T5 light questions.

[Punkroc701]

Ok so I am a little ahead of myself asking on the lights, but I am looking to do a reef tank (custom build) and I am curious as to what the deal is with the different colored lights? Since I am looking to do Coral I wantthe colors to pop and glow. I have seen the different colors on line, but only the white lights and coralife whites around here. Will those make my coral glow? Also I am wanting to have a "moon light" for when the day lights are off so I can still see everything at night. I have seen LED's (the solar ones you see at lowe's to light a walk way) used at night, is there an actual florecent type bulb you can use or should I just go with the LED idea?

Thanks for any suggestions and opinions.

 

[thincat]

I use some leds from Ace Hardware store and I glued on a blue lens from one of those very large comic sunglasses I had laying around after one of my wild parties.

 

[Mitchell0605]

How do they go TC?

 

[thincat]

Well I used silicone glue then attached it to my canopy, It gives off a nice blue light with some ripple affect. I've been working on my canopy so I have it off at the moment.

 

[mr_X]

the deal with different colored bulbs is to make your corals look as good as you can while not compromising PAR. don't use coralife lamps. you want to use a mixture of ATI and/or giesemann lamps. many online vendors sell them.

 

[melosu58]

Moved to General Hardware and equipment discussion.

 

[Punkroc701]

Thincat,

Did the LEDs come like that or did you put them together with the plug? That thing looks cool. Does it light up your whole tank or just a small part of it?

Mr. X,

I am still new to all this so some of the terminology I haven't picked up on yet. What is PAR? What colors should I go with? Can I run any at night or should I go with the LED idea?

Mike,

Thanks I didn't think of posting this in the equipment portion.

As always thanks everyone for your inputs.

 

[mr_X]

photosynthetically active radiation= PAR.
basically, it's what the corals take out of any light source. some light is the wrong wavelength, and corals don't use it. this light is not used by the photosynthetic creatures we keep, so it's a waste of effort.

as far as what colors you should go with,. this is depending on what photosynthetic creatures you intend to keep. if you like corals, you want to use the higher end of the spectrum, say 6500k to 2200k or so. if you like plants, 6500k is great for some plants, but some like the 3000 range too. plants is another hobby i don't know much about though...lol.
there is no research completed that proves moonlights make corals spawn. it's a "guess" at this point. you can use simulated moonlight if you like and see what happens, or not.
i have done both in the past and have not noticed a difference.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Moonlights are good because fish can't see them, so they think it's completely dark and they go bout their night activites. But we as humans can see the light wavelength and can enjoy our tank under lights at night that don't effect our fish at all.

 

[Punkroc701]

Mr. X,

I am looking to do coral and fish no plants. I would like some lights that give them what they need but let thier colors pop too. As for your comments on the night light as Mitch said I only want to be able to see them at night, didn't know it had an effect on reproduction for the coral. That's good to know it might help though.

Mitch,

I didn't know fish couldn't see night light. I am just looking to have some kind of light to see them at night, like you said, and was trying to figure out if the LED lights where the way to go or if there was a t5 kind of night light. I have plenty of LEDs as I used to own a car stereo shop and did alot of work with them so as good as the light looked that thincat used I could go into the light and just put blue LEDs in it (so long as the resistor was correct). I have one of those rechargable ones set up in my 5 gallon and it doesn't seem to bright so I am debating on added one more maybe.

As always thanks for the help.

 

[mr_X]

fish sleep at night...who cares too see them when they are sitting still on the bottom? use a flash light to see and feed the corals at night. they say they can't see the red light, so use a red flashlight.
i simply turn on the room lights. i have about 5 minutes of viewing before they start realizing there is light in the tank.

 

[Punkroc701]

My whole thing was watching the coral eat and move around. Fish sleeping do not interest me at all.

 

[thincat]

Pk, "Did the LEDs come like that or did you put them together with the plug? That thing looks cool. Does it light up your whole tank or just a small part of it?" The LED's came as a unit complete I just glued the blue lens to it and it was good to go.

 

[thincat]

As Mr X stated the whole thing with blue moon lights was that it was suppose to stimulate corals into spawning, Well they found out it was more the moons affect on the tides and not the light. The light manufacturers latched onto that idea and so moonlights was born...A Sales pitch no more,

 

[Punkroc701]

Go figure. Well either way I'd like to watch the coral at night so I will go with the LEDs I guess.

Thanks again.

 

[Mitchell0605]

Jumping on with a question of my own; Can clams be kept under T5's?

 

[Punkroc701]

Good question as I was thinking of getting one of those too. I found this website that has some info but I didn't go to indepth with it so I am not sure it goes into lighting. Giant Clams - Hippopus and Tridacna Clams, Family Tridacnidae Facts About Clams

 

[Mitchell0605]

Crocea Clams are better for aquariums. I reccomend getting one of those. Once our question is answered!

 

[Punkroc701]

I'm not sure what lights they had them under but my LFS had one in a display tank or "grow out tank" as they called it and it was beautiful. I saw another site that told how to check a clam at a locale shop and this one reacted as the site said it should. The colors were bright, when I looked down into the tank and the light changed a little the clam reacted fast. The more I get from you guys these other sites and stuff the more I am thinking my LFS is one of the better ones. They aren't looking for the sale so much as the hobbie, creatures, and hobbiest in mine.

 

[Mitchell0605]

That's good. I did work experience at my LFS so I know all the practices they do. Their clean.