Any Success Growing SPS with PC lighting?

[Eleven11]

I'm planning on getting back into the hobby after a 1 year hiatus.

A good friend of mine is generously offering me his former 46 gallon bow front tank with PC lights. I'm just curious as to how successful others have been with SPS corals under PC lighting. Pictures would be great. Thanks.

 

[batt600]

Pc is no good for sps ypu will have to use t5 or mh o leds for sps

 

[ryangrieder]

i highly doubt it. PC lighting is not strong enough at all. not only will the true colors not show in SPS under PC, but the growth rate and full polyp exetention will not be as ferequent as say t5/halide/led. pc lighting is honestly for FOWLR, or maybe BASIC reef. Zoas, palys, leathers, shrooms, basic of basic LPS, and MAYBE some euphyillia or something in that range. since your buddy offered you the set up so far and your no money in the hole yet, i would personally save up a few bucks and get yourself a 4 bulb t5, or if you want more SPS the LPS, 6 bulb. check out tek light from sunlight supply. saltwater critters has a great deal going on for the 3 foot fixtures right now.

 

[prattreef]

It all depends how many lamps you run and how deep your tank is/how far the corals are from the lamps. There is nothing inherently wrong with PC lighting from a coral's POV--given appropriate spectrum a photon is a photon and they don't really care whether it is generated from Metal Halide, T-5, LED or even PC lamps. The question is can you generate enough intensity for a given animal and its location in the aquarium.

At this point I wouldn't recommend PC lamps for reef keeping because there are better more efficient options available, but to say flat out they won't grow SPS is just wrong. They will, and many hobbyists in the past have grown beautiful SPS tanks with PC's. I'm sure there are even a few of them still out there.

 

[Eleven11]

Thanks for the responses.

He had a few SPS frags that grew and did well in the tank under these lights.

As Pratt mentioned I don't think it's true that they flat out won't do well under PC lights. I always thought other factors would play a role such as water quality and position in the tank.

I plan on leaving them at the very top of the rock. I also don't plan on attempting it with the more difficult ones but I wanted some monticaps, birds nest, etc.

I plan on possibly replacing the lights later because I have a FOWLR setup that I'm planning to do for my parents tank anyways. We'll see how things go.

If anyone has any experience with SPS under PC lights please chime in!

Thanks.

 

[lfsmarineguy]

+1 Randy

One of my first reef tanks was an SPS and clam tank lit entirely with PCs and I had colonies growing faster than some of my friends with halides. It boils down to the setup and husbandry. There are better options out there now but if you have the light and the bulbs are still good you can always start with it and upgrade when the time comes.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

it all depends how many lamps you run and how deep your tank is/how far the corals are from the lamps. There is nothing inherently wrong with pc lighting from a coral's pov--given appropriate spectrum a photon is a photon and they don't really care whether it is generated from metal halide, t-5, led or even pc lamps. The question is can you generate enough intensity for a given animal and its location in the aquarium.

At this point i wouldn't recommend pc lamps for reef keeping because there are better more efficient options available, but to say flat out they won't grow sps is just wrong. They will, and many hobbyists in the past have grown beautiful sps tanks with pc's. I'm sure there are even a few of them still out there.

+1

 

[MIKE NY]

x2..when I first started with SPS I was able to keep many species of Poci and monti with good growth and color under PCs. I just placed them in the upper half.

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

I agree with randy if the coral is positioned right you can grow anything..my 1st reef tank was a 15 gallon w/ a 24" pc fixture dual 65w my brother and I set it up just to see how it would do. I grew everything beautifully..my stronger light corals on top of course but they all did well.

 

[bizzarro]

It would help if you included what type of PC set up, # of bulbs and wattage.

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

It would help if you included what type of PC set up, # of bulbs and wattage.

I would think standard 36" 2 96w.I don't think they make any fixtures w/ more than 2 pc bulbs like that. My bro still uses that 24" on his 36 bow but since it is much deeper everything pretty much has to be middle- top w/ only a few things on the bottom but it does the job.

 

[Jakef150]

YES!

Place it in middle or high area.

I have biocube 29 with 3 PC-R bulbs

I have 3 SPS of birdnest, 3 digi SPS , orange monti, yellow milli etc

They all are doing GREAT!!! only one is yellow milli show little brown with little yellow BUT it grows.

One thing i refuse give clam a chance. just not comfortable...

Jake

 

[Eleven11]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm glad to hear it's not impossible.

I had already planned to place the SPS high up in the tank so I think it should work out.

Can't wait to start my tank thread this weekend!

 

[kidninja]

i currently have some sps (caps and birdsnest) in my 12 gallon nano cube stock lighting and they are growing but the colors are definitely not popping out. i had a green cap in there and it slowly turned brown and once i threw it under the LEDs, a few weeks later it colored back up

 

[KurtL]

i highly doubt it. PC lighting is not strong enough at all. not only will the true colors not show in SPS under PC, but the growth rate and full polyp exetention will not be as ferequent as say t5/halide/led. pc lighting is honestly for FOWLR, or maybe BASIC reef. Zoas, palys, leathers, shrooms, basic of basic LPS, and MAYBE some euphyillia or something in that range. since your buddy offered you the set up so far and your no money in the hole yet, i would personally save up a few bucks and get yourself a 4 bulb t5, or if you want more SPS the LPS, 6 bulb. check out tek light from sunlight supply. saltwater critters has a great deal going on for the 3 foot fixtures right now.

:scratchchPC lighting has been used over reef tanks for YEARS. I think some people forget that PC's were around before most of the current lighting options. Most corals do fine under them.

 

[Dre]

Two 96 watt 10,000k pc's and two 96 watt full actinic pc's over a 36 inch x 24 inch deep tank can grow Monti. Caps straight out of the water.