Let's See Some T5 Only Lite Tanks (remember Just T5 Lite Tanks) :-)
- Thread starter enomadra
- Start date
bermudadiver
Premium Member
Thanks 
AJtheReefer
New member
BermudaDiver,
That's awesome! I think your tank looks great and unique. I like the rock work and the fish selection. Can you post additional pics of the fish and critters. In addition, what is the survival rate for the critters that you catch? Thanks
That's awesome! I think your tank looks great and unique. I like the rock work and the fish selection. Can you post additional pics of the fish and critters. In addition, what is the survival rate for the critters that you catch? Thanks
bermudadiver
Premium Member
AJ,
Here are a few photos I took tonight.
The whole setup:
Puddingwife and juvi Atlantic Blue Tang (yes its yellow):
Some nice zoos:
Purple Tipped Condi
Doctorfish
Some kind of anemone:
A few corals and a blue headed wrasse:
Its a bit hit and miss with the survival rate. Some fish are super delicate. The tangs and doctorfish, as well as butterflies, are really hard to keep. The trick is getting them to eat. As they are wild, they just don't take to fish food. I've released a lot of fish that just were not going to take to aquarium life. However, once they figure it out, they eat like pigs. The doctorfish I have now I have had for over a year.
On the other hand, some fish are practically indestructable. I've never had a problem with any kind of wrasse. Purple tipped condis are hardy as well. I used to keep one in my old 55G with a dual 40W NO flourescent setup.
The fun in collecting yourself is you never know what you are going to get on any given day.
Here are a few photos I took tonight.
The whole setup:
Puddingwife and juvi Atlantic Blue Tang (yes its yellow):
Some nice zoos:
Purple Tipped Condi
Doctorfish
Some kind of anemone:
A few corals and a blue headed wrasse:
Its a bit hit and miss with the survival rate. Some fish are super delicate. The tangs and doctorfish, as well as butterflies, are really hard to keep. The trick is getting them to eat. As they are wild, they just don't take to fish food. I've released a lot of fish that just were not going to take to aquarium life. However, once they figure it out, they eat like pigs. The doctorfish I have now I have had for over a year.
On the other hand, some fish are practically indestructable. I've never had a problem with any kind of wrasse. Purple tipped condis are hardy as well. I used to keep one in my old 55G with a dual 40W NO flourescent setup.
The fun in collecting yourself is you never know what you are going to get on any given day.
bermudadiver
Premium Member
yeah, the only down side is we just don't get the diversity here. I would LOVE to have a clown, or a BTA, or <insert south pacific fish here>.
We do have lovely reefs, but nowhere near the selection.
Hell, I'd give my right arm for some cheato!
We do have lovely reefs, but nowhere near the selection.
Hell, I'd give my right arm for some cheato!
bermudadiver
Premium Member
I really like the fact that the only limiting factor I have in choosing my live rock is whether it is too heavy to carry or not
All the rockwork in the tank is actually just 4 REALLY BIG chunks of rock.
All the rockwork in the tank is actually just 4 REALLY BIG chunks of rock.
FastUno
New member
Would like to hear from anyone having problems with specific corals with T5 lights. The only problem that I have had is too much lighting.
I have a 55g w/ 4' 6 bulb combo. But I only put on the 2 outer ones for dawn, dusk & 1 hr for mid-day.
Problems are as follows:
-red mushrooms shrink up & shrivel when fully exposed at the bottom of tank (tank height is only about 21"). When placed in shade they do much better.
-maze brain is bleaching at the bottom, not completely...just loosing its vivid color that it used to have. Need to find shading, problem is there is none!!!!
-Metallic green brain. Same idea, colors just not as vivid as once were
-Shrooms- look pretty ugly during the day, but they do open up at night. Is this typical of this type of mushroom?
http://www.pbase.com/fastuno/image/36887346
-pocillipora, the green type, which was placed about 7" from top of tank & lights are a little over 4" from surface of the water. It has been completely bleached out after putting the 2 outer lights for an additional 1hr (2 hour mid-day total).
Tank parameters are good (in case you needed to know). Is it just me?
I have a 55g w/ 4' 6 bulb combo. But I only put on the 2 outer ones for dawn, dusk & 1 hr for mid-day.
Problems are as follows:
-red mushrooms shrink up & shrivel when fully exposed at the bottom of tank (tank height is only about 21"). When placed in shade they do much better.
-maze brain is bleaching at the bottom, not completely...just loosing its vivid color that it used to have. Need to find shading, problem is there is none!!!!
-Metallic green brain. Same idea, colors just not as vivid as once were
-Shrooms- look pretty ugly during the day, but they do open up at night. Is this typical of this type of mushroom?
http://www.pbase.com/fastuno/image/36887346
-pocillipora, the green type, which was placed about 7" from top of tank & lights are a little over 4" from surface of the water. It has been completely bleached out after putting the 2 outer lights for an additional 1hr (2 hour mid-day total).
