SPS Lighting Requirement's

[TopNotchCorals]

I have been noticing a lot of people including myself ask where to place this SPS and where to place that SPS.Is it possible to get a thread going on where the best placement for all varible sps species in a tank and under different lighting??

 

[TopNotchCorals]

I take it this was a dumb idea??

 

[luke33]

Not a dumb idea bay, but you have to look at it differently. There are so many diff variables than just were you keep your sps. One person might keep his sps 6" below his 250w mh's and another might keep there sps at 24" below there mh and they could be getting the same intensity. I think the better way would be to ask what par and what light seems to work best color and growth wise for x kind of sps. But then we would all need par meters : )

 

[fsn77]

I don't think it's a bad idea... I could certainly benefit from the info.
I think it's a pretty sizeable task (but hey, you've got to start somewhere) and many hobbyists probably do not have a way to quantify light beyond relative terms. Additionally, it becomes complicated by things like lighting type and ballast / bulb / reflector combo, as well as how well the info transfers from one tank to another due to varying water quality / water clarity between tanks.

 

[TopNotchCorals]

Not a dumb idea bay, but you have to look at it differently. There are so many diff variables than just were you keep your sps. One person might keep his sps 6" below his 250w mh's and another might keep there sps at 24" below there mh and they could be getting the same intensity. I think the better way would be to ask what par and what light seems to work best color and growth wise for x kind of sps. But then we would all need par meters : )

Thats funny, as I was reading about the par the first thing that came to my mind was "I am gonna have to get a par meter" then I got to the end of your post and it was like my thought was there.Totally agree with the way you state it here,I wasnt too sure on the specifics of it but that would definitely make the most sense to go with the par route

 

[TopNotchCorals]

We can just get one started and take it from there,it can look a lil something like this:
Species/Named Coral:
Par:
Lighting:
Flow:
Tank Placement:

 

[luke33]

Now if we could only test for usable par from the par meter we'd be set! :tongue:

 

[TopNotchCorals]

Now if we could only test for usable par from the par meter we'd be set! :tongue:

You might be the only one with a Par meter here Luke so you can get it going:tongue:After you par test all your pieces just send me your par meter and Ill take over from there and so and so on:tongue:

 

[luke33]

lol, i can take par test's of what corals are doing well under what intensity but its the club meter : () so it can't go out of the area. Also if i take #'s of corals it doesn't really mean alot, just means that x sps does well at this intensity. I'm sure that intensity will vary for each coral quite a bit. The real question is what is the intensity threshold for x sps. Meaning what intensity can't it survive at. Water quality and flow would also be a huge issue as flow is just as important as lighting : )

 

[Troylee]

Really hard question to answer.... If you do research on par readings you will see a bunch of people say we are more concerened about par than the corals are...I have seen plenty of tanks with like 30par on the sand bed and there growing sps...
I grow my sticks anywhere from 1600 to 200 par.... They all survive and do well but some will bleach with the higher numbers of course like digis and montis and some low light Acros like green slimer... Really tough question as every corAl has it varibles....
I have a tri color mili or prostrata not sure which one it is but Anyways the mother colony is about 12" down and is pink with purple tips and a green base.... I fragged it a couple weeks ago and the frags on my rack are 3" below the surface and there solid neon green... It's really wierd but there growing like crazy.... Lol

 

[MountainReefer]

Isn't PAR by definition usable light?

Here are a few:

ORA Tricolor Valida: very high flow, very high light
Ponape Birdsnest: high flow, low-mid light
ORA Miami Orchid: medium flow, very high light - top 1/3
ORA Brett's Purple Rim Monti Cap: low light is just fine, It seems to like low-medium gentle flow - If the flow is too high, it'll die

Where do you guys place your ORA pearlberry? It is the only thing in my tank that isn't happy.

 

[scrapz]

did a par test, most of my sps grow in a 350-400 PAR area. some millies are taking 500 par.

I also grow sps on my sandbed with 150 par and it grows just as fast as the high parred area.

conclusion? Once corals are acclimated and settled in one spot without ever being moved. They will all grow at a good rate, the higher parred areas may get another 1" or 2" but who knows.

 

[Oiseau Reefer]

The key I've found is find a place leave it! If it bleaches out leave it for 3 days if color doesn't start to come back move it to a shady spot till it gets some color back to it then place in a little darker area than what you had it and leave it don't move it it will nomally acclimate to what it has been given at this point
I've gotten corals from friend who have the almost identical lighting set up as me placed them in almost the same position under my lights as theirs and what do ya know it loses it's color then I do the mentioned above blam! Color comes back to look like the mother colony it came from also had corals that didn't ever matter where I put them they never changed the only one I'm struggling with is the palmers blue milli ??

 

[ronnie]

Species/Named Coral: ORA Red Planet
Par: ??
Lighting: Medium Intensity
Flow: High
Tank Placement: Mid-Low - Low enough to maintain green base if you wish it to have it.

Like that?

 

[fity2pounder]

Lots of things to take into account for on this. I think that what you want them to look like and how fast you want them to grow is a big part. From my personal experience with my red planet...you can put it high in the tank and it grows really fast but loses the green color...if you want the color then you have to put it down quite a bit further but you lose growth...depends what you are going for