MH Lighting Dilema

[loos15]

Hi everyone, I got an interesting situation here... My currently lighting is a big lumeric III reflect with a 400w 20k ushio bulb driven by Icecap ballast. My tank fits perfectly under the reflector...
My coral growth is very very slow..., I got acros, montis/zoas/clams.
I'm kinda sick of looking at twigs, and want some colonies...

I'm wondering if i can use the 10k bulb without atinics? I have no room or way to put in atinics without doing some really really out-there diy.
anyone have a suggestion without me throwing up the entire lighitng setup?
thanks!

[clownnut]

just deal with the color for 1 year.

[wes]

actinics are mostly for aesthetics, so unless you hate the way it looks, it seems like you should go for it... Maybe someone will tell me I'm wrong, entirely possible. also, as I'm sure someone else will chime in, make sure Ca and Alk and Mg and pH are optimal, as if they're skewed, it will inhibit growth.

[spsick]

well actinics are 420nm, which is the peak of photosynthesis...
but if you have a 400w, 20k should still give you decent growth.
as wes said, Ca,Kh,Ph,Mg, etc...stability is key, and you have a smaller tank don't ya?

[wes]

everything I've read here

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/setup/lighting/actinicfaqs.htm

says otherwise. Not like wwm isn't ever wrong, though. Have you got more reading material for me?

[Turf]

I had great growth with my 20k radiums I ran for 3yrs BUT everyone says the lower the k the faster the growth... you just don't get the pretty colors

[David Grigor]

Keep in mind small frags that basically look like twigs can take a while. Once a number of branches and sub-branches have formed then they usually take off but for all but the most fast growing you need about six months before take off and can take about 2 years before become a colony. These are all generalizations of course as some corals are known to be fast growers and some slow.

What you think is slow growing may actually be the norm. So need a bit more details to determine.

This of course is after you have the main 3 water parameter ( Alk/CA/Mg ) nailed down steady and stable along with low phosphates.

[Fish'InMN]

Here are a few (poor) pictures of how we did our VHO actinics and worked around a lumenarc reflector...

Made a box out of 1x8" boards with one open side for the return pump, mounted each of the VHO bulbs to a separate 1x4" board, put Velcro on ends of box with opposite Velcro on ends of VHO boards, and that's it. During normal operation there is one VHO in the front and one in the rear; these can be moved or removed for maintenance or whatever.

The lumenarc mini hangs directly above the center of the aquarium and although there is a little light lost on the tops of the VHO boards, I am not very worried about it since we're getting very nice growth.

Links:
- Length-wise shot with no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/?action=view&current=P1010237.jpg)
- 3/4 shot from left side, no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/April%207th%202007/?action=view&current=P1010295.jpg)
+You can see the GutterGuard that was used to fence in the gap on the return pump side.
- 3/4 shot from right side, no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/April%207th%202007/?action=view&current=P1010293.jpg)
+You can see the window-screen mesh used to cover the entire top of the tank; it has since been trimmed and prettied-up.

Just an option for supplementing with actinics...

Cheers,
Marty

[MNGold15]

Here are a few (poor) pictures of how we did our VHO actinics and worked around a lumenarc reflector...

Made a box out of 1x8" boards with one open side for the return pump, mounted each of the VHO bulbs to a separate 1x4" board, put Velcro on ends of box with opposite Velcro on ends of VHO boards, and that's it. During normal operation there is one VHO in the front and one in the rear; these can be moved or removed for maintenance or whatever.

The lumenarc mini hangs directly above the center of the aquarium and although there is a little light lost on the tops of the VHO boards, I am not very worried about it since we're getting very nice growth.

Links:
- Length-wise shot with no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/?action=view&current=P1010237.jpg)
- 3/4 shot from left side, no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/April%207th%202007/?action=view&current=P1010295.jpg)
+You can see the GutterGuard that was used to fence in the gap on the return pump side.
- 3/4 shot from right side, no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/April%207th%202007/?action=view&current=P1010293.jpg)
+You can see the window-screen mesh used to cover the entire top of the tank; it has since been trimmed and prettied-up.

Just an option for supplementing with actinics...

Cheers,
Marty

I really like this design. I may have to copy you since I was looking for some way to add actinic vhos onto my frag tank. Thanks for sharing!

[mattb]

Put an iwasaki in there and you'll get some great growth, but people seem to like the Reeflux 10ks.....

[loos15]

thanks everyone :), my tank is 32x32x12 with similar size for sump

thats a nice design there fishinmn :) hmm i'll try to figure something with that

water paramaters is pretty good and stable, although i def need new filters for my ro unit. Phos is not detectble with 2 test kits...although my gut tells me other wise. I dose with kalk

[wolmutt]

Here are a few (poor) pictures of how we did our VHO actinics and worked around a lumenarc reflector...

Made a box out of 1x8" boards with one open side for the return pump, mounted each of the VHO bulbs to a separate 1x4" board, put Velcro on ends of box with opposite Velcro on ends of VHO boards, and that's it. During normal operation there is one VHO in the front and one in the rear; these can be moved or removed for maintenance or whatever.

The lumenarc mini hangs directly above the center of the aquarium and although there is a little light lost on the tops of the VHO boards, I am not very worried about it since we're getting very nice growth.

Links:
- Length-wise shot with no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/?action=view&current=P1010237.jpg)
- 3/4 shot from left side, no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/April%207th%202007/?action=view&current=P1010295.jpg)
+You can see the GutterGuard that was used to fence in the gap on the return pump side.
- 3/4 shot from right side, no halide. (http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/April%207th%202007/?action=view&current=P1010293.jpg)
+You can see the window-screen mesh used to cover the entire top of the tank; it has since been trimmed and prettied-up.

Just an option for supplementing with actinics...

Cheers,
Marty

Would you part with any of these? I have some palys that look a lot like "armor of god" if you are willing to trade some polyps.


http://s8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/?action=view&current=P1010112.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a5/nmkranz/SW%20-%2040%20gallon/P1010112.jpg

[storrisch]

I dont believe he has any right now. He had posted them in the FS section a few months ago and they went faster than anything I have seen on the forum.

[Fish'InMN]

(Sorry for the thread hijacking!)

There aren't any frags cut of the blues right now, they have been growing out since the swap, and there is a bit of a line for frags as well. I will see if I have any tiles left so I can cut a couple frags off. storrisch, you are already on the list; wolmutt, you have been added.

Again, sorry for the hijack.
Marty