New lighting project begun
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Howdy Robert.
Thanks for the kind words.
Right now I'm running a PFO mini pendant, which has a modified parabolic reflector (instead of being a perfect parabola, it has 9 bends to it). Plus the two ends of the reflector are semi-parabolic (three bends in each).
It actually puts out a good deal of light. I had just enough room to squeeze the eight T5's and the PFO mini pendant in there... I only had about 1-1/2" on either end of the tank (front and back), and the PFO mini pendant has about 3/8" of clearance on either side. I have the mini pendant off-center (which you can see in the previous photos), so that it sits over the left side of the tank.
The light does spread about 3/4 of the way across the tank, which is fine with me... my soft corals don't really need halide-intensity light anyway... so I think you're right, I probably won't need another halide... it would kinda defeat the purpose of wanting to have lower electric bills too.
Now that the second set of T5's is on, here's another photo:
You can see that it's still really blue, but I have 6 actinics and 2 11K's, so I expected that.
Once the halide comes on it balances out pretty well... the lighting that's on now is pretty much to simulate mid-morning... when the halide comes on it'll be 'afternoon'.
The corals all seem to be responding really well so far... I hope the growth rate kicks up a notch... I fragged some corals about a month ago, and so far they've only encrusted about 1/8" since then. I want the insane growth rates I had back when I was running a 10K/Actinic combination... I hope I get it.
Thanks for the kind words.
Right now I'm running a PFO mini pendant, which has a modified parabolic reflector (instead of being a perfect parabola, it has 9 bends to it). Plus the two ends of the reflector are semi-parabolic (three bends in each).
It actually puts out a good deal of light. I had just enough room to squeeze the eight T5's and the PFO mini pendant in there... I only had about 1-1/2" on either end of the tank (front and back), and the PFO mini pendant has about 3/8" of clearance on either side. I have the mini pendant off-center (which you can see in the previous photos), so that it sits over the left side of the tank.
The light does spread about 3/4 of the way across the tank, which is fine with me... my soft corals don't really need halide-intensity light anyway... so I think you're right, I probably won't need another halide... it would kinda defeat the purpose of wanting to have lower electric bills too.
Now that the second set of T5's is on, here's another photo:
You can see that it's still really blue, but I have 6 actinics and 2 11K's, so I expected that.
Once the halide comes on it balances out pretty well... the lighting that's on now is pretty much to simulate mid-morning... when the halide comes on it'll be 'afternoon'.
The corals all seem to be responding really well so far... I hope the growth rate kicks up a notch... I fragged some corals about a month ago, and so far they've only encrusted about 1/8" since then. I want the insane growth rates I had back when I was running a 10K/Actinic combination... I hope I get it.
