Lighting on my 20 gallon nuvo

cody2cannon · Jan 10, 2017

So I have the current usa orbit marine LED. What us the best was to find out how strong my lighting is? I was to eventually have SPS corals but I don't want to buy and then have them die off because of lighting. Again this is a long term goal so just picking everyone's brain.
Thanks guys!

Chrisfish · Jan 10, 2017

@saltyfilmfolks is a good member to answer your question

cody2cannon · Jan 10, 2017

Chrisfish said:
@saltyfilmfolks is a good member to answer your question

Thanks!

ReeferMadness80G · Jan 10, 2017

cody2cannon said:
So I have the current usa orbit marine LED. What us the best was to find out how strong my lighting is? I was to eventually have SPS corals but I don't want to buy and then have them die off because of lighting. Again this is a long term goal so just picking everyone's brain.
Thanks guys!

I'm not saltyfilmfolks however I do study his work quite a bit, you need to buy a LUX meter from amazon. It's like 15 bucs. While lighting is important, I'm a little torn that flow is not the most important thing and you want to be around 50X the volume of your tank for SPS. And you want to have a turbulent varying flow so you'll need multiple power heads or return pumps etc angled in different directions.

As far as Lighting goes. I believe it's said that at the water surface 20,000 to 80,000 Lux is acceptable.
The spectrum of light however is something tbd, some say 16.5k is great for growth but not so much on color, while 20k is good on color but not great on growth. There is also the factor of what looks good to you since you'll be looking at it non stop. Find the happy medium.
Parameters- with tanks id say less than 40 gallons it's definitely a challenge to keep parameters from fluctuating and STABILITY is key when keeping SPS so make sure you have stable parameters in check before trying your hand at them.
Nutrients- so you're a pro at eliminating No3 and Po4 congrats! Now try and keep them above 2ppm and below 5-10ppm lol. It's all a challenge and the smaller the tank the bigger the change! Hopefully one of the experts will chime in and correct me if I'm wrong and add there opinions as well! Have fun and someone once welcomed me so I'll welcome you to the SPS Game of Thrones!

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 10, 2017

ReeferMadness80G said:
I'm not saltyfilmfolks however I do study his work quite a bit,

Hes a hack anyway.

cody2cannon · Jan 10, 2017

Lol i won't be buying them anytime soon if ever for the exact reason you stated. Small tanks like mine fluxuate way to much! Right now I have 2 hydor Nanos with the hydor smart wave.

saltyfilmfolks · Jan 10, 2017

cody2cannon said:
Lol i won't be buying them anytime soon if ever for the exact reason you stated. Small tanks like mine fluxuate way to much! Right now I have 2 hydor Nanos with the hydor smart wave.

It ain't the size bro... Ive only got ten more gallons than you in one of my tanks. and its sumpless. I dose two part and Patience.