sump and lighting ?s

[jschulzpt]

First question-
I saw someone last weekend who had a sump with a lot of caluerpa in it, and didn't see any lighting for it. I should have asked him, but I didn't... is it possible to keep plant life going in your sump without lighting?

Second question-
I always used a 50-50 mixture for my coral/fish/caluerpa reef set-up of actinic and the daylighting bulbs (T5s) I accidentally purchased the wrong number of actinics for my bulb change this time and have 75% actinic and 25% daylighting. Will I be doing any damage to my corals/set-up by going with what I currently have? (See tank specs below)

Thanks in advance!

55 gallon, 4-54W T5s
Fish: 2 clown gobies, 2 oscellaris, 1 bicolor blenny, 1 peppermint shrimp, 15 blue legged hermits, 4 turbo snails
Corals: thin finger leather, Kffice:smarttags" />lace w:st="on">enyalace> tree, mushrooms, red candy cap coral, green starburst polyp coral, white pom pom coral, zoas, pulsing xenia, ricordias, endive hydnophora, orange encrusting monti
Water flow: ??? hopefully enough, all of the GPHs # have rubbed off
1 protein/skimmer filter, 1 filter
1 inch of live sand
Mexican Caluerpa

[jschulzpt]

Well, since no one seemed to offer up any major opinions... What type/blend of lighting do you have in your tank?

[three90s&125sump]

75percent actinic would look cool.

No you can't grow algae with out light. If you had a BB tank with a clear bottom you would prolly not need additional lighting.

[jschulzpt]

Thanks Jason, any negative health effects from 75% actinic lighting on fish/corals/plants?

[three90s&125sump]

No

[Jadinop]

Originally Posted by jschulzpt

Thanks Jason, any negative health effects from 75% actinic lighting on fish/corals/plants?

Different Jason and different response. If your tank was already running with two 10k and two actinics bulbs, losing half of your 10k lighting will certainly affect corals already established in the system. Save the extra actinic for the next change and pick up another 10k bulb.

[jschulzpt]

I was thinking the same thing, I wanted to see if anyone had any significant responses to this thread to push me towards keeping my lighting system as I have it now.

[three90s&125sump]

It would be a short acclimation period that you prolly would not need to do anything with. Its more about par and less about the brightness of the bulb that you see in visible light. Actinic bulbs might not have as high of a par as a 10K bulb but the differance is minimal. Definatly not as high as the differance that is visible with your eyes. I think that the trade off would be worth it esthetically. What it really comes down to is weather or not you like how it looks. Try it and see.

[jschulzpt]

Thanks again Jason, any thoughts on coral health/appearance under 10K vs. 6K lighting?

[three90s&125sump]

IMO 6K lighting is ugly... Yellow. But great for growing algae. The closer to the red spectrum you get the more appealing to algae the light is.

I could go into a big shpeal about color focusing in different light temperatures but I won't its late and I'm tired. I will say this... Many people have had success with growing some corals under warmer colors but not me.

[OneDummHikk]

Some of the best looking zoas I have ever seen were under a daylight bulb, 6500K spectrum and it was a propagation farm.

[jschulzpt]

Thanks guys

[Loverotties]

Originally Posted by Jadinop

Different Jason and different response. If your tank was already running with two 10k and two actinics bulbs, losing half of your 10k lighting will certainly affect corals already established in the system. Save the extra actinic for the next change and pick up another 10k bulb.

I agree with this also I like the whiter looking reef then the blue ones.