2 ppl, but it must'a been much much more than 80 watts.
 

golfish

Active Member

Originally posted by ViPeR_930
Ok, I believe it now after hearing if from 2 ppl, but it must'a been much much more than 80 watts.

The last one that I remember was about a 100 gal and it had 4 to 6 bulbs on it. The corals were softies and LPS.
 

euphoria

Active Member
Well seems like opinions are mixed here. I have come to agree that 80W of NO is not same as 80W of PC. I guess it's other factors besides wattage. Maybe the 'lumens' ( I think that's what its called) of 80W NO is not the same as that of PC's.
In any case, for now I turned my NO's off again. 260W is enough for the corals I have so far. I just thought if I can add more light, and I have it at home already, why not add them?
One thing's for sure though, my tank looks less bright w/ the NO's turned off.
 
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