lighting comparison

tgoeujon · #1 01-02-2009, 05:02 AM

im thinking of shutting down my 55 gallon reef but im kinda nervous of moving everything into my 110. my 55 is 18" tall and has pc lighting, 2x 10000k and 2x actinic, all bulbs are 65 watt. my 110 is 30" tall and has 2x geissman 150 watt mh, and 2 x 96 watt actinic. the reason im worried is because i am having amazing growth out of all my sps under the pc and dont want to lose any of them. will this be a worthwhile swap? any opinions are welcome. also wondering about how quickly i can transfer corals ( can i move alot at once or will it be like fish and only move like 1 or 2 every couple of weeks)

ps are there any anemones that host clowns that actually stay put. i hate it when they put themselves in problematic places. lol

banditpowdercoat · #2 01-02-2009, 05:21 AM

I'll be interested in seeing how everything reacts too. Im conltemplating a lighting change?? I'm starting to long for the halide shimmer. Atleast, I need to change my T5 bulbs. change in spectrum is in order I think

tgoeujon · #3 01-02-2009, 06:36 AM

im just hoping i can get down to one tank in the future instead of maintaining three forever

banditpowdercoat · #4 01-02-2009, 03:45 PM

Ohh, and the SPS should thrive under the MH. Especially if they doing great under PC's. I don't think with my T5's, I could do SPS. Maybe right at the top of my rockwork, but that's it. Just acclimate them to the light. Try the MH for a hr or 2 the first day, then a little longer, then longer. They will get used to it quickly from what I understand, and with less stress than the fish sometimes.

PS, got any hearty SPS that you wana trade? I got a Orange skirt Zoo for trade

fishytime · #5 01-02-2009, 04:02 PM

If the tank is properly cycled, you should be able to move all the coral at once. Coral doesnt add much of a bio-load at all, compared to fish. The fish you may have to be a little more careful with. First time Ive ever heard of someone being worried about putting sps under MH. As said previously as long as you acclimate the coral to the light you should be ok.

fishoholic · #6 01-02-2009, 04:27 PM

I've done tank moves before a 65g to a 120g and then a 30g and a 120g to a 230g tank. Both times I moved everything over all on the same day. Only loss I had was not noticing that my firefish jumped out during the move of the 65g to the 120g. Other then that everything went smoothly.

sharuq1 · #7 01-02-2009, 05:30 PM

We had our sps under pc lighting when we upgraded from the 48 to the 120g and it was doing great there. That particular move was done all in one day. After moving it, some of it did brown out a bit due to the change, but only for a time--then started to gain even better color and developed some colors we had not previously seen under the pc's. I'm sure your corals will be very happy under the mH's.

GreenSpottedPuffer · #8 01-02-2009, 05:34 PM

I find that if i even move my sps to a new spot in the tank, they sometimes get a little brown for a few days to a week. Different flow, light, ect will effect them even within the same tank, so you will see a change when moving them but then I would say the upgrade in lighting will make them grow/look much better in the long run.

tgoeujon · #9 01-02-2009, 07:12 PM

i understand the mh is better than the pcs but my concern is more with the depth since i want to have some room for grow out my rock work wont go right to the top and 18" compared with 30" is gonna be a big jump