Reef Aquarium Lighting: Color Temperature Experiment Results

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Friday, August 13, 2010

Reef Aquarium Lighting: Color Temperature Results 

This experiment in reef aquarium lighting was a visual, subjective exercise.  Rather than ramble on describing the differences between the combinations, I will let the pictures do the talking.  You can enlarge any of the pictures by clicking the thumbnail and viewing the full-sized image page.  The intent of this post is to report out on the color temperature experiment conducted using the new line of T5 high output (HO) lamps from ZooMed Laboratories.

Reef lighting is not only a critical life support system for your saltwater reef aquarium, it is also a major contributor to the overall look and feel of your tank.  In this experiment, four bulbs, with different color temperatures, were paired together in six combinations to assess the overall impact of the lighting combinations on the appearance of a reef display tank and the corals and fish who reside there.

saltwater aquarium lighting experiment-lighting combination 1

Capnella species under combination 1

 

Saltwater aquarium lighting experiment-Capnella under lighting combination 2

Capnella species under combination 2

Compare the results and subtle differences of reef aquarium light combination 1 vs. combination 2: CORAL SUN + ULTRA SUN T5 bulbs vs. FLORA SUN + OCEAN SUN T5 bulbs.

Note that the color on the left is relatively more brown, warm, and natural than the slight bluish/purple tinge of the combination on the right-hand side.

 

 

In these nearly identical pictures of a Colt coral (Capnella sp.), one can see the impact, although subtle, of color temperature on the appearance of the tank and its inhabitants. 

 

Both combinations are noticeably bright–not surprisingly because the ULTRA SUN and OCEAN SUN lamps were in opposite pairs.  I would characterize the overall color temperature of pairs 1 and 2 to be mostly white.  There is only a subtle detectable difference attributed to the brown/red glow from the FLORA SUN (left)vs. the blue glow of the CORAL SUN (right).

saltwater reef aquarium lighting combination 4

Devil's Hand coral species-combination 4

saltwater reef aquarium lighting
Devil’s hand coral combination 3

 

 

 

Compare the results and subtle differences of reef aquarium lighting combination 3 vs. combination 4: CORAL SUN + OCEAN SUN T5 bulbs vs. FLORA SUN + ULTRA SUN T5 bulbs.

 

Note the cooler blue and yellow tones of the coral picture on the left, and the warmer orange/brown tones of the coral on the right.  Combination three provided an appealing ‘glowing’ look, whereas combination four provided a more natural ‘true-color’ look and feel.  While these pictures focus primarily on an individual coral specimen, the image posted here is reflective of the effect which the bulbs had on the entire tank.
 
 
T5 Combination 5 for the saltwater aquarium lighting experiment
Clownfish and colt coral under combination 5 lighting
 
Clownfish and colt coral under reef lighting combination six
Clownfish and colt coral under combination 6
Finally, consider the last pair of images–

Compare the results and subtle differences of reef aquarium lighting combination 3 vs. combination 4: CORAL SUN +OCEAN SUN T5 bulbs vs. FLORA SUN + ULTRA SUN T5 bulbs. 

In this comparison, the puple and pink colors really pop on the left-hand side, in the clownfish as well as in the colt coral–and the purple colors of the coralline algae on the live rock amost glows. The lighting on the right-hand side has a bright white appearance–making the colt coral appear tan, the white tile next to it looks white and the clownfish actually have a natual looking color.

As you can see from the images–seemingly minor changes in light bulb color temperature can have an impact on the appearance of your tank.  To keep the arms of the experiment to manageable set, I only rotated the lamps in combinations of one bulb for each temperature–but the impact of a particular bulb style on the appearance can be further amplified or fine tuned with a variation of the number of bulbs from a given color temperature range.  A finer level of precision could be achieved to create the optimal color combination for your individual reef needs. 

 

More conclusions, takeaways and advice to come in the next post.

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Reef Aquarium Lighting: Color Temperature Experiment Continued

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Sunday, August 8, 2010

 

Reef Aquarium Lighting: Color Temperature Experiment Continued

 

 

A continuation of the reef aquarium lighting experiment detailed in the last thread:
The color temperature of aquarium lighting is sometimes described in relative terms of ‘warm’ vs. ‘cool’.  Lamps that appear to be subjectively more red or orange are considered to be warmer color temperatures, while lamps that produce light in the blue side of the range are considered to be cooler. The differences in color temperature of the four bulbs from the ZooMed line demonstrate a distinct range from warmer to cooler.    

