Lighting suggestions

[T33BLACK]

I have a 135g mixed reef been set up for going on 2 years now. The tank has always had great water parameters and filtration but my corals have never really seemed to be thriving. They are always open and look good but growth is very very slow for everything. My question is the tank has two black box mars leds which look nice and cover the tank well but I'm wondering if switching to a higher quality light or T5s would help the growth? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated

 

[landlubber]

will new lights help? maybe??
there are plenty of reefers that use mars aqua lights as their end game fixture too.
your lighting needs depend on specific goals. what kind of coral do you want to keep? also how stable you are keeping those "good" parameters?

 

[T33BLACK]

Yes I know a lot of people use the mars lights and I do like them alot. Just thought maybe I would get better growth with t5s or better leds. My parameters are pretty stable all all the time I do icp tests monthly and occasionally im a little low on magnesium but nothing really to speak of or real wacky. I feed reef roids about 2 or three times a week.

 

[landlubber]

Yes I know a lot of people use the mars lights and I do like them alot. Just thought maybe I would get better growth with t5s or better leds. My parameters are pretty stable all all the time I do icp tests monthly and occasionally im a little low on magnesium but nothing really to speak of or real wacky. I feed reef roids about 2 or three times a week.

Mg is one of the most important elements in your reef has direct impact on how your system synthesizes alkalinity so depending how long this deficiency has gone on could be directly responsible for lagging growth.

 

[Jekyl]

I went from the same lights you have now to kessil a360s. The price difference is a lot but the difference also reflected. I managed to get a deal on them from a LFS going out of business. T5s will give you way better coverage than the black boxes you have now.

 

[T33BLACK]

Thank you that's good to know about mg. It has never been real low but has fluctuated from time to time ill maybe do some dosing on that and see if that helps. I was thinking of going to a ati 60 t5 setup the tank is 72 long do you think that would be more beneficial for light than the mars leds I have been running?

 

[Jekyl]

Yes

 

[landlubber]

Thank you that's good to know about mg. It has never been real low but has fluctuated from time to time ill maybe do some dosing on that and see if that helps. I was thinking of going to a ati 60 t5 setup the tank is 72 long do you think that would be more beneficial for light than the mars leds I have been running?

i would say you'll be very happy with the results from T5's. great blanket of light and provided you are ok with changing out bulbs every 18 months will have great success.
as for the Mg, you'll probably have to dose a substantial amount to raise the levels (if needed) so brace yourself lol.

 

[T33BLACK]

I went from the same lights you have now to kessil a360s. The price difference is a lot but the difference also reflected. I managed to get a deal on them from a LFS going out of business. T5s will give you way better coverage than the black boxes you have now.

My tank is 72in long how many a 360s would you suggest for good coverage? Debating on those or an ati 60 t5 setup.

 

[T33BLACK]

i would say you'll be very happy with the results from T5's. great blanket of light and provided you are ok with changing out bulbs every 18 months will have great success.
as for the Mg, you'll probably have to dose a substantial amount to raise the levels (if needed) so brace yourself lol.

Yes I figured I would lol. I think it will either be t5s or the kessil a360s not sure yet But I would like to step up my lighting as I've never had anything other than the Mars aqua just to give something new a try

 

[nereefpat]

What settings do you have the Mars at? You might try raising the fixtures and turning up the percentages.

I'm curious about specific numbers for salinity, alk, N, P.

 

[Jekyl]

It will depend on what you want to do. The black boxes put out some serious par but poor coverage. T5 will be more uniform numbers and coverage. For the kessils I run 2 on my 90 gallon. Can't beat the shimmer and clarity of the lights. With black boxes everything looked washed out and out of focus. With your tank I would recommend 4 of them.

 

[T33BLACK]

I did raise them up a while ago to about 10" to see if that helped. I have blue's about 80 % and whites about 20%. Mine are the older style with the turn knob so there's not much fine tuning lol.

 

[Jekyl]

I have the same one. Watching an episode of brstv investigates black boxes on YouTube right now. I'd recommend you watch. Will answer a lot of your questions.

 

[T33BLACK]

It will depend on what you want to do. The black boxes put out some serious par but poor coverage. T5 will be more uniform numbers and coverage. For the kessils I run 2 on my 90 gallon. Can't beat the shimmer and clarity of the lights. With black boxes everything looked washed out and out of focus. With your tank I would recommend 4 of them.

Great thanks. That is the problem I'm running into with the black Box the color is just pretty washed out Don't get me wrong they've been great And they have grown coral The color is just a little off for my taste.

 

[T33BLACK]

I have the same one. Watching an episode of brstv investigates black boxes on YouTube right now. I'd recommend you watch. Will answer a lot of your questions.

Lol I watched it the other day that's actually why I've been toying with the idea of upgrading

 

[T33BLACK]

Lol I watched it the other day that's actually why I've been toying with the idea of upgrading

What type of kessil a360 would you suggest there's a few different ones I see

 

[Jekyl]

I love my kessils. They are definitely not a cheap option though. If I were to ever go with something different it would be still a t5 kessil hybrid setup.

 

[Jekyl]

Mine are the a360w tuna blue lights. I'm sure there are newer models now thouhh

 

[Mywifeisgunnakillme]

Kessils, radiums, t5's, are top contenders. I like kessils and t5's because of very good spectrum. Radiums or XHO's may give a different some say better actinic pop