Lighting - What does it mean?

[jpeterson]

Originally Posted by CollegeReefer I should add that I do understand that opinions differ and that for your website your little intro to lighting is a great idea but I want to encourage any new hobbyist on fishfourms to do further reading on the subject. One thing I would like to see added to your little guide is about bulbs and bulb life. Too many new hobbyist neglect there bulbs which I did early on in the hobby

Steph likes to keep everything on her experience as she knows it works and has never had any problems in the whole time she has kept marine. She is not saying that what you say is wrong but she disagrees because of her experience in the subject. We will all have opinions and im sure most of them are right. We feel the article gives enough information to get newbies searching about and learning more. If you would like to write up a more detailed article we would much appreciate it!

[CollegeReefer]

Originally Posted by TheOldSalt heh. I used to get pretty good results from T-8's, but nowadays I wouldn't even consider using them if I could avoid it. I still can't afford LED, so that makes me a T-5 guy. In fact, I just ordered a new T-5 doublestrip for a 20-long destined to be a new reeftank in about two months. It's a shallow tank, so that should work well enough, eh? I'm thinking that this tank will be Zoanthid City, with maybe some cool Rics or Acans.

I love T5! Did you go with 24 watt or 39 watt bulb fixture? That is one of the downsides of the 20L and 29 gallon tanks because they are 30” long. If you venture into LPS you might want to add another 2 bulbs. On my 29 gallon frag tank I was using the Nova extreme pro I won at one of the tours of Drs. Foster and Smith. The upside is the fixture had 6 bulbs, the downside was the fixture was too short for the tank which meant I had to use glass to keep it from falling in the tank. Not the best thing to do but hey I had to work with what I had.



I might still consider using them in my build. If I do I will go with 8-10 bulb retro. I really wouldn’t be saving on energy cost from the light but I would save on cooling cost but for the time being I am still leaning towards two 250 watt MH with reeflux 12000 Kelvin bulbs and lumen bright reflectors. As for the T-8 most places I shop don’t even sell them anymore. It is even getting harder to get VHO bulbs (locally) these days.

[funlad3]

Just a recommendation, someone should sticky this thread. I'm finding it much more informative and interesting than books.

[CollegeReefer]

Please don’t take me wrong it is a nice article for your store and a better intro to lighting then most have on online stores. Even though I read it a few times I think I forgot who your audience is. I just had my own thoughts about it which is why I posted. I also have just seen too many people say “well that is what the store said” and didn’t do any of their own research which always bothers me. I think the LED comment through me off more than anything and the two much light comment. T-8 also through me off. But that is my big head getting in the way. You should also know that I hate PC lighting because t5 are so much better when it comes to light output. I predict in the next couple of years you won’t be able to get new PC fixtures. Will you be carrying all the different types of lights? What about VHO’s? You should tell Steph to join the forums we could use more salties on this forum. I hope you got my PM about one link not working on your site. It is an easy fix.

[CollegeReefer]

Seeing that this is a good lighting thread I thought I would post this article from 2007. It is a little dated but has some good information. It is part of reefkeeping magazine newbie corner.

Reefkeeping 101: Lighting

[jpeterson]

Originally Posted by CollegeReefer Please don’t take me wrong it is a nice article for your store and a better intro to lighting then most have on online stores. Even though I read it a few times I think I forgot who your audience is. I just had my own thoughts about it which is why I posted. I also have just seen too many people say “well that is what the store said” and didn’t do any of their own research which always bothers me. I think the LED comment through me off more than anything and the two much light comment. T-8 also through me off. But that is my big head getting in the way. You should also know that I hate PC lighting because t5 are so much better when it comes to light output. I predict in the next couple of years you won’t be able to get new PC fixtures. Will you be carrying all the different types of lights? What about VHO’s? You should tell Steph to join the forums we could use more salties on this forum. I hope you got my PM about one link not working on your site. It is an easy fix.

Steph is part of another forum and has quite a big role there helping people, there ain't many over there either! Personally i haven't really keep marine but! I bought a 240l tank and will be making that marine. Ill be making a Journal for it on here as well as the other forums I go on!

If you have a look around the coral pages on Linnaeus you will see we have lighting as a section for the coral. That then redirects to the article we have for lighting which may help you understand a bit more. For example...

Lighting & Feeding: Not very picky, they can tolerate a wide range of lighting conditions, placing them in the low lighting (what does this mean?) category. Although survivable, very low lighting will greatly decrease growth and may fade colors slightly. Colors may also begin to bleach if too high of lighting is used. In the case of metal halides, zoas should be placed very low in the rockwork to maintain strong color. These corals are mainly photosynthetic and do not require supplemental feeding, however, it will increase growth. Recommended foods include: phytoplanktons, small zooplanktons (such as rotifers or brine shrimp), Oyster Feast, small pellets etc. In order to feed, simply target feed polyps with chosen food and either spray or drop food over the polyps. In response to feeding, individual polyps should close over the food in order to digest it.

It explains in more details which lighting that coral prefers. So, we think that if they decide for marine they are going to look for what they want in the tank. They then read the coral article and see the info about lighting for that coral. We then have the link "what does this mean" which takes them to the lighting article which tells them what bulbs are suitable for their tank for the coral they want.

Hope that made sense!