 

 

High Output Fluorescent lights for saltwater reef aquarium lighting experiment

Note color temperature range: warm to cool

 

Note in the picture that the appearance of the light output ranges from the red/violet  hue of the FLORA SUN (far left) to the deep blue actinic of the CORAL SUN lamp(far right).  In the middle, it is apparent that not all ‘white’ bulbs are the same.  Take a look at the difference between the stark white ULTRA SUN lamp (left middle) compared with the bluish/white OCEAN SUN lamp (right middle). 

 

The light fixture over the display tank is four foot long and runs 4×46 inch T-5 High Output (HO) lamps.  The lamps are wired in pairs with each pair connected to an independent switch.   

 

The four lamps, connected in pairs, created six possible combinations.

 

Pair combinations for the Reef Aquarium Lighting Experiment

 

 

 

Lamp 1

Lamp 2

Set-up 1

CORAL SUN

ULTRA SUN

Set-up 2

FLORA SUN

OCEAN SUN

Set-up 3

OCEAN SUN

CORAL SUN

Set-up 4

ULTRA SUN

FLORA SUN

Set-up 5

FLORA SUN

CORAL SUN

Set-up 6

OCEAN SUN

ULTRA SUN

 

The lamp combinations were toggled back and forth leveraging the two independent switches in the following fashion:  

 

Saltwater Reef Lighting First Combination

Note: First and third T-5 lamp are wired together

 

Reef Aquarium Expermiment in Lighting Color Temperature

Note: Second and fourth lamps are wired together

The lamps in the first and third positions were wired together as teh first combination and the lamps in the second and fourth positions were wired together as the second combination.  Appearance of the tank was judged qualitatively according to relative warmth of the light and a general color and appearance description. Photographs were taken of the reef tank with the various color combinations to capture the possible differences

 

 More pictures and results to come….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Reef Aquarium Lighting: An Experiment in Color Temperature

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Thursday, July 1, 2010

Reef Aquarium Lighting–An Introduction to the Experiment

Saltwater Aquarium Lights

Reef aquarium lights come in a range of color temperature--shown here are the four available color temperatures available from ZooMed Laboratories

Over the next several blog posts, I’m going to explore the topic of reef aquarium lighting.  For many reef aquarium hobbyists, lighting will be one of the most expensive pieces of equipment in their system.  Lighting is expensive to purchase and to run on a daily basis.  For photosynthetic invertebrates in your tank however, reef aquarium lighting is also one of the most important pieces of equipment because the light provides the life sustaining energy to the tank.

The topic of reef aquarium lighting is often explained from a complex, technical point of view.  Most saltwater aquarium lighting articles read more like textbooks than articles.  And quite frankly speaking, lighting is a complex topic.  However, one aspect of reef aquarium lighting that often gets overlooked is the impact that lighting has on the aesthetic appearance of your tank.

From a technical perspective, the ‘look and feel’ produced by a light bulb is a function of color temperature.  Over the next few posts, I will reveal the effects of lamp color temperature on the appearance of the display tank in my den, and more specifically the effects on the appearance of the vertebrates, invertebrates and algae living in my tank.

 

The four reef aquarium lights (lamps) used in this experiment are:

A special thank you to a loyal sponsor of this site, ZooMed Laboratories, for providing the high output T5 fluorescent lamps used in this experiment.

 

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Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine Online For $1: Now Available on iPad

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Tropical Fish Hobbyist (TFH) Magazine is running a promotion from June 23rd to July 23rd where you can subscribe to a year of the magazine’s online version for just $1.  Not a dollar an issue–one dollar for the entire year.  Here is what the online version of the magazine looks like on the iPad:

 

 It doesn’t look like TFH created a specific app for iPad–but clearly the iPad provides a great user experience to read the magazine.

And if getting a $28 (paper) subscription for a dollar online wasn’t a good enough deal for you already, their website states that new subscribers to the digital version will also be entered in drawing to win an iPad.  So take a look at the offer and see if it’s right for you.

Check it out for yourself and sign up:
 http://www.tfhmagazine.com/ipad/

 

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Breeding Banggai Cardinalfish Article

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Friday, June 18, 2010

Be sure to pick up the August edition of Aquarium Fish International, and check it out. I have two articles

Male Banggai Cardinalfish holding brood of eggs in his mouth

Cardinalfish mouth full of eggs

published in the August edition of the magazine–a full length article about breeding the Banggai Cardinalfish titled “Six Steps to Breeding the Banggai Cardinalfish”  and a hobbyist tip on establishing a ”Low Cost Tank” the last page, in the Aquarist’s Notebook section.  

