Let's See Some T5 Only Lite Tanks (remember Just T5 Lite Tanks) :-)

OBI,

After you and I kicked this around before in another thread I saw a post where someone had talked to a guy at ATI, in fact I think he was the head guy who said the Aquablue put out the most par. He even posted the guy's name, sounded german. Still be very interested to see what your actual measurments will show.

I'll see if I can find the post/
 
I would like to see any posts relating to this. It just seems rather silly that a 100% sun bulb produces less PAR than a 40% sun bulb - not saying it isn't true, just that it is not something one would expect.
 
FOUND IT!

R33f3r
S. Gigantea junky

Registered: Jun 2003
Location: H-Town
Occupation: Looking for trades
Posts: 2103



I posted some info from the ATI German forum a couple of months ago about the PAR info from the sun and aquablues. FWIW, the owner/pres of ATI (Olive Pritzel) has stated that the aquablues produce the most PAR out of any T5 available. There is also another aquablue out in Germany called "aquablue special AAA". The German thread can be found below (just use babbelfish or google to translate). There is a German member here that is supposed to buy some and let me know how they compare to the regular aquablues

http://www.meeresaquaristik.de/fore...721ff47bb0a5c7f

My 6 setup combo is

3 aquablues
2 blue +
1 actinic

That is the combo I like best. My zoo growth and LPS growth (esp..a rescued goniopora have been oustanding).

Hobby Experience: 4 years
Current Tanks: 75 mixed Softy/LPS/Anemone reef, 6-T5's (aqua, blue+, arctinic, aqua, blue+, aqua)
Interests: Acan Lords addiction
 
That link doesn't seem to work. Does that link contain PAR measurements of the bulbs, or just a quote from the guy from ATI?
 
A few more pictures.
13331lavender-acro.jpg


I saved this tricolor from the LFS a few weeks ago.
13331tricolor-med.jpg


13331fungia-monti.jpg
 
Come on man, someone out there get a freakin par meter & measure once & for all. I hear so many conflicting stories. Even heard the one that corals need the actinic/blue+ for growth. So, it maybe that the aquablues produce better growth rates because of this idea, but less par when compared to day/sun's.

BTW, link above is broken!

brentp, wow! Nice & healthy corals! Why are your rocks so clean? How do you accomplish this? What is your big secret?

How often do you guys feed your tank? I stopped dosing phyto for about 1 1/2 month & still have the sides of my 55g tank filled with green stuff (which I am assuming is phyto or some type of green algae). I think all this is from all the light, which allows many micros/fauna to grow.
 
edgerat-I'm running aquablue-blue-sun-sun-blue-aquablue.

FastUno-It's no secret. No substrate, high flow, and wet skimming. The lower your nutrients are and clearer your water is the less light you need. My overflow feeds my skimmer so what it misses I siphon out of my sump every 3 or 4 weeks. A little bit of detritus sits at the front of my tank and I siphon it out when it gets noticable, about once a week. When I had a DSB I had bubble algae and dinoflagellates up the kazoo. My rocks had that pretty fuzzy brown look.
 
I feed my fish (singular) every couple days. Every couple weeks I add some cyclopeeze. I would never add phyto to a display tank. There isn't much that most people keep that requires it. That green stuff is the algae making love the phosphates in the phyto.
 
Iwish I could find a PAR meter that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.

I use an automatic feeder that feeds twice a day. I set it to make sure the food (OSI flake food with a little freeze dried photoplankton added) is pretty much gone in less than two minutes. I add macro as needed to thin out the fuges and frozen mysis shrimp every few days. I have plenty of crabs and shrimp to deal with leftovers.
 
I have the following fish:
-Gold Striped Maroon
-2 damsels
-Arc Eye Hawkfish
-Blenny
-Flame angel
-Percula

-I feed flakes 1x-2x day
-frozen mysis, shrimp (chopped up) 2 varieties (both just about every other day)
-Minnows to my metalic green brain, red lobo at least 1x-2x week
-Minnows to my RBTA just about every day, sometimes I may skip a day.

I notice a lot of fish dietrus building up & there is no real convenient way to get rid of it. Siphoning stinks, cause it also removes sand. My cleanup crew in 55g consists of 35 astreas, 5 turbos, 1 emarald, 10 hermits, 1 sand sifting starfish, 1 coral banded shrimp, 1 mantis (somewhere in there...bastard!).

I notice plenty of growth starting to build up now, from cyano, to green algae, to pods. I have a very ALIVE tank. Wonder if it has to do anything with the T5's? Maybe the more light = more micro growth, which feeds all the rest?

There is something that I am not doing right? I might have to start my own thread...I need some serious help.
 
FastUno said:
I notice a lot of fish dietrus building up & there is no real convenient way to get rid of it. Siphoning stinks, cause it also removes sand.

I notice plenty of growth starting to build up now, from cyano, to green algae, to pods. I have a very ALIVE tank. Wonder if it has to do anything with the T5's? Maybe the more light = more micro growth, which feeds all the rest?

There is something that I am not doing right? I might have to start my own thread...I need some serious help.
Click to expand...

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. From what you said you feed it will obviously be difficult to maintain a low nutrient environment unless you can export what you import. If your keeping creatures that need all that food then your system needs to be able to export what you import. Sand makes it harder to export everything but depending on what animals you want to keep you may need sand. When I removed my DSB I had to get rid of a plate sized long tentacle anemone. My goal was an SPS tank so even though I liked that animal a lot a gave it to someone with an appropriate tank.

IMO/IME the nutrients have way more to do with the amount of algae in your tank. Certainly the algae needs light but if that was the main factor everyone with halides would have more algae than corals in there tanks.:lol:
 
I would add some of the small dietrus eating snails that will work the sandbed, nassarus, cerith, pardon my spelling. There are a few others but the names don't come to mind at the moment. I like the ones that look like minature conches, nassarus I think. They have a small trunk. They do a good job.
 
Well, I want a combo of Softies, LPS, & SPS. Why did the plate anemone need the sand? Perhaps it has delicate skin under the plate that can easily be damaged?

I am very tempted to go bare bottom & almost did with this 55g. I will probably be getting a 75g & might just do that. I swear it was much easier maintaining my 26g, almost tempted to go back.

How many nassarus, cerith, and/or mini conches would you go for in a 55?
 
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FastUno, It was an LTA the size of a dinner plate not a plate anemone. They like to keep a foot buried in the sand.
 
all that coral with t5 wow, ive been told you cant get sps to live well with out 250 mh. any thoughts on 175 mh and t 5
 
burtone its very possible to keep sps well with 175w MH and T5. Heres an shot of mine with 2-175w 14k MH and T5 actinic sup.

showphoto.php


Brian
 
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