Montipora Question

[dwdenny]

First off I cannot believe that I just found this site. But hey I finally did right. I have quick question about lighting for montipora corals. I have a 40g breeder 36"X18"X16" will be BB with RDSB in the sump/fuge. I was thinking T5HO would be a good lighting setup for this tank. This will be a species tank all Montipora. I have researched and all I can find it that the need moderate to high light, and evrything that I read about T5HO has them up there with MH(not as good but a close second as far flourecent lighting goes). Will a 4X39w T5HO with IC SLR reflectors run on a regular T5 ballast work? If I have to go MH I will have to do some serious heat removal as it is hotter then blazes in deep South Texas. I was thinking about this lam combo 1 GE daylight,1 aquablue, and 2 blue+.

One other question and I will stop I promise lol I was thinking of putting in a couple Seio 620 for flow along with my return from the sump(about 300gph or so) for about 38X turnover in the display. As far as skimming I am looking at a Pacific Coast RPS-1000 recirculating skimmer Euro-Reef knock off but I have heard good things about it. When every thing begins to grow I will need to look into dripping KW or using an autodoser to keep up with the demand.

Thanks for your time

Doug

 

[Len]

Hey Doug,

:welcome:

I've seen that lighting setup work well on a 40 breeder. The tank is shallow enough that T5s are adequete; the biggest drawback of T5 vs MH is that the fluorescents don't penetrate as far, but since the 40 breeder is fairly shallow, it works. You may need the Montipora sp. a bit higher up in the tank if the Monti begins to lose its color.

I didn't see a second question

 

[dwdenny]

Second question was the flow(second paragraph) 2 seio 620 plus return form sump(pan World 40PX) sorry I was just on a role typing what I was thinking.

Doug

 

[Len]

That's plenty of flow for a 40 gallon. The setup looks great.

 

[dwdenny]

Thanks Len for the help. If colors start to fade I can alway add some mre lamps to the mix or overdrive them with couple IC 430 ballast. Time will tell. Now to start working overtime to pay for the equipement. lol

 

[fungia]

i would go with two daylight and two actinics, the aquablue is pretty but it is dim

 

[dwdenny]

Thanks for the input fungia. I will have to look into that. Plus the GE are way cheaper compared to the AB and blue+ lamps. Thanks again.