Opinoin on too Much Light on a frag tank?

[grumpygils]

I have a 48 X 34 X 13 frag tank with sps,lps, zoas, leathers and about everything in it with ~100 frags. I was wondering if you can have too much light? I have
2 X 175 MHs
260 PC
and just installed 2 X 96W VHO.
Smokin bright. It is a grow tank so I run the lights ~ 15 hours a day. When can too much light be bad? Nothing looks hurt yet? Although I am hiding the ricordia.
Mc

 

[rldavisou]

Your tank is about 91 gallons, and you have 716 watts. This puts you at about 7.8 watts/gallon which is substantial, but by no means too much. Your tank is shallow since it's a frag tank, so I'd say you're doing ok. How much of this light is actinic? Actinic doesn't really count as "usable" light, since most photosynthetic light comes from the 10k range.

 

[coraljunky]

I use 3x175w mh over 3 20g tanks. Awesome growth!! Now I'm building a 33g long that will have 2x175w mh and 2x65 pc. Tank is 48"x12"x12"

 

[mscarpena]

I don't think it is too much light either, but the PC seems like a waiste with MH lighting. You are just wasting watts and running up your electric bill in my opion. I would ditch the PC and just upgrade to 2x250's watt MH or go with 3x175 watt MH. You would only be at 525 watts instead of 725 watts that would save you 3000 wats of use per day. Thats a big savings on your electric bill. Not to mention you bulb change. PC bulbs are not cheap to replace.

 

[grumpygils]

Originally Posted by mscarpena
I don't think it is too much light either, but the PC seems like a waiste with MH lighting. You are just wasting watts and running up your electric bill in my opion. I would ditch the PC and just upgrade to 2x250's watt MH or go with 3x175 watt MH. You would only be at 525 watts instead of 725 watts that would save you 3000 wats of use per day. Thats a big savings on your electric bill. Not to mention you bulb change. PC bulbs are not cheap to replace.

Glad to hear it is not too much. I probably will ditch the PCs, now that I have the VHO. 200W VHO, smokes 260 watts PC. I only have 1 X65 W 50/50 actinic. So basically about 32.5 watts actinic. Ha Ha. Don't want to go with another MH set up. There is a possibility I might have a deal on 2 X 400 MHs and I would replace the 175s. Again that would be about 1200 wattas on 90G. Take away the PCs and it is still 1,000.
Mc
P.S. My wife is seeking counseling for me!

 

[reefkprz]

Originally Posted by rldavisou
Your tank is about 91 gallons, and you have 716 watts. This puts you at about 7.8 watts/gallon which is substantial, but by no means too much. Your tank is shallow since it's a frag tank, so I'd say you're doing ok. How much of this light is actinic? Actinic doesn't really count as "usable" light, since most photosynthetic light comes from the 10k range.
I would have to disagree with the actinic not counting as usable. as 420 to 460 nanometer wave length is actually usable in photosynthesis by corals. while it doesnt have the par intensity of 10k it is still definatly usable especially for deep water/low light corals. (you could easily grow mushrooms on pure actinic light)

just as an example if actinic light was truly useless we would just buy black light bulbs (370NM=not useful for photosynthesis) for the blue and flourescing look instead of spending far more money on 420-460 NM bulbs.

 

[ghiggi]

I have to agree with reefkprZ. Actinic light is where the corals get most of the their color from. It feeds the zooxanthellae as seen in this chart:

You can see the zooxanthellae are very active in the blue spectrum.
I would switch the PCs over to 50/50 Actinics. They are half True Actinic (420nm) and half Actinic Blue (460nm). You will definitely notice a difference in the colors of your corals.

 

[grumpygils]

Originally Posted by ghiggi
I have to agree with reefkprZ. Actinic light is where the corals get most of the their color from. It feeds the zooxanthellae as seen in this chart:

You can see the zooxanthellae are very active in the blue spectrum.
I would switch the PCs over to 50/50 Actinics. They are half True Actinic (420nm) and half Actinic Blue (460nm). You will definitely notice a difference in the colors of your corals.
Nice chart. I always knew actinics were good for certain corals. Maybe I will switch the entire PC (260) over to actinic for a while and see what happens?
Mike

 

[ghiggi]

I have a 135g with 2x400W MH 14k's and 4x96W PC 50/50 Dual Actinic. I used to have 50/50 Daylight/Actinic (half 10K/half Actinic 03), but I figured the corals were getting enough white light from the MH so I switched over to the 50/50 Dual Actinics and the colors of my corals are getting better all the time.
I got a kinda washed out red mushroom from a friend and it stayed washed out until after adding the Dual Actinics. Then the blue dots came out and it turns out it's a Superman Mushroom. Very cool.

 

[mscarpena]

I agree actinic lighting is useful in Photosynthesis.