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

[brentp]

My tank is 24" deep and mostly SPS. IMO T5's and 175 mh are about the same as far as penetration but you obviously get better coverage with T5's. I have an A.tenuis growing at the back of my tank with no light directly over it.

 

[edgerat]

what about light penetration? My tank is 29" deep, so I know that I can place most everything up high since I am ONLY doing SPS but would I be better served with MH's to get the light all the way to the bottom of the tank? I have two 3 foot 6 bulb fixtures over a six foot tank. Still in setup phase though....

 

[brentp]

Halides with provide more light deeper in the tank directly beneath the bulbs.

T5's will get you more even coverage and more control over the color of the lighting. You will also not have to worry about heat from the lighting.

I don't know of anyone on Reef Central that has an established tank full of SPS that is running T5's as their main lighting so the jury is still out. T5's will grow SPS. There are a few people using them on their frag grow out tanks with good results but these are all relatively shallow tanks. I've said this before, but even with halides I had to keep some SPS at the top of the tank to maintain color. So far I am doing well but I've only had the T5's since the middle of the summer and I've made alot of other improvements since then. Hopefully in another six months I will be able to post some impressive growth sequences. I've intentionally mounted a few Acros in the bottom half of the tank to see how they do.

 

[NewSchool04]

How long are people running their T5's? I have a Tek 6 bulb fixture running
Back: Blue +
Aquablue
6500K
Blue +
Aquablue
Front:Actinic 03

I have mostly LPS and softies.
Thanks for the help!

 

[Scleractinian]

Halides with provide more light deeper in the tank directly beneath the bulbs.

T5's will get you more even coverage and more control over the color of the lighting. You will also not have to worry about heat from the lighting.

Well, this isn't always true. These are two popular misconceptions. Halides with more focused reflectors may put more of the light they produce on to a target farther away, but this is an effect of the focus, and not due to the fact that it's a MH. You could deliver more light to the bottom of a tank with an array of T5s with good reflectors than you could with an equivalent wattage (and spectrum) MH with a crappy reflector.

T5s generate heat also, just over a larger surface area per watt, so the apparent surface temperature is lower. The efficiencies (light/watt from the lamps) are similar (with a slight edge to the T5s), so in an enclosed canopy w/o adequate ventilation, you'd probably see similar temps (with a slight edge to the T5s). T5s need airflow too.

Also,

I don't know of anyone on Reef Central that has an established tank full of SPS that is running T5's as their main lighting so the jury is still out.

There are several people doing SPS displays with T5, but if you'd read my earlier posts in this very thread, you'd have seen links to my personal favorite.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4000460#post4000460

 

[The Grim Reefer]

OK,

I am still learning the new camera so excuse the poor photo quality. The Montiporas in the pictures were started from a ORA frag from e tropicals about 6 months ago. The frag had 2 branches and arrived broken which started all but one of the colonies. Around thanksgiving I broke a branch off the biggest colony and it has taken off as well. I run three 80 watt T5 Aquablues and 3 of the Blues as well as 2 40 watt submersible blue fluorescents in place of actinic. The 6 T5's are overdriven with Ice Cap ballasts.

This was the largest piece broken off the original. The original was about the size of the two tallest branches in the middle of this one.

This colony started from what was left of the original.

This was another broken piece

This is the branch I broke off the front of the large colony just before thanksgiving. (I don't know what setting the camera was on this one to blast the color like this)

These two started out as a twig I busted while trying to mount it (used the flash on this one)

Another shot of the biggest colony and the birdsnest. You can also see where the Monti has mutated at the and is spreading out across the rock.

