6 bulb or 8 bulb ATI
- Thread starter jonnyu
- Start date
rovster
New member
Now that there is a change in plans, definitely the 8 bulb is the right choice. More combos and flexibility with colors. Its hard enough to nail down a 6 bulb combo, 8 bulb combos are much easier and allows you to incorporate bulbs you'd just have to leave out of a 6 bulb combo due to lack of room.
jonnyu
New member
I agree. I order a extra two bulbs just so I can play with color and par. For now I'm going to have a 60" light over a 48" tank. I'm waiting on a quote from Karen on building me a new tank. If I could afford I would do a reefsavvy but I'm sure it would astronomical price for one.
The PAR difference between a 6 lamp and 8 lamp is minimal. The light coverage will increase significantly with the 8 lamp fixture though. Take a look at the PAR readings in the T5 Q&A thread and you will see that the max PAR is not much different between even a 4 lamp and 8 lamp. It mainly the coverage.
jonnyu
New member
jonnyu
New member
Reef Frog
New member
I was going to go with an ATI Sunpower on a 60"x24"x20" tank that's in the works. It will be a mixed LPS/SPS reef.
But reading this thread I'm learning that it's so powerful that it's going to burn or bleach any LPS...even in the bottom half of the tank, or even the sand bed, at a mounting height of 5"-6"? Did I get that right? Holy smokes Reefman!
Why is this the case? Is it the highly vaunted "German reflectors" or is it the "over driven" ballasts" (I don't even know what that really means). It seems like that would be a major error for a manufacturer to put out a fixture with such "lethal" intensity.
So what if anything can be done about it? I can't mount a fixture higher than maybe 7". I guess I could put some shade screen under the lens but would rather not.
The dimable ATI fixture is the obvious solution, but I have it in my head that this fixture will burn through bulbs & ballasts like crazy. Is that a true statement?
I have a Red Sea Max 250 with 6 bulb T5 (use ATI tunes) with no individual reflectors, just a single aluminum inner housing reflector for all bulbs. It's 3"-4" above the water and grows SPS & LPS very well, often side by side. No bleaching for the most part but I do need to keep some things like brains & scolys in the bottom half of the tank or they will lose color as one might expect.
Is there a master thread devoted to ATI fixtures somewhere on RC?
I don't get it. What's the deal with the ATI Sunpower? Should I abandon the idea and go with the dimable fixture, or another brand entirely? Any advice, guidance, explanations or comments are very much appreciated.
But reading this thread I'm learning that it's so powerful that it's going to burn or bleach any LPS...even in the bottom half of the tank, or even the sand bed, at a mounting height of 5"-6"? Did I get that right? Holy smokes Reefman!
Why is this the case? Is it the highly vaunted "German reflectors" or is it the "over driven" ballasts" (I don't even know what that really means). It seems like that would be a major error for a manufacturer to put out a fixture with such "lethal" intensity.
So what if anything can be done about it? I can't mount a fixture higher than maybe 7". I guess I could put some shade screen under the lens but would rather not.
The dimable ATI fixture is the obvious solution, but I have it in my head that this fixture will burn through bulbs & ballasts like crazy. Is that a true statement?
I have a Red Sea Max 250 with 6 bulb T5 (use ATI tunes) with no individual reflectors, just a single aluminum inner housing reflector for all bulbs. It's 3"-4" above the water and grows SPS & LPS very well, often side by side. No bleaching for the most part but I do need to keep some things like brains & scolys in the bottom half of the tank or they will lose color as one might expect.
Is there a master thread devoted to ATI fixtures somewhere on RC?
I don't get it. What's the deal with the ATI Sunpower? Should I abandon the idea and go with the dimable fixture, or another brand entirely? Any advice, guidance, explanations or comments are very much appreciated.
jonnyu
New member
Well you can go with lower par bulbs. Then you can also raise the fixture. As well you can go with 6 bulbs instead of 8. Shade screens would work as well. 400 par not lethal to sps or some lps. You can run light for shorter period. Instead of eight hours you can run them full blast for 4 hours. The drivers are not over driving bulbs as I have tested them. They are correct drivers for the bulb. Just reflectors do a really great job. I would stay away from dimmable just because it's not controlled with apex. You only can dim on two channel. 2 bulbs and 6 bulbs channel.
