T5's and coralline growth

[Jnicho]

Wow...nice growth salty...you must do a good job keeping your params in line...IME that is the real trick that most struggle with early on when trying to grow coralline.

I think you may be on to something with more PAR and maybe some shock...did you end up wth mostly ATI bulbs doc? That's what I run and they have significantly higher PAR than most other T5's...IIRC the setup you got was overdriven too...so with that and the bulbs you will have a lot more PAR than the setup Salty is running.

As I said before I see much more colorful growth with PC's...we have 3 PC lit nano's in our house and all have tons of dark colored coralline...in the big tank with T5's, the coralline is must lighter...like you my livestock looks better with T5's, so it's a trade-off I can live with.

[drdude05]

Yeah, I'm running eight 80W T5's overdriven to 100W each by IceCap 660 ballasts. My Bulbs are ATI and Geismann.

[Jnicho]

I forget the size of your tank...but I think it's safe to say you have some pretty good PAR there, LOL!

[drdude05]

I've got a 180 Gallon 24" deep. Yeah, my crocea clam is near the bottom of my tank and looks awesome. It really likes to stretch out its mantle and catch some rays, ;-)

[Jnicho]

I have a Maxima nearly on the sand in my 125 and it's doing awesome...I lost the numbers but I had a friend measure the PAR where my bulbs overlap (they are staggered so the ends are a bit dimmer) and with 6 bulbs that are not over-driven the PAR was slightly higher than his 250W MH with 14K bulbs on the same size tank.

[Big D]

I run all T5's... my coralline is deep purple and even pink in some areas. Here's some shots of my tank:



From the Left







From the Right











Not sure if it matters or not, but this tank has been lit with T5's since I set it up a couple years ago. I agree with others in thinking that maybe the change in lighting is affecting your coralline, but it should rebound.




D