anyone keeping sps,clams on sandbed with t-5's

[Horace]

HEHE, I think you think I am more passionate than I really am about them. Like I said, I know my setup isnt perfect. There are things I dont like about it. But the fact is this is the route I chose a while back. Sometimes I wish that I went with halides and other times I am happy with the choice I made. Believe it or not tonight I am kind of second guessing my setup. I really think I may actually have too much light, or not enough "coral food". I have noticed that some of my SPS have lightened in color. While some prefer the pastel look, I prefer darker colors, so right now I am not thrilled. I am thinking of cutting back my photo period and also replacing one of my daylight bulbs with a pure actinic.

 

[Horace]

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I had some pictures to show some compares of the lightening of my corals but they werent very good. I will have to take some new ones.

 

[drew22to375]

Thankx everyone now I have some good pros and cons for each. I do have an idea how bright t-5's are as I have 2X24w on a 29 that I set up 2 years ago but it isn't it near as high as my 180. I guess the reason I am thinking of going the t-5 route I have yet to see a tank lit with MH that doesn't have large shaded areas from corals etc. Anybody hosting a meeting with pure t-5?

Thankx Drew..

 

[brad23]

I agree to disagree with everyone, and I would like to see some closer test done on MH V T5.

After going MH I will never changed my lighting setup. The colors under them are mazing compared to PC and so far the growth has being incredible.

My Galaxy has grown like crazy since I put it in. All of the SPS frags I put in have grown expect the Green monti cap I have it 6 inches or so from the water surface. Myabe to close?

One of them has three new heads in less than 2 weeks and for a week of that my calcium was 360. My RBTA has almost doubled in size in 4 weeks. 8 inches across fully opened. I'm going to have to start moving stuff soon because it's so big and is getting close to stinging some of my corals.

 

[drew22to375]

One other question. how it the coral growth under t-5 compared to MH are they just surving or are they thriving.

Drew..

 

[Horace]

Again, I will tell you this. My tank with 6x54w T5 is ALOT brighter than quite a few halide tanks. PAR is not all that its cracked up to be man seriously. I have learned that in the past months by seeing different setups. I really hate to keep coming back to this, but GQJeff uses 4x400w MH and a couple added actinics as well. Now I bet your thinking, WOW THATS ALOT OF LIGHT..WRONG WRONG WRONG! He is using one of the lowest PAR bulbs out there (XM 20k). Even the 400w version only puts down 128 PAR According to Sanjay's site. So unless TGR is lying about his PAR results, a 4x54w setup w/ a standard T5 ballast was putting down 135 PAR. I would also tell you that my tank with T5s is a hell of a lot brithter than his tank, and Brad's tank with his new MH 250w EVC 14ks. So if your asking if they produce enough PAR for your corals, I would say a resounding YES.

I would also like to add one more thing. I am about to seriously cut back on my photo period because I have noticed some corals lightening in color and becomeing "pastel" in look, rather than a deep rich color that I prefer. For example that green birds nest coral I got just over a month ago. In my tank it has steadily turned to a very light green color over time. In my buddy's tank that only has 4x110w VHO, his is still nice and green (we both got them on the same exact day). Now I know for a fact I have way more PAR than he does, so what is causing them to lose color like that? I think it is the fact that I am just putting too much light in the tank, plain and simple. So I am going to cut way back on my photo period over the next couple weeks and see what happens.

 

[brad23]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6936790#post6936790 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Horace
Again, I will tell you this. My tank with 6x54w T5 is ALOT brighter than quite a few halide tanks. PAR is not all that its cracked up to be man seriously. I have learned that in the past months by seeing different setups. I really hate to keep coming back to this, but GQJeff uses 4x400w MH and a couple added actinics as well. Now I bet your thinking, WOW THATS ALOT OF LIGHT..WRONG WRONG WRONG! He is using one of the lowest PAR bulbs out there (XM 20k). Even the 400w version only puts down 128 PAR According to Sanjay's site. So unless TGR is lying about his PAR results, a 4x54w setup w/ a standard T5 ballast was putting down 135 PAR. I would also tell you that my tank with T5s is a hell of a lot brithter than his tank, and Brad's tank with his new MH 250w EVC 14ks. So if your asking if they produce enough PAR for your corals, I would say a resounding YES.

I would also like to add one more thing. I am about to seriously cut back on my photo period because I have noticed some corals lightening in color and becomeing "pastel" in look, rather than a deep rich color that I prefer. For example that green birds nest coral I got just over a month ago. In my tank it has steadily turned to a very light green color over time. In my buddy's tank that only has 4x110w VHO, his is still nice and green (we both got them on the same exact day). Now I know for a fact I have way more PAR than he does, so what is causing them to lose color like that? I think it is the fact that I am just putting too much light in the tank, plain and simple. So I am going to cut way back on my photo period over the next couple weeks and see what happens.

You can't really compare your tank to jeffs as far as how bright it is. If you put your lights over his tank you hardly see anything. And as far as my tank goes, a lot of light escapes out of the back because of the huge space I have in the back of my canopy. Drive by my house at night and watch my living room glow. And I don't have the best reflectors money can buy either.

If I had lumen max reflectors, fully closed canopy and my lights 3-4 inches off the water instead of 13 inches it would be a intresting to see.

You should how much brighter a 10k bulb is over a 14k or 20k. I saw Louis 29g with a XM 20k and it didn't look very bright at all, then with a 10k it was almost twice as bright.

 

[Horace]

Brad, what makes you think that If I put my setup over one side of the tank that you would barely see anything??? Thats rediculous man. His tank while a bit wider and a bit deeper isnt going to be a HUGE difference. Regardless that is not a fair comparison. Now if he put 10 bulbs over his tank so the T5s were spread all the way across his tank, similar to the way that 6 covers mine, then we would have a fair comparison. I can gaurentee you that his tank would be ALOT brighter with 10 T5s on each side than it would be with 4x400w XM 20k. But the simple fact is, bright does not always equal better I am coming to find. His tank, while significantly less bright, grows acros faster and with better color than my setup is currently. Also you cant play the game of, if I put my halides 3 inches over the tank thing either, because noone runs thier halides that low. You would risk blowing bulbs up and also heating your tank beyond belief. Now granted you might get a bit better results with better reflectors, I will give you that.

But I think your missing the point of what Im trying to say here man. Im saying that you dont need rediculous amounts of light to keep your corals happy. Jeff's tank proves that. Brad Lockwood's tank also proves that because he runs only 4x110w VHOs and his acros are growing well and look GREAT! Granted he may not have the flexibility of putting acros on his sandbed but in the top half of the tank they are all doing quite well.

So moral of the story, is T5 or MH will work just fine for pretty much any light loving coral. Lets drop this whole comparison of apples to oranges and just agree that both are adequite and both have thier advantages/disadvantages.

 

[Horace]

BTW, right now I am strongly considering actually getting some VHO's so I can run the Super Actinic. I know I have more than enough light right now so I am willing to drop my PAR down a bit to get a bit better pop.

 

[brad23]

I thought you were waiting on the URI T5 bulb?

Like I said I'm not a fan of the XM 20k bulb.

But I do believe if you have enough light of any kind over a tank you can grow anything.

 

[Horace]

The XM 20k is not a super bright bulb, but that is what Jeff runs and his colors are outstanding. I would bet I could run 2x400w XM 20k and it would be pretty sweet. I wouldnt run 400w of any other bulb I dont think though. It would be far too much. But seeing the 20k only puts out 128 PAR, I dont think it would be overkill at all. The 250w XM 10k puts out over 180! So like I said, PAR isnt everything.