smcnally
Tankless
I just thought I would share my recent lighting experience with everyone. I've always been a little on the cheap side with my lights. With my MH lighting, I first I went with generic bulbs and thought they were "Just fine!". Then when it was time to get new ones I, figured I would give XM 10k bulbs a shot. My colors seemed to fade a bit on my corals but not too bad. They also started growing nicely. I thought "Wow...Bulb brands and temp do make a difference". This last week it was time for new bulbs yet again. This time I wanted to go with a bit different K rating but keep the same general par I've had. From my research, the best bet was to go with Aqualine AB bulbs. I placed an order and because of a shortage had to swap my 175W bulbs out for Iwasaki 14K bulb witch actually have a higher PAR than the XM's I was running. So Monday I installed the new Iwasakis on each end of the tank and an Aqualine AB in the center. All I can say is the difference in my tank this last week is incredible! My stag corals that were healthy before have a thicker "skin" on them now with an even more beautiful color. The Idaho Grape has beautiful iridescent polyps that were not nearly as noticeable in the past year, and every SPS has it's polyps out more than ever. My cyano problem is going away on its own now too. The moral of the story here is DO NOT cheap out on bulbs. IME, you can get away with lower wattages, but the bulb brand and K rating seem to make all the difference in the world. I'll try to get some pictures this weekend.
