lighting

[tnguy86]

how should I go about increasing my lighting?

[reefrunner69]

Are you looking for advice on what to upgrade to or how to put it all together or how to acclimate your tank to the new lighting?

What animals are you wanting to keep?

[rememberme]

For a MH bulb, fit it high up and lower it a couple of inches per day until you are close enough to the water surface.

If you havn't got halides... erm

[tnguy86]

i'm adding 32w pc actinic to my current lighting

[reefrunner69]

Run the lights for 4 hours turn them off for an hour and then run them for 4 more. do this for a week then go back to the normal lighting schedule.

[Macbeth417]

Um, I dont agree with that reefrunner, but to each thier own.

I am a believer in the same photo period with reduced intensity. This can be achieved with the lowering method, suggested by rememberme, or by placing screen or light defusser over the tank and removing a layer every few days.

tnguy86: Please clarify your questions.

-Erik

[tnguy86]

thanks for the input all. to clarifiy my question, i am upgrading from 64 watts of 5/50 pc to 32 more watts of actinic 03. i wanted to know whether i should even add the actinic at all. is there any benefit to adding the actinic to my original lighting? i dont intend to mess with sps or lps until i upgrade my whole setup. i just wanna know if the 32w actinic will help my tank in any way. will it increase my coralline algae. i know coralline mainly depends on calcium levels, but i dont have a ca++ test. perhaps the actinic will help??

[reefrunner69]

Um, I dont agree with that reefrunner, but to each thier own

That is the photo acclimation method suggested by Eric Borneman ;)

He also advocates the use of plastic window screen to reduce the intensity and diffuse the light, but says the corals need to ramp up to bleach and take a little over 4 hours to do so. I have used that method successfully many times ;)

tnguy86, to know whether the upgrade will benefit your tank, we would need to know what you are keeping. Increasing the blue spectrum may help with your coraline growth, but it may not, if your CA and ALK are not balanced and/or you do not have any coraline in the tank now...it's doubtful you will experience any more coraline growth. There are many different species of coraline, some require more light some less intense light, most do better with a lot of the blue spectrum.

[rememberme]

The blue will make it look a little nicer in my opinion (I like blue looking tanks) and with the extra light it is putting out, should give the corals a bit more growth (I'd imagine).

[tnguy86]

my tank

20 gallon custom tall
64 watts pc 50/50

hob skimmer and filter

~40 lbs ls
~30 lbs lr

2 black percs
a fairy wrasse
diamond watchman goby

orange ricordea
zo's
xenia
maiden's hair algae
s. elegans
chili coral
shrooms
green star polyps
colt coral

(all corals still really small)