lighting for leathers

[TBRUZZ]

looking to move my leathers out of my 220g and into a 50gal. after doing a lot a reading i finally realize that the leathers are alot worse for the acros than i thought(newbee mistake). my question is what type of lighting do leathers need? vho-metal halide??

tracy

[geshields]

Vho's would be fine..

Did you get my voicemail??

Greg

[TBRUZZ]

i sent you a email this morning. i hit the wrong number and erased it. i am at work until 9 call me 6514817000
tracy

ps. can you put vho bulbs on the regular strip light(comes with tank) or would i need to purchase a ballast?? one bulb suffice or would i need 2?? what type of vho aka..super acitnic or ....????

[kjdeut]

Hey Tracy,
Before I upgraded to a bigger tank I had leathers growing very well in my 55gal hex with 72watts PC half daylight, half actinic.

Ken

[geshields]

you CANNOT use vho's in a regular strip light. they require their own ballast..

Greg

[David Grigor]

How many leather are you talking about ?

I have always had mixed reef. Usually a 90% SPS 10% LPS/softy tank.

Currently have a 320g tank SPS dominate and 50g Soft/Anemone tank all plumbed together with no problems.

But to answer you question, Having had lots of lighting combinations, I have found VHO to be best for Soft and LPS. Only exception is yellow sarcophytons ( if that's how you spell it ). They do better under MH.......

[TBRUZZ]

david,

i have 7 leathers, at one w/rose bta end of the tank and acros at the other.
tank is 98lx21x24

[David Grigor]

If less then a 50/50 proportion, I would play it by ear and see what happens. This is one of those debatable issues.

However, If your wanting to move them to another tank to make more room for SPS then go for it.....

[TBRUZZ]

if you were to house them together-how far away would away would be recomended? i know that they should not be touching.

are there any leathers that should not be housed with acro's under no circumstance? i just came back from phuket and the corals out there were phenominal all we saw were acros. i saw a total of 5 leahters and they were all in one area(first time seeing leather corals in the wild.)

tracy

[roon21]

I have a small pile of leathers in my 125 and they just love the halides 2X250 -2x24pc 1-110vho they grow like mad

[FastFish720]

The bulbs for VHO should be at least a finger spacing away .75" so if they sway they do not touch. That is the bare minimum I would recommend give them as much space as they need to grow, as they grow fast.

[David Grigor]

I have always put the softies in the bottom 1/4 of the tank and SPS in the upper portions of the tank.

Remind you that when I say this I only have a few in the tank. It is SPS dominate.

[rsaund]

In my 125 reef I have a mixture of leathers, acro, mushrooms, etc... I have at least 50/50 with leathers/mushrooms slightly predominating the acros and as long as they don't touch, have not been a problem. Even when I cut the leathers (i.e., to frag or propagate) the resultant theoretical "poison" in the water has not harmed the acros (in that they have not died and they do grow). I don't know if they would grow faster if there were no leathers and shrooms, you would need a randomized trial to determine that.

I have had one acro colony meltdown that I attribute directly to a wayward anemone majodo landing in the middle of it. No acro meltdown related to leathers or mushrooms in the tank otherwise, as far as I can tell.

My tank is over 2 years old and has always had a mixture. I got many of my acros and leathers from a guy who kept them in a mixed environment for at least a couple of years before I acquired them. I use 2, 250 W MH and 4, 140 W VHO for lighting.

My point is that I don't think it's a hard and fast rule that leathers and acro don't mix, at least in my 2 year old environment.

BTW, In my 22 gallon nano, I use only compact flourescents 110 watts total, and I grow the leathers and shrooms fine. That tank is only a year or so old. Actually, I have a frag of acro very high up in that tank that is slowly growing too. But it's a green branchy variety that seems to be very hardy. Haven't tried any other acros in that nano because of the lighting issue. Maybe I should

My belief is that once you have the basics that are adequate, the secret to everything is good water changes. However, my stuff doesn't grow as fast or with as brilliant colors as some of the more hard core acro guys in TCMAS. So please note that I am only talking about "adequate" (i.e., slow growth, good polyp extension and otherwise happy looking stuff). I think to get the fast growth rates and optimum colors that guys like Bill, David, etc... get, you need to be a bit fussier. Not that you guys are "fussy", but you know what I mean!

Robin

[TBRUZZ]

nice tank robin,

[TBRUZZ]

everybody thank you,

i feel better about keeping them together in the same tank.

see guys at the jan. meeting