how often do you change your T5s

[chris88]

why all KZ bulbs? Just curious.. tests have shown that ATI bulbs as well as Giesmnann bulbs have more PAR then KZ bulbs, the real nice thing about KZ bulbs is IMO just the color that the KZ Figi purple brings out..

Simply not true. KZ bulbs rank just as high as the Ati bulbs when it comes to par, have more selection, and in my opinion just plane better quality. I do like ATI bulbs but i would never go back. I use KZ all the way.

 

[tozzi]

12 hrs a day , def 6 months. Did all the coral in your tank grow from frags? Did you always have t-5 over those coral?

 

[fishlibrary]

Replaced every 12 months with 7 hours per day, without overdrive and without active cooling.

My tank, nTOTM June, 2010.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1857051

 

[tang0v]

every 12 months...about 8 hours a day..

 

[Allmost]

You can use the glass method...I did to get out 3 crabs. The trick is to get a drinking glass (which is heavy), put a rather large piece of deli shrimp in the bottom of glass....then cut out a piece of egg crate used for frag racks and trim to fit inside snug and wedge down to about an inch or 2 from bottom of glass on TOP of shrimp bait. Place on the sand near a rock ledge and once lights go out the crab will drop into glass from rock and will not be able to climb back out. The egg crate will keep the shrimp bait from floating away.

here is proof....

I agree!! I too added a New Gen in place of my ATI aqua blue and swapped 1ATI Blue plus with a Super Blue...and love the color of the tank (no yellow wash out)! I already had a Fiji Purple and still have a few Blue+'s to keep the peaked blue spectrum smoother and broader. The corals seem to be reacting positively so far.

wow thanks for the egg crate comment, I found another one in my birds nest last night :uzi::uzi:
but yea couldnt get anything into the birds nest as it was too dense with branches so will have to try the egg crate method. sounds prety good. thanks again. I was ready to turn the mp40 off for a night to catch these guys.

 

[Allmost]

12 hrs a day , def 6 months. Did all the coral in your tank grow from frags? Did you always have t-5 over those coral?

well most corals came from my old 30G. I ran MH for a while, didnt like it so switched to T5s.

most corals grew from frag or small colonies. now they are starting to color up

 

[ryanjiang]

Don't think it is PAR issue, also IMO 6 month is long enough for adjusting to new lighting, have you checked flat worm and red bugs?

This thread is probably the best reference for how soon you should change T5, the thread was started by former TOTM owner he did lot of periodical PAR measurements and lot of data from other T5 tanks as well. If I remember correctly he figured from 9 month T5 start real reduction on PAR. But some limited loss on PAR should not be a big deal on growth IMO, more on color.

Good luck and wish your growth come back soon.

 

[dan223]

For me par stayed level running 8 hours a day for 12 months, then dropped by 50-100 par in the following 7 weeks. So im going with 1 year