Reef_Matrix29
Water Lover
How many bulbs in your T5 fixture? Does it give enough light for what you currently have in the second tank?
MegaBite's 180 & Shallow Reef
- Thread starter Megabite
- Start date
Megabite
Member
It's a 4 bulb 48" Nova Extreme (4 X 54W) with 2 actinics and 2 10K bulbs. It's actually brighter than the 2 150W vipers with 20K Radiums on it. It's a little whiter than I like so I may change one of the 10K's with and AquaBlue+.
The anemones and corals seem to be responing quite well to the new light and everything's opening up nicely. Maybe even better than the Vipers. It's only been on a few days so I will keep an eye on it.
Since the tank is only 12" tall with about 10.5" of water, the 4 bulbs should be more than enough. I was actually suprised at how much brighter it looked and how much light covers the depth of the tank being that's it's 24" front to back. I don't have any dark areas with this light.
Reef_Matrix29
Water Lover
Sounds and looks good to me! I think that my next tank will be a hybrid of LED and T5 bulbs over a 120 gallon reef.
Taqpol
New member
I'm going to be putting a 4 bulb Current fixture over my frag tank as well, but i really don't like the Current bulbs. My plan was to replace both actinic bulbs with Blue+'s (since the actinics do almost nothing for PAR) and replace the 10k bulbs with Aquaspecials. Or maybe three AB+ and one AS, haven't decided yet. Thats the same combination SunnyX uses over his tank and it looks amazing.
Megabite
Member
Thanks for the suggestion Taq. I just changed out both Current actinics with AB+'s and one of the Current 10K's with an Actinic+.
The color looks much better now. I had the bulbs laying around so didn't hav to go spend any money!
I'm thinking of replacing the last 10K with an Actinic+ to give it a bit more blue. The Actinic+ has a 60:40 combination of deep blue and actinic wavelengths so I should get a bit more par out of them than pure actinic and the color pop I'm looking for.
Here's the tank with only 1 AB+ and 1 Actinic+ on. It's bluer than it shows in the picture.
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InsaneClownFish
New member
The ones in that last pic are different from anything I've seen. Nice Acquisition.
InsaneClownFish
New member
My wife is actually great to go reef hunting with. She had the greatest line when we were down at Greenwich Aquaria. There was a massive Galaxia Colony on a huge rock with some massive green mushrooms. I showed her the piece and she was quite impressed. Then she said,
"Where would you put it!? This hobby is just like buying furniture, you need to make sure you have the room!" :lol:
"Where would you put it!? This hobby is just like buying furniture, you need to make sure you have the room!" :lol:
Megabite
Member
Yep, color is the other thing. I can pick out a relly nice piece and she'll say, "you have too much of that color". "You should get something blue".
Electrobes
Montipora type guy
Beats "You paid how much for that!?" 
Megabite
Member
Beats "You paid how much for that!?"
LOL, I'm lucky. She never asks.
lordofthereef
One reef to rule them all
Like the shallow look. Is it going to remain that bare?
Reef_Matrix29
Water Lover
That is ridiculous shipping charges! No local reseller that can get it a little cheaper for you?
Megabite
Member
OUCH! My shipping charges was only like $50 if I remember correctly. I'd go another route as well. That's WAY too much. Good luck man.
