Acropora under PC
- Thread starter zack
- Start date
i have a 16 gallon tall.
18 pounds of live rock
3 1/2 inch live sand bed
72 watts of PC (half 10,000k other atinic)
bak pak skimmer
so far i have bubble coral,ricodia mushroom,blue mushroom,red muchroom,xenia, croeca clam (doing great,bright blue), open brain, sun polyps, torch coral, feather duster, button polyps, green polps, green star polyps, green stripped mushroom, some kind of leather, lots of coraline growth on glass.
Everthing is doing great, i know u should only keep acropora under MH but i was just wondering if anybody has kept it under pc.
18 pounds of live rock
3 1/2 inch live sand bed
72 watts of PC (half 10,000k other atinic)
bak pak skimmer
so far i have bubble coral,ricodia mushroom,blue mushroom,red muchroom,xenia, croeca clam (doing great,bright blue), open brain, sun polyps, torch coral, feather duster, button polyps, green polps, green star polyps, green stripped mushroom, some kind of leather, lots of coraline growth on glass.
Everthing is doing great, i know u should only keep acropora under MH but i was just wondering if anybody has kept it under pc.
- Location
- Virginia
It's not necessarily a question of how will it do in your tank, it's more of a question of what kind of lighting was it raised under. If you have a wild caught specimen, there is no true substitute for natural sunlight. You are bound to see a color shift (possibly a good one) and possibly some die off unless you know exactly where the piece came from. Not many of us know if a piece of coral came from 1 foot of water or if it came from 10 feet of water unless we picked it ourselves (which hopefully, we're not!). Before you buy, look at the tank you're getting it from and ask questions. If it's a captive bred frag, you're bound to see pieces of the same colony under different types of lighting. I purchased 6 frags that were under 400W MH lighting, and now they're under my 6x96W PC's. They're doing fine, but some have changed colors. A unique piece of montipora digitata went from a pale pink/peach tone to brownish, a piece of bird's nest went from yellow to more brownish, but a lime green acropora has remained the same. I don't know that Montipora capricornis is a good example as I have not seen any that aren't really brown to begin with, but I just started sps again and when I used to do it years back, acropora was pretty much the only species available where I was, and most were brown anyway.
IMO the key is to see the lighting your coral is coming from and see how it fares there. Before I buy sps, I always ask how it will do (unless the salesperson is an idiot) under my lighting if it's different from theirs.
[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: davelin315 ]
IMO the key is to see the lighting your coral is coming from and see how it fares there. Before I buy sps, I always ask how it will do (unless the salesperson is an idiot) under my lighting if it's different from theirs.
[ August 10, 2001: Message edited by: davelin315 ]
I cannot disagree enough with these sentiments.
1) Whether or not you can keep a certain coral alive under a specific type of lighting depends more on intensity than the source. If you provide the intensity and PAR you will have no problems keeping the desired coral alive.
2) This intensity is dependant upon the lamp(s) in question AND the depth of the water being penetrated.
To provide the proper intensity it comes down to a matter of economics. Take a 10 gallon aquarium and a 90 gallon aquarium. I can put 2-3 28W PC's over a 10 gallon with a 4" sandbed and have more than enough light to make SPS thrive and this is cheaper than putting a 175W MH over the tank. However, in order for SPS to thrive in a standard 90 gallon aquarium I would need to run 6 to 8 or more VHO or PC bulbs and this is cost prohibative compared to dual 250 or 400W MH.
3) Coloration. While UV has some affect on coloration, the choice of MH vs VHO/PC is entirely dependant upon the needs of the particular colony. Greg Hiller has quite a few species of SPS that color up MUCH better under VHO than under MH. In fact often many of his corals turn brown when under more intense lighting. Warren Gibbons has reported the exact same reactions to me. Some colonies like intense fluorescent and some prefer MH.
I have some Montipora capricornis from Greg Hiller under 400W 10K germans in a 72 bowfront and I have a genetically identical piece under 2 28W PC's in a 10 gallon aquarium. Growth is roughly the same and coloration is identical.
Zack: What is the dimensions of your 16 gallon? Exactly how tall is it?
1) Whether or not you can keep a certain coral alive under a specific type of lighting depends more on intensity than the source. If you provide the intensity and PAR you will have no problems keeping the desired coral alive.
2) This intensity is dependant upon the lamp(s) in question AND the depth of the water being penetrated.
To provide the proper intensity it comes down to a matter of economics. Take a 10 gallon aquarium and a 90 gallon aquarium. I can put 2-3 28W PC's over a 10 gallon with a 4" sandbed and have more than enough light to make SPS thrive and this is cheaper than putting a 175W MH over the tank. However, in order for SPS to thrive in a standard 90 gallon aquarium I would need to run 6 to 8 or more VHO or PC bulbs and this is cost prohibative compared to dual 250 or 400W MH.
3) Coloration. While UV has some affect on coloration, the choice of MH vs VHO/PC is entirely dependant upon the needs of the particular colony. Greg Hiller has quite a few species of SPS that color up MUCH better under VHO than under MH. In fact often many of his corals turn brown when under more intense lighting. Warren Gibbons has reported the exact same reactions to me. Some colonies like intense fluorescent and some prefer MH.
I have some Montipora capricornis from Greg Hiller under 400W 10K germans in a 72 bowfront and I have a genetically identical piece under 2 28W PC's in a 10 gallon aquarium. Growth is roughly the same and coloration is identical.
Zack: What is the dimensions of your 16 gallon? Exactly how tall is it?
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