Just a shot of some other corals

 

[brentp]

Well, this isn't always true. These are two popular misconceptions. Halides with more focused reflectors may put more of the light they produce on to a target farther away, but this is an effect of the focus, and not due to the fact that it's a MH. You could deliver more light to the bottom of a tank with an array of T5s with good reflectors than you could with an equivalent wattage (and spectrum) MH with a crappy reflector.
T5s generate heat also, just over a larger surface area per watt, so the apparent surface temperature is lower. The efficiencies (light/watt from the lamps) are similar (with a slight edge to the T5s), so in an enclosed canopy w/o adequate ventilation, you'd probably see similar temps (with a slight edge to the T5s). T5s need airflow too.
Also,
There are several people doing SPS displays with T5, but if you'd read my earlier posts in this very thread, you'd have seen links to my personal favorite.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=4000460#post4000460

Actually, it is true. We need to talk apples to apples here. What reflectors are we actually using. That is the only comparison that should be made. You are right it has a lot to do with the reflector but you are ignoring the fact that a halide, because of it's form factor, puts most of it's light in a narrow spot beneath the bulb. If you were to measure PAR beneath a 250 watt halide and beneath a T5 the par will be higher on the halide. Now you move that PAR meter out from under the halide a little and I think the T5 has it beat. You get more even coverage with the T5. And hopefully more natural growth patterns from corals. Halides are point source lights that are bright over a narrow field. This is why you get glitter lines with halides and not with T5's.

As to established SPS tanks, and when I said this I was thinking of american tanks grown out from frags to have sizeable colonies. I have not seen anything like that yet. Of the tanks in your links above, only one tank has much info about it, and the large colonies in it were grown out under halides and are being maintained, beautifully I might add, by T5's. Do you have any links to any american tanks that have sizeable colonies grown out from frags?

Also, I want to make it clear that I think T5's will grow SPS. I had a problem with heat, could afford to experiment, and wanted to see if it could be done since so many people that have not even seen a T5 lit tank had opinions on the matter. But if someone asks me if they should spend $700-$800 dollars to light an SPS tank with T5's I don't have any proof that they are doing the 'best' thing with their money yet. This is mostly because not very many people have tried it yet in this country. My SPS are doing well but none of my frags have had time to grow into decent size colonies yet. You can bet that if they do or don't I will share that information here.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

As you can see from my crappy pictures above SOME SPS will grow lovely under T5's. I think the Birdsnest will be the ultimate test in my tank. It looks great but hasn't been tanked long enoug to determine the growth rate. I am also considering adding one sun back into my T5 mix as an experiment with the catspaw. It was very pink when I got it but has now shifted to purple. I know the suns bring out red and yellow more than the aquablue so I am interested to see if a sun will cause the color to shift back to a more pink color.

 

[edgerat]

I think that if you are doing a SPS-dominated reef and you want SPS in general then you should do MH's. If you want a mixed reef or some lower light SPS or something like that then T5's are a great option. No one is trying to say that T5's are going to replace MH's............ yet

 

[brentp]

As you can see from my crappy pictures above SOME SPS will grow lovely under T5's.

I think A LOT of SPS will grow lovely under T5's. It will be interesting to see how fast they grow. I have SPS that are considered high light for SPS that are maintaining color and growing. I feel like a little kid waiting for christmas, I can't wait to see how things look by summer.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I have a few acros but they are slow growing except forthe one called a german blue (which is dark brown with blue polyps) which is showing signs of taking off. I have one that I have maybe a third of the way up the tank that will be a good test as well. I had attempted toplace the Monti frags at different depths to see how far down the light will penetrate. I had one piece in the sand for a while and it was keeping up with the other that was about halfway up the rocks do I moved it to keep the conch from running over it all the time

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Just noticed this pic of the birdsnest in my gallary from Oct 1st Below it is a pic from Jan 4th. Maybe some of you SPS gurus can give me an idea of how the growth rate is, The coral is at the half way point of the tank which would be exactly 11 inches below the surface of the water

 

[brentp]

That's excellent growth IMO.

 

[NewSchool04]

any ideas on how long to keep or how long you keep your lights on?? I posted my specs above.

 

[brentp]

any ideas on how long to keep or how long you keep your lights on?? I posted my specs above.

