? on VHO lighting & Clams

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EMS503

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 19, 2002
Messages
471
Location
Lakewood, NJ
I have a 75 gal. reef tank currently I am using 2 48" Super Actinic's and 2 48" Actinic White VHO bulbs with an Ice cap Ballast and end caps. I am considering replacing the Actinic White with the VHO Aquasun bulb.
I am confused with the brightness factor, The Actinic White is 12,000 K and the Aquasun is 10,000 K. Which is brighter the higher or lower number? My second question is also why I am considering the bulb change I would like to place a clam in my tank. My LFS advised me to switch to a stronger VHO bulb or Metal Halide (which I can not afford at this time), Would VHO's be capable of keeping a clam alive, and if so which type of clam would you recommend?

Thanks for any help you can offer
John
EMS503@aol.com
 
The Actinic White is 12,000 K and the Aquasun is 10,000 K. Which is brighter the higher or lower number?
Click to expand...

The K number on the bulbs simply referes to the spectrium that the bulb puts out. The higher the number the whiter the light will be. At some point in the upper Kelvin ratings the bulbs start to appear more blue. I have seen photos of a 20K bulbs and a 10K bulb and the 20 K bulb is much blueer than the 10K bulb. The lower the K rating the more yellow a bulb will appear. A 6700K or a 5500K bulb will appear very yellowish in comparison to a 10K or a 12K bulb.

This does not mean it puts out less or more light but depending on what you want to keep the bulbs Kelvin rating implys the spectrium of the light comming from the bulb concentrates at a specific wave lengh producting more of one color of light vs another. Different items in our reef tanks may act more favorable to specific spectrium of light vs other lights.

We have a photo of a clam on the front page with specifics about how that member lights their tank. Also, there is a rather interesting lighting thread entitled Lighting comparison???
 
EMS503 said:
My second question is also why I am considering the bulb change I would like to place a clam in my tank. My LFS advised me to switch to a stronger VHO bulb or Metal Halide (which I can not afford at this time), Would VHO's be capable of keeping a clam alive, and if so which type of clam would you recommend?

Thanks for any help you can offer
John
EMS503@aol.com
Click to expand...

IMO, clams should not be attempted unless you have MH lighting. With this size tank, 2-250 watt MH's would be considered minimum, and most people with experience keeping clams would suggest using 2-400 watt MH's.
 
I think a Squamosa would do well in your tank with either of those lighting configurations as long as the bulbs are not too old. I've found the Actinic/AquaSun combinitation works best for me. The AquaSuns also last twice as long (2 years) as the ActinicWhite (1year). I also replace my actinics every year and I stagger all bulb replacements throughout the year.

As far as color temp... think about heating a piece of Titanium. At 1000 degrees Kelvin (1000K) it looks normal. At 2000K it has a dull red look, 3000K orange, 4000K yellow... etc. Until you get to 12,000K where it's bright white and slowly progresses toward blue above 15,000K.

20,000K is the highest value on this scale. Actinic light is considered to have an Infinate K value.
 
I agree with Guy on this one, I have successfully kept T. Crocea and T. Maxima and T. derasa in tanks with VHO lighting, but I would not recommend those for VHO users. T. squamosa is a clam that is found in deeper waters and doesn't require as much light as the others mentioned above.
As for my success with those clams, I attribute it to the fact that the T. crocea was a small specimen when I aquired it and it was moved to a tank with more VHO lighting within a year. The T. maximas and the T. derasa were placed in the second tank from the beginning.
 
I have to agree with everyone's suggestion of a squamosa. I too have a 75 lit solely by VHO's. I've had mine for over a year and he has easily doubled in size. He sits on the sandbad.

I'd love to have a crocea or maxima, but I just don't think it's a great idea.

HTH,
Stephanie
 
In my curosity as to if I could keep a clam with my lighting in the new 80 gal

I went searching on the net for the squamosa clams. In my search I found this page with a nice photo of a green squamosa. From what I understand there colors will and can range from brown, green, yello and blue.

Plus there is a funny little photo essay on the adventures of "Diver Dan". Its some funny stuff done by obviouslyi a reefaholic.

http://www.usinternet.com/users/dsapp/
 
Look at www.liveaquaria.com and they will have pictures of that type of clam as well.

I have a deresa that did well under 2 65w PC smartlamps in my 75. i forget the exact comparisions, but should be close. i would not try a maxima under anything other than a MH nor would i try croceas.

just my 2 cents
 
Squamosa

These are my two Squamosa. The left has been in the tank for about a year and was tiny when I got it. The right I received in a trade a few months ago. Both are growing rapidly.

clams.jpg
 
Clams



JT over at www.harboraquatics.com just got a ton of new clams i imagine if you ask nicley he can get some photos of t.deresa and t.squasmosa and there colors...

i just bought 3 maxxima's for my tank WOHOO
 
for my t.squasmosa

i have it placed bottom right of the tank (120 gallon oceanic RR) under 4x110 VHO and 2x250 10k MH..

also K value is very confuseing because 7200K is what actinics supposedly are but they dont follow the same spectrum.... i just look at it as 6500K = Yellow
7200K = Actinic Blue
10,000K = White/blue
20,000K = Blue/White
50,000K = Blue

my tank can be seen @ www.morelweb.com/demose (these are old photos Sorry)
 
FYI - Actinic lighting is considered an "infinite K value". The Kelvin scale for lighting max's out at 20,000K.

The 7,200K Actinic came from the old crappy PC actinic which was actually a 7,200K bulb that filtered out everything except for the 450nm light. It was blue but it filtered out 90% of the light and STILL didn't hit the 430nm Actinic range ;)
 
AS i stated in the post

Actinic Blue is 7200k... doesnt matter who made it the pc's are generally all 7200k actinicblue... NOt Actinic wich would be like a uri ACTINIC bulb or the New Actinic's made for pc... and if you ask me actinic is not blue... its more of a purple but thats my opinion...
 
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