Are MH's really the way to go

[Willow]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

the first pic at the very begining of the thread, you linked tothe second half and ya not a powder blue but a powder turquoise

not a powder anything, it looks like a naso.

somewhere on that thread there is a video if you don't believe those colors are real. i believe he used prodibio and zeovit so it's not surprising the colors are so vibrant.

[Snappy]

I was thinking about adding some extra lighting to my system. I think I'll take a look into some T5's and see if I can mount them into my existing unit. Even if those pictures are tweeked a little with photoshop the stuff looks great.

[aquanot]

Allright already ! The colour may be because of the combo of bulbs .On my 3 foot tank I have 2 -21 watt 20,000k actinics 1-39 watt HO 6500k and 1-21 watt 6500k for a wopping total of 102 watts .I keep softies ,LPS ,crocea and squamosa clams .The clams are on the bottom off the tank and most of the time the mantles are fully extended down to the sandbed. I find the colour just right,not too white or too blue.

[bnhreef]

Hey all,

I just wanted to pipe in here one last time. Cam, the originator of this thread, asked me several questions regarding his desires for a larger setup. We all know that there are several solutions to several issues or requirements in reefing. I just gave him my personal opinion.

Hi my name is Brad and I am lazy. I've been lazy now for several years. My last lazy trip was yesterday.

All jokes aside, I try to maintain a reef with minimal effort. I do however like an open top tank and I find myself in the water arms deep quite often.

I have one 250W DE Geisman in a PFO pendant over my tank. That's it. One day if I'm richer, I may need another pendant. I like the pendants because they offer me availability to my tank (I can get in there easier, also I can shut the pumps off and admire things from overhead).

I do wish I could cover more of my corals with a blanket of light as offered from VHO's, T5's, and PC's...Also, I think my bulb is a 14500k, which offers some fluorescing aspects to the corals but not as much as I want. If I was to add another light, it would be a 20000K bulb.

I don't like to spend continually on equipment so I went with MH's, hoping that I won't have quality of light loss as soon as the other fluorescent type bulbs.

Cam is correct to have asked the forum for differing opinions. I just found what works for me, today. That may change tomorrow.

The article posted on reefcentral and alluded to earlier in this thread about "iwan's" reef aquarium is Switzerland is an interesting one. I never thought about where exactly the color in corals come from. I just assumed it was contained the pigments created by the zooxanthelae (sp?) to trap photons. It never occured to me that it might be in the proteins coded by the DNA of the coral itself, makes sense....

I admire what "iwan" has achieved, I just don't want to do water changes weekly as I am lazy. To be honest with all of you, I set up a tank last August and I didn't do a water change until last month when Cam started up his 20 gal. I skim and grow macro, that's it ...but in the last month I have done almost a 100% water change.

I'm lazy (accept for this long-winded post)


Brad