How high do you hang your ATI?

[LoJack]

Hey guys,

I ordered an ATI Sunpower 8x54 Watt fixture to replace my current DIY LED setup. The tank is 55"x24"x24". I'm making the transition to solely SPS. (Right now the upper half of the tank is all SPS, with a few LPS in the lower half, and some zoos and acans on the sand bed) My intent is SPS at all levels of the tank and a few clams on the sandbed.

My canopy is 18" tall. I'm just wondering at what height above the water I should hang the fixture?

--Tyler

 

[chris1292]

I have my t5s 8 or 9 inches off the water. 8x60 over a 125g

 

[sahin]

Around 6-9inches is fine.

 

[LoJack]

Excellent, thanks for the responses. That should work well with my canopy, and still provide enough room to reach into the tank.

 

[bjm1287]

+1 on 6-9, seems to work well, love my ati fixture

 

[sweet ride]

likewise I do have my around the 6 to 9 " range. am using a 6 bulb fixture over a 24" deep tank and I do have SPS fairly close to sanded with decent color and growth.

 

[Bill@IA]

Mine is appx. 8-9" above the water line.

What T5 bulb combo have you decided on.

 

[LoJack]

Haven't decided on an order yet, or which 2 will be on their own ballast, but the bulbs I ordered are:

ATI Blue Plus x 2
ATI Coral Plus x 2
ATI Aquablue Special x 2
ATI Purple Plus x1
ATI True Actinic x 1

 

[LoJack]

Ideally I'd like to achieve a 12k-15k look. I want to stay away from 20k, a little too blue. I want to find a nice happy medium and figure that I'll play around with it a little once I have it.

I figure if it looks too blue I can adjust slowly until I find what I want.

 

[karsseboom]

Haven't decided on an order yet, or which 2 will be on their own ballast, but the bulbs I ordered are:

ATI Blue Plus x 2
ATI Coral Plus x 2
ATI Aquablue Special x 2
ATI Purple Plus x1
ATI True Actinic x 1

That's gonna be a really white setup. I would order a few extra blue plus just incase you see it's a little too white.


I hang mine around 10", the reason for that is the fixture is very powerful and if I'm not careful my Sps will look pale. I use to hang the light at 6" and I had problems getting rich colors

 

[LoJack]

Hmm, I wouldn't have expected it to be pale with 5 of the 8 bulbs being predominantly blue.

Maybe I'll have to order a few extra. I don't want the 10k white look ... I also don't want the 20 k blue look. Anywhere in the middle is what I'm shooting for.

I used to run Ushio 14K bulbs ... and that was probably my favorite spectrum for visuals. Thats what I'd like to shoot for

 

[Anim8me2]

8x80 over a 6' tank 16" above the waterline.
I had it at 12" but it is a LOT of light.

 

[karsseboom]

Here is my bulb combo. I don't think it's too blue, nice crisp white with a hint of blue. The blue plus bulb is one of the highest par bulbs they make. I think is best to always best to have extras incase you don't like the color.

Blue plus
Blue plus
Coral plus
Purple plus
Blue plus
Purple plus
Blue plus

 

[toofrigginswt]

That's gonna be a really white setup. I would order a few extra blue plus just incase you see it's a little too white.


I hang mine around 10", the reason for that is the fixture is very powerful and if I'm not careful my Sps will look pale. I use to hang the light at 6" and I had problems getting rich colors

+1. I had mine at 6 inches and had the same problem getting good colors. I now have mine set at 10-12 inches above my tank and couldn't be happier. The ATI fixtures are definitely powerful.

 

[sahin]

LoJack, only the Blue+ and the Actinic are blue. The AquaBlueSpecials are like a yellow white tube.

 

[LoJack]

That's gonna be a really white setup. I would order a few extra blue plus just incase you see it's a little too white.


I hang mine around 10", the reason for that is the fixture is very powerful and if I'm not careful my Sps will look pale. I use to hang the light at 6" and I had problems getting rich colors

I'll hang mine as high as I can to start. I don't think I'm going to have an issue because the current LED setup I'm running now is throwing off too much light, at least thats what it looks like to me. Hopefully the T5's will be just right.

Here is my bulb combo. I don't think it's too blue, nice crisp white with a hint of blue. The blue plus bulb is one of the highest par bulbs they make. I think is best to always best to have extras incase you don't like the color.

Blue plus
Blue plus
Coral plus
Purple plus
Blue plus
Purple plus
Blue plus

White with a crisp blue and good fluorescence is what I'm going for, perhaps I'll need some more Blue +'s

+1. I had mine at 6 inches and had the same problem getting good colors. I now have mine set at 10-12 inches above my tank and couldn't be happier. The ATI fixtures are definitely powerful.

I should be able to get my fixture to as high as about 12-14" based on how thin it is. I've got close to 18" from the water line to the top of my canopy.

LoJack, only the Blue+ and the Actinic are blue. The AquaBlueSpecials are like a yellow white tube.

The only reason I went with this bulb combo is because of the description of the ATI Bulbs on their website.

The Blue + are a mix of 460/420nm which to me means practically actinic

Aquablue Special are described as 15000k

The Coral + are a combo bulb of Blue+, ABS, and Purple + with an approximate color temp of 15000k

The Purple + is supposed to make pinks, reds, and purples pop

And then the Actinic is well ... Actinic lol

Honestly, I figured this bulb combo was going to be too blue still. Mixing 15k bulbs with blue bulbs wasn't going to be able to produce anything less than 15k or higher.

But I also noticed that when looking at other peoples bulb combinations, the Blue + is always the most highly stocked bulb.

I guess I'll have to play with it. The exact color I'm looking for is what Krzysztof Tryc (lunar) achieved in his June 2010 TOTM. That tank has the perfect color combination in my opinion, and its what I would like to replicate.

 

[CeeGee]

aquablue special looks very very white regardless of what their site says.

 

[Meanmike]

Aqua blues are white not yellow.

 

[sahin]

Aqua blues are white not yellow.

OK, not yellow, but have plenty of the yellow spectrum, that when you look at Coral+, AquaBlueSpecial and KZ New Gen, it looks like it has a yellowish tinge to it, whereas the other two tubes dont.