light coral colors

[DonW]

Filter socks should have nothing to do with coral color.. I ran them on this tank for 14 months and just took them off 2 months ago after reworking my sump to control micro bubbles. http://photobucket.com/albums/v467/gqjeff/jeffs reef/

I still think more feeding will be beneficial for your sps colors.

Jeff

Feed more and leave the socks on or feed the same and take them off. Are you not accomplishing the same thing.

Don

 

[fishermann]

I agree Don, all I know is my colors are better and polyp extension, which is a sign they are feeding is better during the day since getting rid of the socks and I feed pretty well twice a day everyday, and when I had the sock on the polyps hardly ever extended during the day.

Reed my torts are similar in color to yours and they are under 400 w, 14K Hamiltons, go figure, but they are growing good so no worry mon.

 

[gqjeff]

Don, not at all in my situation. I was using the socks for bubble control and have always had great polyp extension. As stated before though I run the zeovit methed and I believe the mulm and the Pohl's coral vitalalizer really increase polyp extension. I also have tons of flow and that DEF helps with SPS health and polyp extension if the flow is placed properly. I will re interate filter socks have nothing to do with coral color unless you are leaving them in for weeks at a time to produce PO4's. This is from my personal 15 years of reefing experience and others with outstanding colors that run socks.

Jeff

 

[DonW]

Don, not at all in my situation. I was using the socks for bubble control and have always had great polyp extension. As stated before though I run the zeovit methed and I believe the mulm and the Pohl's coral vitalalizer really increase polyp extension. I also have tons of flow and that DEF helps with SPS health and polyp extension if the flow is placed properly. I will re interate filter socks have nothing to do with coral color unless you are leaving them in for weeks at a time to produce PO4's. This is from my personal 15 years of reefing experience and others with outstanding colors that run socks.

Jeff

No doubt the pics of your tank look great. Why would a filter sock produce p04 and not n03? Isnt the mulm just the detritus and extra chow that accumulates?

Don

 

[gqjeff]

Don TY, No the mulm is actually bacteria off the zeoliths which is put in the water column after shaking the stones.. The filter socks will produce PO4 and NO3 if left in long enough that the food and whatever waste breaks down. Mulm is not detritus at all.

Jeff

 

[fishermann]

The socks were changed out every 2-3 days

 

[reedman]

I've run socks in the past, and decided they weren't benefiting me enough to warrant their use. I never saw a difference in polyp extension or color associated with the socks being in or out.

My first step is to increase my feeding and see what happens. I cut way back long ago to limit nutrient import. I have a small bioload so feeding isn't all that critical to the fishes health (especially since they graze on diatoms and such). Perhaps I cut back too much. I have since that point in time upgraded my skimmer from a bakpak to the lifereef (huge improvement).

 

[dnjan]

Don, spider light are def the worst compared to flat sheet metal for a reflector.. Thats why they are so cheap. I am not syaing they are horrible just the cheapest answer to a reflector that works.. They do not compare to RO1 or LM3 or lumamax reflectors. They for one do not have ends so A LOT of light excapes out the end that does not get reflected back to the tank.

Cost is affectd by quality, volume, and gullibility of the consumer.

As far as light escapng out the ends, light coming from one end of a mogul is mostly blocked anyway. And the other end of the mogul bulb blocks/distorts the light due to the shape and thickness of the glass.

Please provide a link to the data that supports the comparison of the spiderlite to flat sheet metal.. I would like to look at the the intensity measurements at various locations.

 

[dnjan]

You will find these readings in Sanjays reflector analysis but only for 1 or two types of bulbs and the measurements are not taken under water.

As much fun as this is looking at the different harware set-ups (we both have sweet tanks ) lol I think the answer lies more in the biology, and not the technology.

There are TONS of people keeping Blue torts blue under 250W MH lights.

The flow, was an excellent area of focus. We both have quite allot lb for lb..

The readings through air will have no application to the question of intensity with varying depth of water.

I tend to agree with you that in this case it may be more of a biological than lighting issue. Just trying to rule out the lighting factors. When Reed gets another frag at a different depth, it should help sort out some of the light versus biology issues.

 

[gqjeff]

Dan, I am not going to argue about reflectors.. If you are running spiders go see someones tank that uses any of the 3 I mentioned above. They are not in the same league period. Go look at sanjays lighting page and do a read on the reflectors and make your own judgement.. This is nothing new reflectors PERIOD make the lighting much better.. Hey if they didn't people wouldn't spend $120 on a piece of metal.. Here is an a qoute from Sanjy himself.
"s can be seen from this data, the 2 horticulture reflectors (PFO Illuminator and Sunlight Supply's Super Sun IV) and the Reef Optix are very similar in performance. We have found that reflectors with the ends closed tend to perform better. The Giesemann Nova II fixtures, while very aesthetic and thoroughly designed, could benefit specifically from improved reflector design."

Heres the aricle read it.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2004/feature.htm

Here is another link to more articles about lighting, bulbs and reflectors
http://www.reeflightinginfo.arvixe.com/articles.htm

Jeff

 

[gqjeff]

Table 3. Percent of PAR lost from 6” to 12” from the lamp




3x3' area


2x2' Area


1x1' Area

Diamond Light


7%


18%


36%

PFO Perpendicular


15%


30%


52%

PFO Parallel


19%


31%


52%

Spider Light


24%


36%


59%

Synthetic Sun


25%


39%


49%

These numbers show exaclty how much par you lose using the spiders alone over a top notch fully enclosed reflector...

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/mar2003/feature.htm

I also have another post at the end of page 2 before this you may like to look at with more links to reflectors...

 

[dnjan]

Thanks! I was asking for the data, and I appreciate you posting the links.

 

[gqjeff]

NP Dan.... You are very welcome... These links are very informative and we are lucky enough to have someone to run all these spectral analysis for us for free.

Jeff

 

[reedman]

Just wanted to update on this. I have increased my feeding to once a day and the colors look to be deapening a little. I plan to continue this and see how it progresses.

Thanks to all who helped out. I really appreciate it.