A thought on lighting

[Slick Fork]

Well, This was going to start out as a rant about suppliers but I decided I'd rather just talk about lighting...

So, I've given up my MH light set-up and am putting together a retro-fit t-5 (ok here comes the mini-supplier rant because it IS background) The MH fixture went a week and a half ago, simply put because I had a buyer with cash in hand. A little interest from others but that doesn't always translate into a sale. I didn't have any of my t5 parts at that time but figured all the websites showed stuff in stock so I could go ahead and start placing my orders and everything would come together nicely with a minor blackout period for the critters. Anyways, after a lot of stress with delayed shipments incorrect orders etc. My stuff has finally started arriving and I was working on putting everything together tonight. I won't point fingers at anyone because in 99% of the cases it wasn't even the retailer at fault but the supplier behind them so I couldn't even do a lot of yelling. Anyways, I'm getting off topic here.

So, for the last week and a half I have had my corals under an old style 4 bulb 36" tek fixture with a really bad case of salt corrosion on the reflectors and you know what... my tank doesn't look nearly as bad as I thought it should in fact, it doesn't look bad at all. I have Acro's and Monti's and a few LPS, even the clam on the sandbed isn't looking too much worse for wear. This is after 2 days of complete darkness and 10 days of what should be sub-standard lighting.

Now, I'm not suggesting that long-term success can be had in a 110 gallon tank with a 36" 4 bulb light but it has made me consider the sheer amount of energy we throw at our tanks and whether or not it's really necessary. My tank was under a 2x250watt HQI Metal Halide with 2x54 watt t5's. They have been surviving without any real colour loss (in fact some have gained a little colour) under a fixture consuming a third the energy.

Any thoughts? For the record, I plan to have all 8 bulbs of my new fixture firing over the tank tommorow or thursday at the latest so I don't plan to test my luck and see how little light these can actually survive with!