I had a 20 gal tank for a long time. My lights i had on it were 2 65w (130w total) PCs. I had a blue and purple bulb and a 10000k with a blue bulb. my coral would grow and take over different rocks. Now in the past 6-8 month i upgraded to t-5s 4 31w bulbs with 2 blues and 2 10000k lights total of 124w. I did start off with only a few hours of light a day and increased it by 1 hour per week untill i got back to my normal light cycle when i had the PCs. now my stuff just does not seem to grow as much if at all. Mushrooms don't split anymore. star polyps dont take over, sps dont grow, and frogspawn stopped growing. could a purple bulb be the difference maker? I had the same 3 fish for a few years now water is good. the only difference is i got a better light and minus the purple bulb.
coral not growing?
- Thread starter marine430
- Start date
Ted
Living one day at a time
I have a 4 bulb t5 fixture as well and took out one of the 10k bulbs and replaced with a 75.25 (purple) I like the look better. Corals are growing. Most of the stock bulbs that come with the fixtures are pretty shitty. I am slowly changing to name brand bulbs in mine. Will probably end up with all ATI bulbs just doing it slowly, mainly because I have a hard time finding the bulbs I want local and dont want to have to pay for shipping for a stupid bulb.
i was doing a lot of reading and looking around about the ATI bulbs. my problem is coral life seems to be the only company that makes a 30 inch light fixture and the only place that makes a 30 inch 31 watt bulb. every other company makes 24-36-48 inch bulbs and fixtures. i guess 20gal L and 37 gal tanks are not comman enough for other companys to make 30 inch fixtures.
Ted
Living one day at a time
Hmmm, very possible. Did you try reef geek?
Ted
Living one day at a time
Just looked there myself...nope..coralife it is then. Thats not a bad company I have probably 5 to 10 things they make around here just not bulbs...
Ted
Living one day at a time
I have never used led lights...out of curiosity why did you change the lights if what you had worked?
2XAl
Salt Addict
i got stuck with a 30 inch fixture on an octotank and will attest that the bulb selection is pretty close to nonexistent.
the LEDs are incredible, i have a 4 bulb t5 from aquaticlife with 4 blue strong leds (not sure of the power) that make my corals look amazing. i have a marineland LED fixture on a FOWLR tank that makes some cool colors too. theres no better nighlight than blue led glow from the tanks.
the LEDs are incredible, i have a 4 bulb t5 from aquaticlife with 4 blue strong leds (not sure of the power) that make my corals look amazing. i have a marineland LED fixture on a FOWLR tank that makes some cool colors too. theres no better nighlight than blue led glow from the tanks.
