lighting advice

[aliciajoshltjt]

With this damn center brace on the 28 I have been trying to think of what I could do to kill as many dead spots of no light as possible. I have been pondering selling the 3 brand new 14k lights, 2 6month old 10 reeflux bulbs, coralvue 250 watt ballast, and reflectors for something different. I have never been a big SPS fan and none of is will be entering my tank. I am taking my current tank more in the direction of an anemone tank with the help of the gbta I am picking up on saturday, zoos, and ricordia for the most part.
Should I look int trying to make a trade with someone for some t5 lights? I don't really want to have to go with side my side 150 halides but I gotta do something to kill this shadow from the center brace without having to do alterations to it and risking the overall health of the tank.

 

[jay24k]

If i didn't do Metal Halide, I would do T-5s personally. What about a nice reflector that is big enough? The more facets the less chance of a shadow. Also you could cut out the middle brace and replace it with acrylic with no issues. I have a large lumenarc I'm selling cheap. lol.

 

[JosefDevaty]

Loving my T5's. But I use them for SPS.

 

[The_Browns]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14496043#post14496043 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jay24k
If i didn't do Metal Halide, I would do T-5s personally. What about a nice reflector that is big enough? The more facets the less chance of a shadow. Also you could cut out the middle brace and replace it with acrylic with no issues. I have a large lumenarc I'm selling cheap. lol.

What version Lumenarcs?

 

[dugg]

I just moved all of my corals from a tank with MH to a tank with T-5's, and everything took off growing like wildfire. I will never go back to MH again. The T-5's blow them away and make less heat. I was using reeflux 12k MH 250w that was less than a month old too. There is just no comparison IMO.

 

[cham]

Another vote for T5's

 

[Megabite]

I've had both as well and they performed similarly for me when it comes to growth. Big factor for MH is having good quality big reflectors.

I personally prefer the MH exclusively due to the shimmer. I just couldn't live without it. Makes the tank look more alive to me.

In the end, I think it's a matter of preference.

Good luck.

 

[chrisstie]

T5s any day of the week. Cooler, cheaper, last longer, less power usage.

I would only do halides in a large deep tank.

 

[cadillac]

T5's work great and saves you money!!

 

[jmking33]

I love the shimmer of MH. I think t5's are better for shorter tanks, but mhs for deeper tanks.

 

[Fuzzy]

I tried T5's on our old 90. They worked well, had good growth but had no shimmer at all.
When we got the 150 I went with a MH/VHO combination. This tank has a center brace so I used 2 pendant style 150watt MH's with 4 - 2' VHO's.
The VHO's are so high up in the canopy they are pretty much useless.
So I'm changing the 150's to 250 Phoenix bulbs and using a bunch of the Current USA 460nm LED lights.

 

[dugg]

If you test with a par meter, the T-5's penetrate to deeper levels at almost 4 times the rate of MH. The shimmer is nice, but the cooler running, longer lasting, and better par makes the shimmer not woth it to me. I still get some shimmer, but i have a lot of suface aggitation with almost 3000 gph flow in my 90g. Not near the same as MH, but i am more concerned with a healthy reef than the astetics myself.

 

[jmking33]

3000 gph in your 90? sounds like a great place to kayak!

 

[Fuzzy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14502360#post14502360 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dugg
If you test with a par meter, the T-5's penetrate to deeper levels at almost 4 times the rate of MH.

Interesting - I'd really like to see more data on this.
In my own personal experience I thought the MH's provided better depth. But I did not have a par meter to measure so my observations were strictly visual.

 

[aliciajoshltjt]

so what t5 should I be looking at for the 28 bowfront? The tank currently needs a uv sterilizer because the params are right but the water looks like green food coloring. so one and then the other but what light setup with t5's should i be looking to go with?

 

[cadillac]

T5 Nova extremes work good

 

[chrisstie]

I recommend Sunlight Supply's Techlight system.

Most systems work well but the key to utilizing T5s is to have individual reflectors on the bulbs. You have a wide bulb choice. There are some cheapish brand names but also Geismann , ATI, UVL, and a few more that I can't remember the name of.

While I like Geismann products most recently I did a combination of ATI and UVL and like the color that I got. If you ask over in the lighting forum here on RC they can also give great advice.

 

[JosefDevaty]

Check out the famous T5 Q and A thread - http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=14011713#post14011713
The guy who started it (Grimreefer) gives some good advice especially on bulb choice.
I personally use giesmann, however, my tank is 48x22x12 and thus very shallow. I get better growth and color out of T5's than I did in an 18" deep tank with halides.
Like Chrisstie said you could go with a teklight setup. Probably the easiest unless you feel like building a canopy then you can go with a retro system.
Check out www.reefgeek.com. They sell UVL and ATI bulbs and the teklight systems as well as ATI and others. Im going to order (possibly next week) some of the ATI blue+ bulbs to try out.

 

[dugg]

I use a tek light with UVL bulbs myself. the biggest thing is to have individual reflectors. The bulb choice is mostly dependent on the color you like. I have 1 super actinic, 1 reef blue, 1 12k, and 1 10k bulb in mine. The par meter test i have seen were done by Paul Whitby from the COMAS club, or Central Oklahoma Marine Aquarium Society. They did quite a bit of par meter testing on his 600 gallon that was TOTM a while back.I know he has switched his tank to mostly if not all T-5's now.
The TEK T-5 fixtures have the same generic ballast as you will get if you order a ballast from hellolights, the biggest thing is to be sure the fixture you get has individual reflectors and you will be good. I just replaced a ballast and ordered one from hellolights, and the one they sent was the exact same as the original one in the Tek fixture.

If you have a small enough Kayak, come on by lol. The fish would love the company haha. I have an 1100gph panworld return, 1 k-4, and 1 seio 620 in there, and yeah it is pretty turbulent waters in my tank lol. Everything loves the flow though, and it keeps the algae off my sand bed.