First Fry that Emerged

Banggai Cardinalfish Fry Just Released from Father's Mouth

In the article, I relay my experience with breeding these spectacular fish (the Banggai Cardinalfish) while on vacation.  While it was a bit of dumb luck at the time, it turned out that the protocol I used to get my tank ready for vacation created a few time tested spawning triggers.  My account of this accidental breeding is intended to be reassuring to the casual hobbyist and a testament to the resiliency of these fish once properly acclimated to captivity (or already born in captivity).  You’ll see the mistakes I made along the way, and I provide as much advice as I can cram into an article. 

 

 You can also find the procedure I used to hatch the brine shrimp eggs here: 
 www.fishchannel.com/EasyArtemia
Here is a photo of the Cardinalfish babies enjoying their favorite snack.   
Cardinalfish fry capturing prey

What better fish to highlight on Father’s Day weekend than a paternal mouthbrooding species.  Glad my Father didn’t have to carry me around in his mouth for 21 days–that would just have been awkward.   Please check out the article if you subscribe to Aquarium Fish International–or if you pick it up at a pet store or news stand and let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rotifer Culturing at Home: Continous Cultures

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Saturday, June 12, 2010

Rotifer Culturing at Home: Continuous Culture Set-Up and Protocol

Growing rotifers as a continuous culture is easy to do, but requires a small amount of work, almost every day. Unlike batch culturing, where the goal is to culture the most rotifers possible in sequential batches, the goal of continuous rotifer culturing is to create a long-lasting, stable, low-density culture.  To create a continuous culture at home, follow the protocol below:

Materials:

Protocol:

Saltwater Aquarium Blog Tip:
The key is to add just enough phytoplankton so that the culture turns a light green color—and that the rotifers are able to clear the phytoplankton every day.  If you add too much, there is a risk that the density gets so high that the culture will crash.  So add modestly and consistently

Advanced Aquarists Tip:
As you get more confidence with your culturing technique, you can control the density by varying the amount of phytoplankton that you feed them.  If your fish have just spawned or you need more rotifers for whatever reason, you can get a ‘burst’ of rotifers by spiking the culture with more phytoplankton.  Be warned however that the higher density the greater the risk of the culture crashing—so if you spike, make sure you harvest aggressively and keep replacing the water volume

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How to Culture Rotifers: Batch Culturing Protocol

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Culturing rotifers at home is fairly easy to do.  Rotifers are a great food source for newly hatched fish larvae and for some filter feeding invertebrates.  Ironically, the rotifers organism itself provides very little nutritional value to the animals that eat them. 
It is the content of their guts (the food they eat) that provides the nutrition.  As such, it is important to feed your rotifers with a highly nutritional food source, like phytoplankton.  If you’re serious about culturing rotifers at home, consider also culturing phytoplankton.  While it’s important to keep the cultures separate and avoid contamination, the skills needed to culture phytoplankton and rotifers are similar. For more information about phytoplankton culture, check out the phytoplankton page.

There are two popular ways to culture rotifers: as a continuous culture, or as a batch culture.  The following blog post will present the protocol I follow to batch culture rotifers at home.

Rotifer Batch Culture Set-Up and Protocol

 

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Earth Day 2010

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Saturday, April 24, 2010

Earth Day 2010

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, a day set aside to observe, recognize and respect the importance of the natural world.  Those of us who enjoy the saltwater aquarium hobby, by our very nature, may already be inclined to respect the ocean and her bounty, but there is still an opportunity for each of us to be mindful, this Earth Day 2010, of the impact our hobby has on wild reef habitats. This Earth Day, let’s take a moment to consider what it means to be a responsible reef-keeper, and remind ourselves of the admirable goals of minimizizing the negative impact we have on wild reefs and help educate others about the importance of our reefs and the inhabitants of our tanks.  Let’s also agree, as hobbyists to keep the following principles in mind:

Avoid purchasing notoriously difficult to rear species, like the Moorish Idol.  Also avoid purchasing endangered or threatened species, like the (wild-caught) Banggai Cardinalfish.  These fish may be stunning to behold, and in high demand, but they are also notoriously difficult to maintain in captive aquaria.  So this Earth Day, let’s remember why it is so important to avoid supporting the collection of endangered or difficult to raise species. 

Let’s also take a moment to appreciate the contributions that aquaculture has made in alleviating some of the pressure of collection on wild reefs.  Aquacultured specimens, both invertebrate and vertebrate, are generally more tolerant of the conditions in our reef tanks and typically acclimate better.  There are clear advantages to purchasing aquacultured specimens, so let’s make a pledge this Earth Day to buy aquacultured coral and fish whenever possible–even if it costs a few dollars more.