Tank parameters are good (in case you needed to know). Is it just me?
edgerat
New member
quick question if I may. I have a 28" deep tank with white starboard. I just bought two 36" 6-bulb fixtures. They have two blue plus, two of 11k blue's, two 03 true actinics.....how can I add more daylight of the 11k's without losing all my blue? Will 4 daylights and 2 true actinics work? I would like to do dawn to dusk so if I did 4 daylights on the two outermost bulbs on each end and the actinics in the middle so that I can turn off the daylights and just have actinics on at night?? Will this work or will my 4 daylights overpower the actinics during daylight hours?
Isaac
Isaac
NewSchool04
New member
Replace one of the actinics for a 11K.
FastUno
New member
This 55g has been up since end of Nov 11th.
I raised the lights normal than usual, over 4" height above the water. Lighting I stared off w/8 hrs day & every week bumped it up until reached 12 hr days.
How would you have acclimated? What is the recomended technique? I have thought about putting a screen above the tank in one area (corner maybe) & putting all corals that dont like too much light there? Either that or get a deeper tank?
I raised the lights normal than usual, over 4" height above the water. Lighting I stared off w/8 hrs day & every week bumped it up until reached 12 hr days.
How would you have acclimated? What is the recomended technique? I have thought about putting a screen above the tank in one area (corner maybe) & putting all corals that dont like too much light there? Either that or get a deeper tank?
FastUno
New member
Really, it takes that long? How long of a period. How long should the whole process take? 1 Month....3 Months?
My whole worry was that I would kill the corals without enough light. I saw that as being more problematic. Other corals are doing fantastic, better colors than ever & growing really nicely.
My whole worry was that I would kill the corals without enough light. I saw that as being more problematic. Other corals are doing fantastic, better colors than ever & growing really nicely.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
edgerat said:
I had heard that the 11K Aquablue lamps actually put a higher par in the water than the days or suns do. There had been some debate about it on the threads and someone posted that they had talked to a gentleman at ATI who also claimed that was the case. I can speak from personal experience that I am having great luck running Blues and Aquablues. I run a 50/50 mix of the T5's which look pretty good but add two 40 watt submersible blue fluorescent lights Drs. foster and Smith sells. They pop the color in the corals better than the T5 actinics and look very cool at night. I have them mounted just breaking the surface of the water so they put out some cool shimmer lines. Using them (they are 40" long or you can get them in 20 watt 20") would allow you to stick to Aquablues and Suns in your T5 fixtures.
With the better blueplus lamps using 3 Aquablues, 2 Blueplus and 1 actinic might be better than a 50/50 mix, I don't know. I have 60" lamps and only have the obsolete blue lamps rather than the better "Blueplus" which were available when I ordered my new lamps but the guy I bought them from didn't show me the loyalty I had shown him and I got the old style lamps(Hope your reading this Gregg).
Another suggestion would be to get an Ice Cap ballast and overdive your days and Aquablues. I run 2 660's which drive my 80 watt lamps up near 100 watts. I am not sure what they would do with three foot lamps. I would ask in the Ice Cap forum, they seem to have better information and more practical experience with T5's than anyone I've dealt with.
Good Luck.
Obi-dad
Active member
"I had heard that the 11K Aquablue lamps actually put a higher par in the water than the days or suns do. "
This seems counter-intuitive since the mix of phosphors in the aquablue is '40% Sun/ 60% actinic'. Actinic bulbs produce less PAR (whatever type of bulb) than daylight. So if you have 60% of a bulb with actinic phosphors, it seems like it should produce less PAR. Certainly to the eye the aquablue doesn't look as bright as the sun bulb (admittedly the eye is not a precision PAR meter).
I had our club PAR meter but didn't get around to measuring the PAR of just an aquablue and just a Sun bulb, but I will be doing that at some point.
This seems counter-intuitive since the mix of phosphors in the aquablue is '40% Sun/ 60% actinic'. Actinic bulbs produce less PAR (whatever type of bulb) than daylight. So if you have 60% of a bulb with actinic phosphors, it seems like it should produce less PAR. Certainly to the eye the aquablue doesn't look as bright as the sun bulb (admittedly the eye is not a precision PAR meter).
I had our club PAR meter but didn't get around to measuring the PAR of just an aquablue and just a Sun bulb, but I will be doing that at some point.
edgerat
New member
The blue + or the 11k bulbs are significantly brighter than the aquablue or actinic. The sun or daylight bulbs are only 6k or 6500 depending on which one you are looking at and they are extremely yellow in color. I am just trying to figure out my bulb configuration in such a way that I can turn off the daylights or in this case, blue + lights off and leave the two center bulbs with the actinics in them on for the dawn to dusk effect.
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