propagation tank ideas

[Jason McK]

Yes PAR is important but if the colour temp is less than 6000K you will likly only grow algea

J

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Use Daylight bulbs (Phillips from HD or GE from Wal-Mart). They're 6500k.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Use Daylight bulbs (Phillips from HD or GE from Wal-Mart). They're 6500k.

And if you can find one with a CRI above 90,your corals will keep good color

[fishmaster]

Originally Posted by Quagmire

And if you can find one with a CRI above 90,your corals will keep good color

What's CRI?
Shaun

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by fishmaster

What's CRI?
Shaun

Color rendering index the higher the CRI the closer to natural color

[kwirky]

GE makes 6000k colour temperature 20W's. They're usually about $10USD in american stores, better than the $20-30 each i've seen the coralife ones for sale here.

I'm also thinking just forking out the money for a teklight retro kit would be worth it. Go 2 bulbs over a 48"Lx10"Hx12"W tank. Would be enough for most things, and I could get another one later. I know it'd be higher quality than the dairy-queen bulbs and more reliable. And more versatile in case I decide on doing something else with the lights later. Those workhorse ballasts are pretty universal.

It'd be about $190 with bulbs if I went T5. Better than $15-20 each for the dairy queen ones, and probably needing at least 5 bulbs. That's at least $100 there for the cheap ones, not including sockets and wiring.

I think 2 bulbs over a 12" wide water surface would be fine in an 8" tank with a water depth of like 7.5"

It's funny. I've got 2 reef tanks going now. Only ~5 days after the 2nd one's running, and I'm already planning on another. I'm going end up with a fishroom before everyone else in the house realizes it's too late

[Jaws]

Sorry to hijack but what bulb, other than metal halide, could be used to grow sps if they're close to the top? I'm setting up a 24 by 24 by 18" deep refugium that will be divided in to two sections: one section for macro and the other section for sps frags. Right now I've got a Coralife 150W clip-on pendant but I would prefer to use that on a 33G LPS/Softie tank that I'm setting up. Thanks, and sorry to hijack again.

[andsoitgoes]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Use Daylight bulbs (Phillips from HD or GE from Wal-Mart). They're 6500k.

I've used those, but they are a bit yellow, however the growth is pretty darn good.

If you want a balance, look at the more expensive 50/50 coralife bulbs, they're 20w each (10w 10k and 10w actinic) and they look smashing, gorgeous color over my nano, and I get great growth from my softies, no real lps/sps outside of a small galazia and a few huge chunks of pipe organsm so I can't really comment other than to say I've got a tank with lots of growth and very solid color for over 7 months now.

[AndyL]

coralife 20w 50/50 screw ins...

Used to have a pair over my 2.5g - was good up to montipora's...