Finally, consider donating this year to a non-profit organization that supports the conservation of or rebuilding of the world’s reefs.  For example, record cold temperatures in Florida this winter are thought to have caused major damage to reefs—damage that will take years to recover from.  Non-profit organizations like www.coralrestoration.org use donations to fund the growth and replacement of reef-building stony coral species to help them retain a footprint on the reefs, recover and re-grow.    

Take an extra moment this Earth Day to appreciate your reef tank and the inhabitants of our slice of the reef that captivate our attention and entertain our guests.   

Check out the new T5 HO lights available from ZooMed, these lights provide light output than T8s!

Be sure to register on the site and post your plans for demonstrating your commitment to responsible reefkeeping.

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Rotifer Batch Cultures

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Sunday, April 18, 2010

Rotifer Batch Cultures


Culturing rotifers with a batch culture technique is akin to a manufacturing process.  Instead of focusing on creating a stable environment to keep a relatively low-density culture thriving over a long period of time, the objective of a batch-produced culture is to maximize the yield of the culture over a short period of time.  With a batch culture, you start the culture at a low density and feed them enough to allow them to proliferate to their maximum density.  The density achieved is greater than in a continuous culture because the it is maintained only for a short period of time before the cutlure is restarted.  The trick is to harvest the rotifers at their peak density and restart the batch.  In this fashion, the rotifers are continuously reproduced, but at a much higher density.  As such, you can maintain a lower culture volume yet produce a higher number of rotifers.

I culture rotifers in a 2L juice bottle, but you can use any size that suits your space and culture needs.  The batch culturing process is fairly straightforward. Begin with a small starter culture. I fill the rest of the bottle with Nannochloropsis phytoplankton.  I insert the airline tube and watch.  Over the next few days (3-4) the culture water will transform from a dark, robust green to light green, to yellow/light brown. If left alone for another day, the water will clear, except for the rotifers, which will appear to be tiny ‘specs’ visible with the naked eye. 

For maximum nutritional value, harvest the rotifers while the culture is still tinted light green.  The rotifers themselves carry very little nutrition.  However, the phytoplankton inside their digestive tracts is highly nutritious. So the rotifers will provide the most nutrition for your reef tank or fish larvae when their guts are packed with nutrients.

 

Advantages of Batch Rotifer Cultures

 

 

Disadvantages of Batch Rotifer Cultures

 

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Rotifer Cultures: Continuous Rotifer Culture and Production

By Al Ulrich - Last updated: Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Rotifer Cultures: Continuous Rotifer Culture and Production

 

There are two popular methods of culturing rotifers—continuous culturing and batch culturing.  Each method has its own pros and cons, but the next two posts should help you decide which method is right for you.  The focus of this article is to describe the process of continuously culturing rotifers and identify some of the advantages and disadvantages of this method.

Rotifer Continuous Cultures

Culturing rotifers with a continuous process is analogous to the way we maintain our reef tanks. With a continuous system, your goal is to create a stable habitat for the rotifers to thrive in.  Like the inhabitants of your display tank the rotifers need clean saltwater, food, oxygen and light.  Provide them with a suitable environment, and the rotifers take care of the rest.  However, unlike the fish and coral in your reef tank, a healthy rotifer population will double almost every day.  Left unchecked, twice as much food and oxygen would be needed, and twice as much waste would be produced, every day, spiraling out of control until the culture eventually crashed.  In order to keep the culture from crashing, you need to perform maintenance, almost daily.  You will need to harvest enough rotifers to keep the population stable, perform regular partial water changes and feed them.

Since the focus of this methodology is on maintaining a stable, reproductive population, you can transfer some of the knowledge you gained in creating a stable reef aquarium.  For example, with increased volume comes increased opportunity for stability—larger culture volumes, in general, will be more stable than smaller culture volumes.  The larger volume of water creates a greater margin for error, thus giving you a little slack.  The key is to estimate your demand—how many rotifers will you need? How large of a culture can you reasonably maintain? How much space are you looking to devote? And establish a culture that suits your individual needs. 

As with any decision in life, the decision to culture rotifers continuously instead of as a series of batch cultures has advantages and disadvantages, that you should consider.

    Advantages of Continuous Rotifer CulturesRotifers growing as a continuous culture

Disadvantages of Continuous Rotifer Cultures

 

Further Reading:

For more information about culturing Rotifers, check out these books:

 

 

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