Strong Medium and Low lighting...

Raygunn · 06-11-2008, 02:25 AM

i'm new to all of this... so this lighting thing is kind of hard for me to grasp...
I know there is no 100% this is the guide to what is strong and what is low lighting... (or maybe i'm wrong there)
but i'm getting a 4x65 PC light tomorrow... this will be 265w of light... would that equal strong or medium?
thanks
Ray

**Amphibious** · 06-11-2008, 08:05 AM

Knowing this is not 100% accurate, Your lighting would be considered medium. That means mostly softies, maybe some LPS. If you try a SPS it would have to be right up under the lights. Your new, so this is probably a good direction for you. Gain so valuable experience before plunging in over your head. I had very good "luck" with a similar lighting system over my 70 gal a few years ago.

Dick

Raygunn · 06-11-2008, 12:08 PM

awesome thanks so much for the advice! thats what i was needing to know...
Ray

liquid wind · 06-17-2008, 06:37 PM

I'm a little confused about lighting as well on what can be kept under certain lighting, what a ballast is, is wattage per gallon the best way to tell, and if pc vho and mh just allow you to have progressively more wattage or are they just better? Sorry for so many questions, but i'm confused.

**Phurst** · 06-17-2008, 07:23 PM

A ballast is what fires the bulbs. Be it fluorescent or metal halide. They're the big "box" between the plug and the actual lighting fixture. Some are integrated into the lighting system, some are on longer cords so they can be located nearby, but not IN the fixture itself.

Watts per gallon is not a very good way of measuring light. It fails to take into account a number of important factors, like the depth of the tank, intensity of the particular lighting system, etc.

PC, VHO and T5 are all flourescent technologies. They consume less power and produce less heat, but they tend to produce less usable light per watt than metal halides. i.e. 250 watts of PC light is NOT the same as a 250 watt metal halide light.

liquid wind · 06-17-2008, 08:09 PM

What is the difference with T5 and vho i always thought t5 was a bulb and vho was a fixture? and could you give me some numbers(approximate) on what wattage would be considered high-low?

**CarmieJo** · 06-17-2008, 09:49 PM

T5 is the diameter of the bulb and VHO is the output. It is hard to say what wattage is high, medium or low because it depends on the whole situation. I would characterize NO fluorescent tubes as low light, PC's as medium and MH as high. For instance, a 36 watt PC bulb over a tank that is 10" deep is pretty high lighting but that same bulb over a 36" deep tank is pretty low.

liquid wind · 06-17-2008, 10:25 PM

So most things could be kept under PCs given that it has high enough wattage and is placed high enough except for maybe some SPS and clams?

Raygunn · 06-17-2008, 10:34 PM

so another questions... even in deeper tanks does the level of light (hight med and low) depend on where in the tank they are placed?
like since i have 4x65= 360 watts... if i can keep something closer to the top like on my rocks would it be considered to be in the high light area of my tank?
or does it not work like that?

liquid wind · 06-17-2008, 11:03 PM

To get a sense of what is high/medium/low lighting could you give a few examples in inches of what wattages are considered h/m/l on pcs vhos and mh for an approximate sense of example. Thanks for all the help it is very... helpful.

**Phurst** · 06-17-2008, 11:28 PM

IMO I can't think of a situation where PCs would ever be considered high light.

I can only speak to the tank/light combos I have had and what I consider H/M/L light. I have a 29 gallon nano with 103w of PC lighting. The tank is (i think) 16" tall. I consider the top of the rockwork medium light and everything else medium-low to low light. I had a 12 gallon nano as well that was (again, I think) 12" deep. At first it had 48w of PC lighting which I considered medium pretty much top to bottom. Then I switched to a single 150 HQI metal halide about 8" off the water. I would consider the top 8" as high light and the rest medium-high. I also have a 120 that's 24" deep. First I had 2x150w HQI metal halides. The lights were 12" off the water. I considered the very tip top of the rockwork to ne high to medium high light (there were high light corals that I would not have kept up there), and the bottom 16ish inches to be medium light. The very bottom, on the sand I would call medium-low. I now have 2x400w metal halides and 2 54w T5s. I consider it pretty much high light top to bottom. If it were a 30" tank, I'd have called the bottom 6" or so medium to medium-high light.

**CarmieJo** · 06-18-2008, 12:08 AM

I guess my example was not well chosen. I was not suggesting that PC's are a high intensity light source, I was trying to demonstrate the difference that tank depth makes.

There are some things like acros that won't do well under PC's no matter how high they are kept. They just need more intensity than the PC bulbs can deliver. Enough T5 bulbs (they are skinny) with INDIVIDUAL reflectors are supposed to rival the intensity of MH. They are very popular in Europe where power costs far more than here in the states.

A given kind of light will vary in intensity from the top to the bottom of the tank. You can also loose some intensity by not keeping your lights or glass tops free from salt spray.

I am not a lighting expert. I went from NO fluorescents to PC's to a Solaris G series (equivalent to 250 watt MH) on my 54. I still have the stock 2x36w PC's in my NC24. Here are a couple of examples based on my experience. I have my P. damicornis in my NC24 in the upper half of my tank and they do fine. (When they were in my 54 they were at the bottom of the tank. I moved a monticap from the top of my nano (say 4-5" below the lights) to about 1/2 way up (13-14 inches below the lights) in my 54 and had to move it down because it was too much light.

Have you listened to the Lighting podcasts? (Numbers 75-77 and 80-82) They are comprehensive and cover all the basic types of lighting.

liquid wind · 06-18-2008, 12:30 AM

Alright thanks for all the help I think I have a good understanding of everything. I have been going through the archives listening to the episodes, but i'm only in the 50's now i'll probably skip ahead to hear those now. If T5 HO is a measurement of the bulb than why are other measurements never mentioned. What is the size bulb in a PC?, a MH? or does that differ as well?