D&D Nano Lights

[DC110770]

Hi all

A Dilemma which I cant resolve on my own!

How good are the D&D Nabno lights? know its a total of about 64w which is good for the size of the tank but I have only had results from M/H!

Can I keep all softies with this light and will they grow?

Will another nano be brought out which will have M/H built in? please dont mention the Viper.

Thanks

Confused

[PeterC]

Hi

You will find that watts/m2 is about 375 this should be more than sufficent to keep softies happy, generally they tend to be more tolerant of low levels of light than SPS and LPS. With the wattages we are talking about, you'll even find that you can keep some of the deeper lying/lower light requirement sps species.

We have discosoma and ricordea mushrooms and star polyps at the moment. "All softies" I have my doubts.
I would confidently expect to be able to keep almost any softie with the exception of dendronepthya this is because of their demand for planktonid foods and lots of it which would have deleterious effects on the other inhabitants and the water quality rather than the quality of the lighting.

I had also started to stock withSPS and spurred on by Simon Garrat's talk at the STM evening we are now have porites lobata, purple montipora capricornis, and a seriatopora caliendrum all of which have settled in quite nicely and the seriatopora has several growth tips and full polyp extension.

Have a go, you never know you might like it.

Best


Peter

[rockpoolie]

The 24G nano has 72w of lighting. I was only thinking of softies but ae you saying PerterC that you have those sps in a nanocube or have misunderstood?

[DC110770]

Thanks Peter

I have been toying with the idea of a nano cube especially the 24g one.

Ideally the aqua medic chromis would be first choice especially as it comes with a decent light and skimmer but due to the lack of space it is out of the question.

I might just go for it and see what happens.

I am concerned with the lack of the skimmer and may wait for the tunze option.

[PeterC]

Hi

Rockpoolie: I do have the SPS in a D+D 24G cube the colouration seems stable and they are all showing signs of growth. I've only done it because I have a lot of experience with SPS in larger tanks and thought it would be a challenge, if you consider that a 4x2 with 2 x 250 W MH gives you 360W/M2 so the D+D with 72 watts gives you about the same.

I dont think I'll ever keep bright blue Acro's in the tank, but then the factors that govern colouration at it's most basic is usually a combination of lighting and nutrient levels. So if the water is kept as nutrient free as possible and having discussed this with Fauna Marin I use Ultra Lith and dose with Ultra Bak and Ultra Min S then It might be possible, however if anyone has a frag of a blue acro and wants to donate it -for a fee- in the interests of an experiment then I would be delighted to give it a go:D

Also I reckon you can only keep them in the top 6-8 inches of the tank. But If there's a clever lighting person out there who can work out the lux drop off at 200mm down then I'd be interested to hear from them.

I'll post some piccies later

DC: As far as tanks are concerned the D+D is probably the best of the bunch at the moment, although RedSea have got one coming out soon which I think is around £5-600 is also at 130litres a bit bigger than the D+D however it has a pair of 55W T5's in the lid so the lighting is around 880W/M2 which is significantly better, It also has a skimmer - probably based on a Prizm Pro

[rockpoolie]

PeterC - On this basis as a newbie would I be better off with a bubble coral or frogspawn or what sps would you suggest I try?

[PeterC]

Hi

I don't think you could go wrong with either of them, but IME the Plerogyra (bubble) tends to be a bit more tolerant of water conditions than Euphyllia which can contract if the conditions are less than ideal.
But having said that a lovely big lump of Euphyllia Ancora would look stunnig nestled into some rockwork, as would an Alveopora (daisy or flowerpot coral) or cataphyllia (elegance coral) though these do need to be on a sandy base due to the large amount of expansion.

As far as a hard coral is concerned try something like Montipora Digitata or Capricornis. Be aware though that Montipora will not compete with something like a bubble coral which has sweeper tentacles that it uses to clear competition from around it.

I would suggest that you get a decent coral book like Eric Bornemans "Aquarium Corals" and have a good read before commiting to anything

Best

Peter

[PeterC]

I should have added that you shouldn't try the SPS until you are able to keep your parameters stable.

This will come with experience

Peter