Anyone with T5's ..... need opinions on bulb combination

[Abengochea]

Well Im going to be upgrading my lights soon and was wondering what bulb combinations work well. I am not overdriving the bulbs but will be using icecap reflectors and triad electronic ballast. Let me know what u guys have used and if u have pics it would be even better

 

[thesaent14]

5 4 3 2 1 roger will help you soon lol

 

[Abengochea]

lol thanks I had a feeling he might know a little bit about it

 

[bawla47]

how many bulbs?

 

[bawla47]

if i were to do my bulbs over again, id do this combo

FRONT

UVL super actinic
UVL aquasun
Blue+
Aquablue
UVL super atinic.


the UVL are pretty new, but they were worth the wait. its VERY similar to the VHO super atinics.


you wont get as much par as just a Aquablue and Blue+ combo, but the colors will really pop and look amazing.

 

[Abengochea]

4 x 54 watters forgot to mention it. If I remember, u recently put some in right? How are they going?

 

[bawla47]

ive been running them about 8 months so far. there great, but they honestly are just so bright. ,my tank is in the lliving room too.

 

[Abengochea]

Yeah I remember that u have them close to the entrance of ur house. So u have a 5 bulb fixture? Is it overdriven?

 

[Rogger Castells]

Abe, the bulb combination is going to depend on what you want to keep in this tank how deep it is and your personal taste, I recommend that you do a research on the Lighting and other equipment forums , they have some very good threads going, this is one of them.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=741281&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

Sorry it is kind of long but it really is the plac to ask the questions. A lot of people in here uses them.

 

[thesaent14]

told you here is rogger lol

 

[bawla47]

oops


UVL super actinic
UVL aquasun
Blue+
Aquablue
Blue+
UVL super atinic.

but yes, its best to just read up yourself so you read through everything on whats out there, and what youd like to acheive.

id run this for my tank thoguh My opin.


Super actinic
Blue+
Aquablue
Super actinic

 

[Abengochea]

thanks again guys

 

[jeffbrig]

I've been using T5s for almost 18 months. I'm running 4 60" T5s on icecap ballasts (overdriven) with SLS reflectors. I'm using two aqublues and two blueplus bulbs. When I was ordering, the common advice was that T5 actinics weren't any good. I don't know if that's changed or not.

Here's a series of photos I took when I was hooking up the lights. All were taking with the camera white balance set to daylight mode. This gives a pretty good idea of the color.

Blue+ only

Both T5s

T5 and 10k MH

Here's my full lighting setup

and a recent full tank shot (T5 only)

And a closer shot

Hope that helps,

Jeff

 

[bawla47]

wow jeff, VERY NICE! you still have the achilles? i remember a while back when you had him in quarentine

i had one for about 5-6 months, but it ended up dieing during a hurricane

 

[jeffbrig]

Yep, he's the king of the tank (4 tangs in there), and also my favorite fish. We've had him for about a year now. My current avatar is from a picture I took about a week ago.

 

[The Beaut]

I run 6 bulbs. 2 aquablue and 4 blue plus. Very, very bright. I heard the new super actinics are better than the old ones, so i might try one and exchange a blue plus. Just take your time acclimating your corals to them.