Reef Frog
New member
Thanks Jonnyu. Great information. Can you or anybody else take a crack at a few more questions ?
- Can you name a few lower par bulbs? Never seen that advertised, in fact never seen PAR numbers listed even on ATI. Are we talking 10%, 30%? I like ATI tubes, I wonder if I can find the same spectrum choices?
- Does less "ON" time equate with less PAR from the coral's perspective? In other words lets say we have 500 PAR & it's 20% too much on a 10 hour light schedule. Would lowering the light schedule to 8 hours be the same thing as lowering PAR to 400 ? Something tells me there's a difference; it's not a linear relationship. Correct? ? I really want to run lights for more than 8 hours - I want more like 10 which I have now.
- Following up on the question above. Would a light schedule incorporating just 4 of the 6 bulbs for a large part of the day decrease PAR in a way as to give me more flexibility with lower light corals? Something tells me it's all the same if the sensitive coral are mounted directly under the 4 bulbs. Correct?
- I don't want to forgo the possibility of APEX controlling the lights if I go the dimable route. But it's doable for me as I'm OK with a simple timer. Does dimming or a constant setting of less than 100% wear out bulbs or ballasts early?
-In my case I can't raise the light fixture beyond about 6"-7" to control intensity. So I what's the best remedy (A) Remove or partially disable the refectors (B) Put plastic window screening or something else under the lens (melting? Seems primitive) (C) Use a 4 foot fixture on a 5 foot tank. LPS can go on the sides & my understanding is shorter bulbs give off less PAR even under the middle of the tube. Comments?
-Maybe an ATI fixture is just not right for my needs. I want the quality, but if I can't keep the corals I want it's just an expensive piece of junk. I have a nice collection of LPS chalices, favia, scoly, Goni etc alongside montis, stylos etc that must migrate to the next tank. But I don't want to kill everything for the sake of growing some acros.
Any suggestions? What would you do? What less powerful fixture would you recommend? Or "derate" the ATI as described above. Maybe forget all T5 altogether & go with a BML LED strip & 2-4 T5 retro kits hybrid.
Thanks for any ideas, comments or experiences you can share.
jonnyu
New member
You will love that light. Very nice and very consistent par.
Reef frog- you need to look at high par like MH's. You never see anyone running mh for 8 or 10 hours. Normally 4 hours enough. Some might push to 5 hours. There is no need to supply 300-500 par for 10 hours. I think anyone with a successful mh or t5 light would tell you same thing. Think of savings you can have running bulbs less time. Less bulb changes, less electricity. This will be my first tank with t5 only but I have always run mh t5 combo. As time passes I will keep thread updated on how tank is doing.
Reef Frog
New member
Hey Jonnyu thanks for the response. I think I confused you. I've never used a MH light. Just a 6 bulb T5 that is apparently a lot less powerful than an equivalent ATI, which happens to be perfect for my current needs. I do run this 10 hours per day & have done so for years and all is well.
But I still have to be careful even with this "underpowered" light as it can bleach certain imprudently placed LPS, even some SPS. Although I have no PAR readings, I know the ATI is going to be MUCH more powerful than what I have now based on what I'm learning in threads like this.
In order to run a mixed reef, I think this light is going to just be too much for my build. Now that I think about it more it's kind of a stupid idea to buy a premium fixture engineered to deliver maximum intensity and then modify it to deliver less. Plus it seems pointless to expend all the funds & effort in upgrading to a tank over twice as large as my current system and only lighting it 6-8 hours a day. I will be changing my tack, probably to a smaller T5/LED hybrid.
Thanks again for the info.
But I still have to be careful even with this "underpowered" light as it can bleach certain imprudently placed LPS, even some SPS. Although I have no PAR readings, I know the ATI is going to be MUCH more powerful than what I have now based on what I'm learning in threads like this.
In order to run a mixed reef, I think this light is going to just be too much for my build. Now that I think about it more it's kind of a stupid idea to buy a premium fixture engineered to deliver maximum intensity and then modify it to deliver less. Plus it seems pointless to expend all the funds & effort in upgrading to a tank over twice as large as my current system and only lighting it 6-8 hours a day. I will be changing my tack, probably to a smaller T5/LED hybrid.
Thanks again for the info.
Similar threads
