20K Lights

BigH55

I'm that guy
Do you guys think 20k lights would be enough for a softies and leathers tank? I really like how those bulbs dont tend to flood the room with light and give a deeper reef appearance.
 
20K is just the color -- it's not representative of the strength required to keep corals... 20K is really blue. Too blue for my personal preference, but if you like the color, then go for it!
 
+1 David, the more blue you go, the more it will make the color "pop" but the less it will encourage growth, the more white you go, the more growth but less coral color you will see.
 
The blue light is what most corals recieve in the ocean. When sunlight goes through ocean water the part of the spectrum that makes it to the reefs is the blue. I`m more interested in how many watts your system is. Without the proper intensity it dont make any difference what color your bulbs are. It wont work.
 
quit staring at your avatar, 250+250+96+96=692 :bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

Those 20k bulbs will be just fine, with the wattage you have, it's just personal preference as to what color bulbs you pick.
 
quit staring at your avatar, 250+250+96+96=692 :bounce::bounce::bounce::bounce:

Those 20k bulbs will be just fine, with the wattage you have, it's just personal preference as to what color bulbs you pick.

I wish my tank look liked those. The wife thinks I look at it alot now, just imagine.
 
LOL My wife knows I look at my tank all the time,she says i spend to much with my hands in there i just laught and tell her that ive learned alot more fouling with my tank than what she learns from watching TV, Then i start to think o shit she might be getting pissed but then she starts to set down and starts looking at are tank with me ......I think she realizes that Im a much more calmmer person since i started the reefer (LOL) salt water that is.
 
I have 2 250W MH's that are 20K. I don't have actinics or any other additional lighting. I have LPS, zoanthids, mushrooms and a clam (I think a maximus). They are all growing, some more than others. My torch started as a two headed frag 4 months ago and has more than doubled in size. I've been giving them only 8 hrs a day of light for the last two months and they are doing good.
 
I'm interested in continuing the discussion about wattage and bulb color.

I've finally got all the lights on my 29g frag tank. There's (2) 65w PC lights and a single ended mogul 175w MH. The PC lights are (1) 65w actinic and (1) 65w 460nm. The MH light is 14k. The tank looks extremely blue to me.

But when you add it up thats 305 watts over a 29g tank. Thats a lot of watts. But it's all blue. Can I still get good growth with the color spectrum that leans more blue but enough wattage to get the light intensity required for good growth? I have good color - thats no problem now. What kind of growth will I experience?

I guess it's a question of PAR vs Color

Would appreciate any comments. :Cheers:
 
I think that with the 175w MH, you will get enough intensity and penetration that you will be able to see some good growth along with great color.
 
all light will contribute to the PAR value, however only part of the spectrum will actually be beneficial to the tank. basically anything between 400 and 700 nm is useful, anything else is just light. The actinics, assuming that they are true actinics, should produce light at 420 nm, which is actually the part of the spectrum that has the best penetration. The catch is that without enough wattage or intensity, they still will not have penetration to the bottom of the tank. So there are two things to consider with lighting, what part of the spectrum does the light they produce fall within, and how intense is the light? The only way to know for sure would be to take a PAR reading however most of us don't have the meters or the desire to buy them. That said, you need to make sure that you have a light with enough intensity and that contains enough blue spectrum to penetrate to the bottom of the tank. We aim for 4-6w per gallon but realize that if you had 192w produced by 8 24w lights it will not have near the PAR value at the bottom of the tank that your 175w light will have.
 
That makes sense Justin. Thanks for the detailed response too man. :bowdown:

I was a little cornfused on if the actinics and 460nm were actually counted in the watts and PAR or if they were just fluff to add color. :shock: It seams silly now - because people use 100% PC lights on tanks all the time and they get growth AND color. So why was I sitting here 2nd guessing myself and thinking the PC lights were worthless now that they have been combined with a MH for intensity? :shock: Pure silliness on my part.

I'm going to assume I have more than enough light and practice what I preach on these forums. I'm going to be patient. I'm going to relax and give them 3 or 4 months to grow and then evaluate this lighting system. It's a combined total of 305 watts on a 29g tank but most of it is in the blue color spectrum. I guess if it's in that correct range we need - then the corals should grow just fine. The actinic bulb is supposed to be a true actinic and I'm pretty sure 460nm is about 20K on the color chart.

It just doesn't seam as bright because it's all blue. It's not white and glaring out at you - making you squint.

I love this place! :sfish:
 
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