Are T-5 light bulbs more powerful in terms of lighting corals than a compact or regular fluorescent bulb?
T8 bulbs are basically your average fluorescent bulb. T5's are a bit more efficient in how much actual light output there is for a specific wattage. So T5's are better for growing things, because you are getting more light for your wattage. If your corals are growing well and exhibiting good color, then your tank is telling you that everything is ok. If it ai not broke, do not fix it. Zoos and mushrooms do not require tons of light to grow well, The amount of light you have for them is quite adequate. The "watts per gallon" rule of thumb is not reliable, since different bulbs will produce different PAR ratings, and different tanks have different depths (which matters a lot). As for LED's, the right kind of LED's can easily grow stony corals as well as metal halides can (the Ecotech Radion, for example, is a very strong LED fixture that puts out higher PAR than a 250 watt metal halide). Not just any LED's can grow corals though. You can also use simple LED's for moonlighting effects.
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can you put anemones//corals in a wet/dry system?
That's not a bad looking tank from what I could see. Reasonable prices if everything is on the up and up. That said, a wet/dry system is just a filter, and to be honest I am surprised he is using one on his reef. They are known to be nitrate generators. I dismantled mine many many years ago. IMHO, they are best for large fresh water systems, especially planted ones. I would avoid anemones.
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What are Deep Sea Corals Reefs?
In recent years scientists have discovered deep-sea corals and/or coral reefs in Japan, Tasmania, New Zealand, Alaska, California, Nova Scotia, Maine, North Carolina, Florida, Colombia, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, UK, Ireland and Mauritania. Because research submarines and remotely operated vehicles suitable for studying the deep sea are few and expensive to operate, scientific investigation of these remarkable communities is in its very early stages. But it is increasingly clear that deep-sea corals usually inhabit places where natural disturbance is rare, and where growth and reproduction appear to be exceedingly slow. Deep-sea corals and sponges may live for centuries, making them and the myriad species that depend on them extremely slow to recover from disturbance. Unfortunately, just as scientists have begun to understand the diversity, importance and vulnerability of deep-sea coral forests and reefs, humans have developed technologies that profoundly disturb them. There is reason for concern about deep-sea oil and gas development, deep-sea mining and global warming, but, at present, the greatest human threat to coral and sponge communities is commercial fishing, especially bottom trawling. Trawlers are vessels that drag large, heavily weighted nets across the seafloor to catch fishes and shrimps. Scientific studies around the world have shown that trawling is devastating to corals and sponges. As trawlers become more technologically sophisticated, and as fishes disappear from shallower areas, trawling is increasingly occurring at depths exceeding 1,000 meters. It is not too late to save most of the world's deep-sea coral and sponge ecosystems. We commend nations including Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Norway, which have already taken initial steps towards protecting some coral and sponge ecosystems under their jurisdiction. We urge the United Nations and appropriate international bodies to establish a moratorium on bottom trawling on the High Seas. Similarly, we urge individual nations and states to ban bottom trawling to protect deep-sea ecosystems wherever coral forests and reefs are known to occur within their Exclusive Economic Zones. We urge them to prohibit roller and rockhopper trawls and any similar technologies that allow fishermen to trawl on the rough bottoms where deep-sea coral and sponge communities are most likely to occur. We urge them to support research and mapping of vulnerable deep-sea coral and sponge communities. And we urge them to establish effective, representative networks of marine protected areas that include deep-sea coral and sponge communities.
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Are fire corals dangerous to people?
All coral have living organisms within them and many bacteria on the surface so scrating yourself on a coral can cause an infection.Fire coral is a marine animal that looks like a hard coral, but in fact, itu2019s not a coral, itu2019s a u201chydrozoau201d (of the phylum Cnidaria). This means that itu2019s more closely related to jellyfish and anemones than coral. Fire coral is mainly found growing on reefs or rock substrates in warm, tropical saltwater environments.Fire coral is essentially a skeleton filled with tiny polyps, except fire coral has additional specialized u201cstingingu201d polyps containing nematocysts, which are able to sting prey and predators, releasing a neurotoxin