240G All T5 SPS build

[itachi]

Top water column was 550

 

[itachi]

actually i depended front or back because of where the bulbs are in the fixture some places it was over 700 .

 

[itachi]

So my weekend was trashed, starting moving stuff over...

 

[itachi]

 

[itachi]

 

[itachi]

 

[itachi]

Crazy , T5 colors ...

 

[itachi]

 

[itachi]

 

[itachi]

 

[itachi]

 

[Eff Ewe]

Your tank is amazing. The aquascaping is perfect.

 

[itachi]

 

[seashark]

beautiful set up!

 

[Oldude]

Vey nice, curious about the tank cycling though. I know when I did my tank transfer I had a much larger cycle than expected even though I had run the new & old systems water together previously. Having any issues with yours yet?

 

[Bn251]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15444141#post15444141 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by itachi

did these sock holder come with the sump? im looking for something exactly like this, where did you get it? if you dont mind me asking

 

[fote03]

very nice setup

 

[zachtos]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15439869#post15439869 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kangym
I have bad experience running 2 ATI 3 ft 8x39w on 30 in. high tank. My sps don't look very happy. The par readings are only around 300 at mid level of the tank. It is low to keep sps IMO. Your tank is 25 in. height, and you're running 10x39W. You should get more par with 10 lamps. What is your lamp combination?

Unfortunately, you will find that T5 will only allow you to keep SPS at about 12" depth successfully. I get 250-500 PAR max in the 6"-12" depth zone, and after that it gets really difficult to get SPS to really color up and take off. I also noticed that I could never get some SPS to have colored polyps no matter how much flow and water quality. I've been using the setup for 2.5 years now so I am not speaking from inexperience. I am making the move to 400W MH to push the 500-700+ PAR zone throughout the entire tank and hopefully color up the SPS poylps better. T5 will perform just as well as most 250W MH setups though, just depends on how much you want to pay for electricity each month.

FYI, I found the quick and easy way to get rid of microbubbles was to have a nylon 100 micron filter sock over the output of wherever your bubbles are coming from (return or skimmer). That eliminated most of mine in my 240G.

 

[leslie hempel]

wow looks really cool.. nice

 

[zachtos]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15632248#post15632248 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zachtos
Is it safe to say that a well designed T5 system will be equivalent to your average 250W MH setup?

I get 300-500 PAR in most 12-6" depths but never could get SPS to really grow deeper then that, and I can barely keep my SPS color up on many of my SPS polyps regardless (great water quality and INSANE flow)

I am thinking of scrapping my T5 assembly for a 400W MH setup as this seems to beat out even the best T5 setups? Is this a safe assumption?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15635767#post15635767 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Yeah, pretty much. If you use good halide reflectors and 10 to 14K lamps the 250's will beat out most T5's but if you run more blue lamps, like a 20K the T5's will probably win out.