Iam confused (mini reef lighting)

[agreeive?fish]

Iam CONFUSED.. i know where reg. floresent and metal naldi lights fall into the scale of lighting but where do the others fit in on a scale of 1 to 10 with reg.florecents being 1 and metal halids being 10

compact floresents
T-5
VHO

 

[atwinparadox2]

rankings from what you have: from best to worst

T-5
VHO
compact fluorescence or power compact


some might change the order of T-5 and VHO, those are personal preference but you get more color range of the bulbs with T-5's

 

[agreeive?fish]

thanks

 

[IslandCrow]

I think you've gotten it right. Someone did some testing not too long ago (I believe it was Grim Reefer) comparing the PAR of VHOs with reflectors against T-5s without reflectors. T-5s won, so add individual reflectors to T-5, and I'd rate them between 8 and 9. Add an Icecap ballast to overdrive them, and I'd rate them 9.5 to 10. Visually speaking, my 5 bulb overdriven T-5s with Icecap reflectors looks as bright as any metal halide system I've seen. . .well, except one, but he had literally about 1000W over a 60G tank.

Oh, and that's interesting you say that you get more color range with T-5s versus VHO (I'm assuming that was your basis of comparison). One of the complaints about T-5s used to be the lack of color selection, especially when talking about actinic, but now I agree that you have a very nice selection with T-5 bulbs. I think MH is really their only competition these days.

 

[agreeive?fish]

Well iam not having much luck findin t-5 with the options i want in 30" fixtures for a 29g tank....(fans,seperate switches/lunnur lights)

 

[IslandCrow]

Yeah, I don't think you're going to find 30" T-5s. That's kind of a strange size. You'd have to do your own retro fixture, and then you'd still be limited in bulb size. 24" & 36" are the normal sizes in that range. The good units come with moonlights either. I think it's because most people buying higher end lighting don't seem to be too interested in moon lighting.

What are the actual dimensions on your tank? You may be better off with a single pendant metal halide, perhaps with some VHO actinic supplementation if you want a dawn/dusk effect.

 

[corbett_n]

I have 4 X24w T5 Retro staggered on my 30" 29g and they are doing great. I have a little bit of everything growing like crazy. My temperature is 81 and I don't have any fans. They just don't put out that much heat to the water. I think you would be happy with 4X24w t5 retro.

My bulbs are:
Blue+
Aquablue
Aquasun (too pink)
Blue+

 

[pixburg-reefer]

I personally love VHO but lighting also depends on what you want to keep. I hate T-5 lights, and do not do much for color. Here is an article that we came out with on some coral lighting experiments that are still on going but a new article will come out in a few months:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/3/aafeature1

Kelly

 

[jimbo78]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13062430#post13062430 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pixburg-reefer
I personally love VHO but lighting also depends on what you want to keep. I hate T-5 lights, and do not do much for color. Here is an article that we came out with on some coral lighting experiments that are still on going but a new article will come out in a few months:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/3/aafeature1

Kelly

yeah there isnt much color in this months tank of the month :eek1:

 

[phenom5]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13060738#post13060738 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by agreeive?fish
Well iam not having much luck findin t-5 with the options i want in 30" fixtures for a 29g tank....(fans,seperate switches/lunnur lights)

I've got a Tek 4x24 fixture over my 20L (same footprint as a 29, just 6" shorter), works great. 4.5" off the water, and it gives me good coverage over the entire tank.

If your looking for a fixture, I'd go with either the ATI Powermodule(I went with the Tek because it's about $150 cheaper), or a Tek fixture. The individual parabolic reflectors far outweigh moon lights.

If your looking for a retro kit, I'd go with an Icecap SLR kit.

 

[pixburg-reefer]

Sarcasm, oh your good. The tank of the month this month looks great. His tank was started in December of 2006, so he probably added corals a few months into 2007, so it's been up for about a year and a half. If you read the lighting on the system, he changed it up for probably about the first year, it only says MH was run on the system for the first 8 months with supplemental T-5 lgihts but only now is it all T-5 lights. It wasn't that way from the beginning so I wonder what the coloration will be in a year from now if/when the lighting is still the same after it is consistent. Plus, with the color spectrum of the 10 bulbs going 3:7 white:blue respectively, obviously the corals will fluoresce more due to cellular response to the excitement of the 20K wavelength. If you have T-5 lights with natural lighting coloration, not just the majority being the blue violate spectrum, I will always think the color could be better. Again it's personal opinion, plus, color blindness is more prevalent among men so, I trust my opinion

 

[IslandCrow]

I take it you're the same Kelly who was part of the test team? It's certainly a really interesting experiment, so thank you for doing it. One thing I would have liked to have seen was pictures of the frags from each tank taken under the same spectrum and type of lighting. What I'm getting at here is, did the frag under the 20K lamp color differently, or does it just look like it's a different color because we're seeing it under 20K light as opposed to much whiter light from the other setups? Did you ever observe these frags under similar lighting to see if there was an actual difference in color. Also, it would be interesting to see the effects of a "bluer" T-5 setup. Of course, they don't make 20K T-5 bulbs, so that may be a tough color temperature to match accurately.