~10-12 Hours, you could probably get by with 8 with lps and softies if you want to extend your bulb life some.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I didn't realize how much that thing has grown. Not sure what to expect, the first pic was the day after I tanked the coral. Looking back through the gallary I see the frogspawn and torch have gone crazy and looking at some other pics on the video camera I see the bubble coral has gotten huge. Maybe time for a bigger tank.

 

[NewSchool04]

Thanks brent. Are you talking 10 - 12 with all six bulbs and one hour before and after with just the two for dawn / dusk?

 

[brentp]

NewSchool04, I run mine full blast for 11 hours and simulate dawn/dusk/moonlight with LED's. So you have two bulbs per ballast? Then what you said above would be perfect.

 

[NewSchool04]

The Tek Light comes with two on off switches. On the 6 bulb fixture, the first switch turns on the first and last bulb. I use that for the dawn / dusk and the second turns on the 4 in the middle. So I set mine to come on with the first two, blue + and actinic for an hour, then the four in the middle come on for now 8 hours but slowly increasing the time to help the corals adjust, and then the last hour on the blue + and actinic.
I'm shooting for 10 hours with all the bulbs on. I was just curious to see how much time others were using.
Thanks for the help brentp!

 

[Scleractinian]

Actually, it is true. We need to talk apples to apples here. What reflectors are we actually using. That is the only comparison that should be made. You are right it has a lot to do with the reflector but you are ignoring the fact that a halide, because of it's form factor, puts most of it's light in a narrow spot beneath the bulb. If you were to measure PAR beneath a 250 watt halide and beneath a T5 the par will be higher on the halide. Now you move that PAR meter out from under the halide a little and I think the T5 has it beat. You get more even coverage with the T5. And hopefully more natural growth patterns from corals. Halides are point source lights that are bright over a narrow field. This is why you get glitter lines with halides and not with T5's.

As to established SPS tanks, and when I said this I was thinking of american tanks grown out from frags to have sizeable colonies. I have not seen anything like that yet. Of the tanks in your links above, only one tank has much info about it, and the large colonies in it were grown out under halides and are being maintained, beautifully I might add, by T5's. Do you have any links to any american tanks that have sizeable colonies grown out from frags?

Also, I want to make it clear that I think T5's will grow SPS. I had a problem with heat, could afford to experiment, and wanted to see if it could be done since so many people that have not even seen a T5 lit tank had opinions on the matter. But if someone asks me if they should spend $700-$800 dollars to light an SPS tank with T5's I don't have any proof that they are doing the 'best' thing with their money yet. This is mostly because not very many people have tried it yet in this country. My SPS are doing well but none of my frags have had time to grow into decent size colonies yet. You can bet that if they do or don't I will share that information here.

A halide is a near-point source, but radiates light in a sphere if used without a reflector, so how does it inherently radiate over a narrow field without a reflector? Halides only generate narrow spots if they're used with a reflector that focuses light. The fact that MH are point sources is really relevant because you can design a more focused reflector for a point source than for a relatively diffuse source... but if you don't use a well-designed reflector, you're not using that advantage.

Most T5 HO users the use SLR or Tek reflectors have reflectors with good geometry.

Many halide users are using flat reflectors, white paint, etc., that don't work very well. Just because it's a MH lamp doesn't mean that it will get better light "penetration" (per watt).

Why are only American SPS tanks valid demonstrations of what can be accomplished with T5? Europeans started using them first, so they have the most experience with them.

I missed the part where Danano grew his colonies out under MH... he had T5 on the 30 also.

I'm not saying that T5 is generally better or worse. I'm pointing out that both types of lamps will work, and that both have their applications. It just bugs me when I repeatedly see "halides will always penetrate deeper than X other lamp because they're halides" (with no mention of what reflector system is used) or that "PCs/VHOs/T5 give off less heat for the equivalent wattage lamp than MH do". Most PC and VHO lamps are relatively inefficient (light per watt) when compared to MH or T5 (they waste more energy as heat).

So... If you can do SPS under enough PC or VHO (or MH with crappy reflectors), you can do 'em under T5.

More pics please.