Frag tank lighting... What's the best for growth?

[gobytron]

MAYBE in alberta sloatubes MIGHT work.
Calgary is the 2nd sunniest city in Canada.


even then, it's doubtful there is enough annual sun to make solatubes work for a reef aquarium....especially a frag tank.


Do a little research into it and you'll see that a significant number of solatube tanks actually need supplemental lighting.

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by gobytron

MAYBE in alberta sloatubes MIGHT work.
Calgary is the 2nd sunniest city in Canada.

I would say Calgary is the sunniest city in Canada. You can't really call Manyberries a city. Either way, I would still stick with LED's of some sort to save on cost and heat over time, even if it is still up in the air on growth. I have a birdsnest that grows like a weed under my led's and my darth mauls have double the number of polyps since I got them.

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by Seriak

I would say Calgary is the sunniest city in Canada. You can't really call Manyberries a city. Either way, I would still stick with LED's of some sort to save on cost and heat over time, even if it is still up in the air on growth. I have a birdsnest that grows like a weed under my led's and my darth mauls have double the number of polyps since I got them.

Doesnt change the fact that solatubes, even in the SECOND sunniest city in Canada, will not work.

LED's have not really even been proven to save on cost...especially with halides being so much cheaper than when the LED/Halide debate started.

If even one small thing goes wrong with your led fixture, unless your a technically savvy individual your costs will rise significantly.

[Nano]

Originally Posted by gobytron

Doesnt change the fact that solatubes, even in the SECOND sunniest city in Canada, will not work.

LED's have not really even been proven to save on cost...especially with halides being so much cheaper than when the LED/Halide debate started.

If even one small thing goes wrong with your led fixture, unless your a technically savvy individual your costs will rise significantly.

I dunno my power bills gone down a bit since switching to leds on my tank, mind you, that its small scale, I would imagine that a large tank running 4-5 halides switching to leds the savings would be much larger then in my experience it'd only like$4-$5 a mo.th I save in comparison to my old t5 mh set up

[sphelps]

Drilling holes in your roof and installing solar tubes for a frag tank will do nothing except earn you a prime location in the book of dumbest reefer's ever.

For a frag tank keep it simple, go with a DIY led 50/50 array of white and royal blue. Save money and go non-dimable as this won't be overly useful on a frag tank. A 48 LED kit is probably about the right size for the tank. Once established with proper flow and water chemistry, if you still find growth lacking it'll be easy to add additional LEDs as you see fit.
http://www.rapidled.com/48-ultra-pre...-non-dimmable/

[Seriak]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Drilling holes in your roof and installing solar tubes for a frag tank will do nothing except earn you a prime location in the book of dumbest reefer's ever.

For a frag tank keep it simple, go with a DIY led 50/50 array of white and royal blue. Save money and go non-dimable as this won't be overly useful on a frag tank. A 48 LED kit is probably about the right size for the tank. Once established with proper flow and water chemistry, if you still find growth lacking it'll be easy to add additional LEDs as you see fit.
http://www.rapidled.com/48-ultra-pre...-non-dimmable/

Agreed. Especially in the sunniest city in Canada.

[michika]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you used to get better growth out of yellower bulbs, but would get better colour under bluer ones, but with less growth. Last I looked into the subject many reefers were starting to experiment with reds (if using LEDs). Granted its been awhile, but you may want to target your search towards people doing colour spectrum research, or experiments.

[FishyFishy!]

Originally Posted by michika

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you used to get better growth out of yellower bulbs, but would get better colour under bluer ones, but with less growth. Last I looked into the subject many reefers were starting to experiment with reds (if using LEDs). Granted its been awhile, but you may want to target your search towards people doing colour spectrum research, or experiments.

Yup you are right. A 7600K / 10,000K halide bulb would produce the most growth, but lack in color (however corals would most likely color up after adjusting to your DT lighting). He did ask about the best growth.

Higher Temps produce more color, but slower growth. IMO on a frag tank I would go with 2 X 250W Halides with 10-14K bulbs, or the 48 LED kit from Rapid LED or Modular LED like Steve suggested.

Oh yeah... and Sonotubes would be the most useless thing ever on a frag tank. Most DT's with sonotubes require supplimental lighting if not full lighting setups.

[MarkoD]

Lol my point was that the sun would be the best lighting. But wow people really like beating a horse that was dead to begin with