How high should my T5's be mounted

[toddmau5]

Having been runing LEDS for the last 8 months or so and setting up a new tank, I put up my old 4 bulb set over the tank. I have the fixture 14" from the surface of the water. I noticed that the few corals I put into the tank have been slowly loosing their color, and turning brown. Parameters are all right were they need to be, except my iodine is a bit on the high side in all of my tanks (with no dosing) so i'm almost certain its a lighting issue. So how high should I have them mounted? Do i need to bring them lower to the water level?

 

[Richocet83]

How old are the bulbs?

 

[toddmau5]

The 2 blues and the purple are only a few months old. The white one is questionable

 

[toddmau5]

Here's e set up it just kinda looks like the lighting is too high off the water, but my t5 experience is very limited

 

[BlueCoast]

T-5's lose that punch very quickly, I believe Mike Paletta advocated no more than 5" above the water for good penetration. Light diminishes using the inverse square law, it drops off very quickly with distance.

Your lights look a little high, the light spill would drive me nuts! I'm not sure how your conduit is connected, but maybe start dropping it a few inches a week until you get better coral health and color. brown out is not enough light, bleaching is too much.

 

[aguila88psi]

height of light fixture will depend on t5 reflector type and quality as well as depth of tank

 

[toddmau5]

It's just one single large reflector, it's not the most reflective either. I have a bunch of spare single reflectors that assist l appear to be on decent shape

 

[asbauto]

I agree with the above reflector shape makes a big difference and the hight from the water. I would try to lower the fixture first and possibly replace the unknown white bulb, maybe even run 2 whites 1 blue and 1 purple .

 

[janes_mw]

Lower the fixture for sure. If you were closer, I can give you a brand new ATI Blue+. Good spectrum (I live in Largo if you want). It has all of 3 hours on it (I changed my plans totally, so not the bulb, just what I wanted to do with LED supplement). If you want this or a brand new Giesmann Actinic + (basically the same), I will donate to the good of a fellow reefer.

mike

 

[rogergolf66]

T-5's lose that punch very quickly, I believe Mike Paletta advocated no more than 5" above the water for good penetration. Light diminishes using the inverse square law, it drops off very quickly with distance.

Your lights look a little high, the light spill would drive me nuts! I'm not sure how your conduit is connected, but maybe start dropping it a few inches a week until you get better coral health and color. brown out is not enough light, bleaching is too much.

Perfectly stated

Roger

 

[rogergolf66]

It's just one single large reflector,/QUOTE]

This will not do for sps. Need individual reflector for each bulb for sure. U r wasting almost half your light. See if u can mod the fixture with individual reflectors

Roger

 

[toddmau5]

Well, I tried lol. The individual reflectors I have are too wide for the housing I have. I can get maybe 3 reflectors in, but non of the sockets line up.

 

[toddmau5]

Almost considering switching to leds at the point. Man these bulbs are expensive, plus the fact that I can run better reflectors