do sps really need mh?

[eduardo cavalcanti]

a pic of a montipora 3 weeks ago...

 

and today

 

only 65w of pcs. and i´m not adding any calcium to the tank till now, so i think that when i start doing it, the growth will be be better

[brahm]

Acropora and Montipora have diffrent requirments when most people think SPS they think Acros, and all though some people have been able to keep acros under MH you won't get the same colouration as with MH.

[eduardo cavalcanti]

brahm, i agre with you. acroporas are less hardy than montiporas, but, they are all sps. i think it´s possible to keep a tank full of montiporas (digitatas and capricornis) and seriatopotras with only pcs.

[Withers]

yes, you can keep all monti's under PC's, but they'll probably be all brown monti's.

[kwl1763]

Not true. Digitatas will keep their color beautifully under PC. Capricornus are iffy but if high in the tank should be fine.

 

Acros will almost definitely "brown out" or die.

 

Others such as Pocillipora and Hydnophora can also do fine under PC.

 

Having said that almost every SPS will have better coloration under MH.

[OxInYourBox]

Probably 50% of my 29G tank's SPS were kept under PC's before I moved to MH. They survived and grew and some had awesome color (green mostly) and others were tan and brown until I put them under halide. I had a tan Monti Cap go to bright green with a purple rim under MH.

[Withers]

i take back what i said, i do remember seeing a really nice green digitata under PC's.

[onthefly]

I think the proof is in your own pics.......Green Monti -> Brown Monti in 3 weeks.

 

Growth might be fine, coloration is another story. A HUGE factor which no one ever thinks about is the stability of the tank....not just lighting...but Temp/Alk/Ca/Mg/Sr/pH/SG. A big enough fluctuation in any of these and your corals (particularly SPS.....can freak!)

 

Some people can keep a pink birdsnest "pink" under PC.....I would say they have very stable systems. With VHO/T5/MH you have more "forgivness" in the tank.

 

Look at the bio of the TOTM at RC. He got tired of trying to keep SPS, so he went softy........all under pc!

[supernip]

im sorry, but why does it look like you just zoomed in?

[eduardo cavalcanti]

in the first picture,

the coral was brown. te only difference is the white balance. ater all, this is a brown purple tip montipora. tehere is no way of this thing turn green or yellow. his original color is brown and that´s it. in fact, the coral has developed the purple tips in my tank. when he arrived the tips where white and now they are pale purple.

 

to compare the grownth, just look at the tips. you can cleary see that they have grown 0,5cm in three weeks. i´m not saying that this is spetacular, but the fact is that the coral is growing and the color is improving

[OxInYourBox]

Forgot about tank stability and levels. Mattie's 20G is a prime example of SPS growth and coloration. He keeps the tank stable and levels proper.

[Aggie05]

I have 150 watts VHO over my 20 long and have three acros, a very pink birdsnest, several montis, and a pavona that are all thriving, both in coloration and growth. The only things that have gone through a color change are the acros, and they shift from say, red to green in one case. My purple and green tipped acro has lost some of its purple but instead is now a very intense green.

 

I think PCs are pushing it, but VHOs can most definitely support SPS given the right conditions.

[impur]

I have a monti under 96w PC and it has been growing wonderfully, i can tell it is a dark green monti, but the brown is still the dominant color of the coral at this point. On the other hand, about 2-3 months ago i got 2 acro frags from a local reefer keeping them in an 80 gal under MH. He told me they were yellow acros but they looked very bleached and not very healthy. I brought them home and put them at the top of my rock. Since going into my tank, they have encrusted and grown a bit. The color is a very light yellow, but the base has become bright green. I'm pretty excited to see what they turn out to be. Moral of the story is the montis haven't colored well under my PC lights, but the acros have. Go figure.

[onthefly]

Ed - I'm not disputing your growth! That is obvious in the pics! I got a brown/purple tip monti from a local guy.....put it under my MH and now the whole thing is purple!

 

MH are not a necessity, but they add some "buffer zone" when things get out of whack.

 

Ag - I'm with you on VHO's! I'm actually coverting my 45T from FOWLR to softie/LPS reef and I'm going 4x 95W VHO! After reading some threads by "flatlander" on RC......VHO SPS tanks are very, very possible!

[OxInYourBox]

OTF-I'm following suit with a 20L and 300W of VHO (4x24 of T5 HO would cost double what I can do VHO for). I'm going to concenctrate on Monti Caps for color and acro grow out.

[wallywaltt]

Check out dananos tanks. He keeps tons of SPS under nothing but T-5's. I believe purple and pink digitata's are also less likely to keep their color under pc's, but the other variations do.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/showthread...&threadid=24522

[onthefly]

Yeah! Dan says the growth is great and the coloration is not as "popping" as VHO or MH.....the corals take on a more pastel color. He also will preach the stability of the tank as just important, if not more, than lighting!

 

BTW, his 30ga is gone.....he now has a 100gawith T5!!!!

[Whitten]

I have a montripora Digitata under the stock lighting in my Nano Cube. although it really isn't as purple as it used to be, I see no reason why it won't color back up when I add more light.

[just dave]

No would be the short answer. As to coloration and growth, lighting is only part of the equation.

Here is a pic of a Seriatopora hystrix as of last night.

It is kept under three 32w PC bulbs in a AGA 5.5 gallon tank and it is on the bottom left front of the tank.

 

 

 

This is from early July.

 

 

It is growing as can be seen and it is pink. I'll have to say that I don't really care all that much what color it is or ends up being. I like them for the growth patterns, shapes,types of polyps and that's how I pick 'em.

[MarLooney]

keeping SPS under PCs is only good if they're montis. and even then, i'd only suggest reg digi & cap. you may keep other SPS under PCs. they may even hold their color & grow, but their growth will be nothing compared to if they were under MH. coloration my also not be as good. there's a difference between keeping corals surviving and thriving. we wanna do the latter of the two.

 

here are some of my SPS under PCs.

orange cap with very nice color and growth under PCs. ignore the color of the monti next to it. it's supposed to be brown.

 

this acro is a rare exception. i call it the immortal acro. first it bleached, then colored back up brown, then turned teal under PCs! it has also fallen so many times i lost count. i attached it to a different rock, in the process hitting it up a bit w/ a dremel cut off wheel, but it seems to be doing fine. healed up quickly. i still wouldn't suggest Acros under PCs though.

 

check out my Tank Away From Home thread. she's got some montis looking real good in there unde PCs.

[eduardo cavalcanti]

update of the montipora, side view

 

i think that is now clear that it is really coloring up

[eduardo cavalcanti]

pic of the day it arrived

 

2 months later

[corriewf]

Looks good.

[eduardo cavalcanti]

i added today two green digitatas a little bigger than this one. i´ll be posting some pictures soon of then

[MarLooney]

looks like it's growing good, but where is the color? i don't see purple tips.