lighting replacement

[t_anton0283]

Hello, I am new to this forum but have had a saltwater aquarium since June 2015. my concern is that on my standard 55 gallon tank I currently have 2 marsaqua LED fixtures and I'm not really happy with them. My coral has pretty good color but not much growth on anything. I have had them since the beginning of this year. I want to go back to t5's and I can not decide between buying a 4 bulb fixture or 6 bulb? I would like to start keeping sps.

 

[jrhunter0000]

I never got any good growth with leds. T5s and MH are the best for growth!

 

[t_anton0283]

well at least I'm not the only one. Do you think I would be better off with a 4 or 6 bulb fixture for my tank?

 

[jrhunter0000]

Depth and how wide is the tank?

 

[picoreefguy]

imo 6 bulb would be overkill on a 55 gallon. especially considering that the tank is only a foot wide and less than 2 feet deep. as long as you're using t5ho 4 bulbs should be enough

 

[grouper therapy]

T.anton0283;1080443 wrote: Hello, I am new to this forum but have had a saltwater aquarium since June 2015. my concern is that on my standard 55 gallon tank I currently have 2 marsaqua LED fixtures and I'm not really happy with them. My coral has pretty good color but not much growth on anything. I have had them since the beginning of this year. I want to go back to t5's and I can not decide between buying a 4 bulb fixture or 6 bulb? I would like to start keeping sps.

I don't think you have had them long enough to judge the growth. Give it some time. Do you feed your corals? What are your levels(calcium,ph,alkalinity) Mars Aqua leds will definitely grow corals.

 

[t_anton0283]

Jrhunter- the tank is 13" wide and 20" inches tall.

picoreefguy- Thanks. I was sorta thinking 6 bulbs would be a tad much but wasn't quite sure. and yes they will be a t5ho fixture.

grouper- I wasn't planning on changing until the summer to give them a couple extra months before I switched just wanted some other opinions beforehand. I will have to get back to you on my levels (cal, ph, alk) when I get home, I did a water change last not so not sure what there at currently. I do feed coral frenzy every 3 days or so.

 

[civics14]

To be honest, I don't think it has anything to do with the lights. Everyone blame the lights first because its probably the easiest. I would check your parameters (alk & calk) daily for a few weeks to make sure they are stable.

Also, what type of corals, some just grow faster than others.

Agree with Grouper as well, 4 months is pretty short time frame.

 

[t_anton0283]

my alk is at 9 and calcium is at 420. I have mushrooms, zoas, a few hammers and other various softies and lps and a few sps.

 

[civics14]

so, what's not growing? Mushrooms, zoas, hammers, softies aren't really demanding of light.

how often do you play with the spectrum of the light? for example, when i change my lighting spectrum i let it settle in for several months to see the changes and keeping other things the same until I found the right one.

 

[t_anton0283]

my zoas and gsp are the only corals I can notice fair growth on. Everything else I can't see any new growth on.

I recently turned them up about 2 weeks ago when I noticed my season greeting monti start to go brown and purple rim danae lost its green top and went completely purple. other than that I haven't messed with them since the end of January. they were set about 50% blue on both fixtures and 30% white on both cause that looked like the standard while I was looking at reviews online. now I believe they are set to around 60% blue/40% white now.

 

[civics14]

60/40 seems about right if you acclimated them correctly from what i seen on the black box users, I run RapidLED Onyx and I run mine at 80B/50W/60R. What's the positioning of the monti's?

Also, how is your flow?

 

[t_anton0283]

the Montis are placed at the top of my rock work. my lights are hung about a foot from the water line. I believe my flow is moderate. I have 2 rw-4 on each side of my tank in the back corners facing each other and my return line is facing the front glass.

 

[jbadd99]

My experience is corals grown under different types of lighting take different periods of time to adjust to LED.

For example, Zoas that I've had in my tank forever are like weeds, but add a new zoa and it may take the better part of a year for it to adjust.

 

[civics14]

Maybe try lowering them some? Maybe too much light?

As far as Zoas... mine took over 6 months of doing nothing to just now starting to spread. Now the are spreading pretty fast on the bottom rockwork of the tank.

 

[t_anton0283]

jbadd- so you also believe my corals are still adjusting to the my light? most of the corals I bought after the led dimmers were set and started them on my sand bed for a couple weeks and gradually moved them to where I wanted and glued them.

I'm not really seeing a problem with my Zoas growth, it's my lps that aren't doing much growing so based on that I thought the lights wouldn't be strong enough to support sps (mainly acros) and a clam.

civics- lower them about how much? like 2-3 inches?

 

[jbadd99]

I run everything in my tank under 120w LEDs that are coming up on 5 years old. When my tank was stable for long period I had no issues growing anything.

Here's a little more than a year ago

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[brandonmason]

Marsaqua growth in 6 months or less

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[snowmansnow]

you could grow shrooms and zoos with a drop light from home depot haha
i bet something is off... maybe flow? maybe alk. It may be worth double checking with another kit.
also remember that corals grow exponentially. If you have a small frag or polyp it is going to take a LONG time for it to grow into a giant colony. More surface area means more mouths means more food intake means faster perceived growth.
I'm with one of the above posters...
4 moths isn't a very long time to judge growth.

 

[t_anton0283]

jbadd- wow those are nice. what do mean "when" my tank was stable, did something happen.

brandonmason- well the proof is in the pudding lol. what do you have yours set to? do you have any supplemental lightning or is the tank lit solely by LEDs?

snowman- lol I hear that. what is the ideal range for alk and cal? I can take my water to a LFS and have them test it also. I will try to increase my flow also.

I never took into the size as a factor to growth.