Anyway, excellent work with some very interesting results.

And by the way, that's not the first T-5 tank of the month. I know there were at least two others, and at least one of those used T-5 from the very beginning.

 

[pixburg-reefer]

Yes I am I have worked on coral projects for the past two years here at Penn State. To answer your questions:

1. There are three tanks, as shown in the pictures, that are all interconnected. So all corals are exposed to the same water, the only changing factor is the lighting. All of the tanks are separated by a divider (which we took down for the photos) but it prevents the lighting from the other tanks impacting coral coloration/growth in the tank next to it. We have three frags of each coral, so one goes in each tank. Then, if you go down to the results page of the article, we took each of the three frags and placed them next to each other in each tank under all three lighting setups, so you can see how the coloration not only manipulates the way you view the coral color, but also how the coloration is actually changed as a pigmentation (or even genetically) due to whatever lighting it was originally under. You can view each frag grown under the 20 K bulbs, under the T-5 and 10 K lights, and compare that to the other frag actually grown under that system everyday.

We were going to try to work and see if coral coloration is just a pigmentation build up (due to wavelength or UV ray exposure, Some people think bright coloration is due to UV exposure) or if it is a genetic alteration / expression of some genes turned "on" but we aren't sure where/when/if that project will happen.

Kelly

 

[phenom5]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13062734#post13062734 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by IslandCrow

And by the way, that's not the first T-5 tank of the month. I know there were at least two others, and at least one of those used T-5 from the very beginning.

Danano's tank was 100% T5 from the start I believe...looks terrible.

Danano's TOTM

[size=-4]***Disclaimer***That's dripping with sarcasm, and no offense is intended to Kelly, or anyone else. To each their own. There are lots of ways to skin a cat. And so on...[/size]

 

[pixburg-reefer]

LOL i like the disclaimer i'm not saying T-5's can't BE impressive (because they obviously can be), but it just seems to be that they are when only more/mostly blue spectrum is used. I like more natural lighting, not so much on the heavy blue spectrum, so the fluorescence looks nice, it's a great side of the spectrum for coral growth. Now Danano's tank is very nice, that earned tank of the month only one year into existence. It says he used T-5 lights for the last 9 months on that tank, and it says that all of those corals were placed in that TOTM from other tanks so I wonder what original lighting they came from or how large they were. He says that their are good results with acro's no further than 18'' from the surface, which all (or most should know) that better growth and coloration for acros/millis are best closer to the light source. I'm just not a fan of extreme "fake" blue light that's all so find me a T-5 tank that isn't over-run by blue bulbs and lets look at that color The bulbs for our T-5 tanks only have 1 full actinic bulb and a 50/50, so it's more natural lighting to compare to the 10 K tank.

 

[markandkristen]

i guess ill allways be a metal halide and vho (actinics)

too me they have the best combination out thier

vho makes the best actinics and mhs have the best (natural ) coloration..

one thing ive also learned is that i like ice cap ballast..

i have ran m58 on reeflux 12ks and then ran them on ice cap 250s and the ice cap too me is better..

again opinions are like ...

 

[pixburg-reefer]

yup i agree with markandkristen, i'm a total and complete fan of icecap. The ballasts seem to be incredibly long-lived....

 

[phenom5]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13062959#post13062959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pixburg-reefer
LOL i like the disclaimer i'm not saying T-5's can't BE impressive (because they obviously can be), but it just seems to be that they are when only more/mostly blue spectrum is used. I like more natural lighting, not so much on the heavy blue spectrum, so the fluorescence looks nice, it's a great side of the spectrum for coral growth. Now Danano's tank is very nice, that earned tank of the month only one year into existence. It says he used T-5 lights for the last 9 months on that tank, and it says that all of those corals were placed in that TOTM from other tanks so I wonder what original lighting they came from or how large they were. He says that their are good results with acro's no further than 18'' from the surface, which all (or most should know) that better growth and coloration for acros/millis are best closer to the light source. I'm just not a fan of extreme "fake" blue light that's all so find me a T-5 tank that isn't over-run by blue bulbs and lets look at that color The bulbs for our T-5 tanks only have 1 full actinic bulb and a 50/50, so it's more natural lighting to compare to the 10 K tank.

My bulbs appear to produce roughly a 14,000K look (judged by my eye, comparing it to 10,000K, 14,000K, & 20,000K MH that I've run in the past. ). Which is what I like, crisp, with a hint of blue. I have the advantage of having a short tank, so anything that goes into my tank will be well short of the 18". I can't say that I'm a hardcore T5'er though. This is my first foray into T5's, so we'll see. Give me a year, and I'll be able to weigh in on the growth rates of SPS under T5's in my tank. I like the look, but I do miss the MH shimmer.

 

[IslandCrow]

OK, I completely missed the captions beneath the different frags. I thought they were all from the same tank, but if I'd remembered what I read about your setup, that wouldn't have made sense. That growth difference is very significant in at least certain species. It's funny, I had always heard the opposite about color spectum, that your lower kelvin light encouraged the fastest growth.