I have been experimenting with the new Pacific Sun T5 tubes for the past two months. I replaced my existing ATI tubes with their Pacific Sun equivalents (i.e. PS Crystal Blue instead of ATI Blue + and PS Spectra + instead of ATI Coral +). My experiment ended last Saturday after I decided to go back to ATI tubes. I will create a thread soon in "Lighting, Filtration & Other Equipment" to share my experience with the rest of you.
I also upgraded my light unit to 8 X 39W ATI Powermodule.The new light unit arrived last Friday. I sold my old Sunpower last Saturday before unpacking the new light unit. I felt quite a lot of unease about this in case the unit did not work. Fortunately, my fears were unfounded. The fan speed is set at 9V. The unit is not any noisier than before despite having two extra fans, which I am pleasantly surprised about. I installed 5 X ATI Blue + and 3 X ATI Coral +. The previous combination (3 X ATI Blue + and 3 X ATI Coral +) proved to be really successful in encouraging rampant growth and producing excellent fluorescent and reflective coloration of corals. Additional two blue + tubes are expected to mirror the TMC's royal blue leds I used to use. Here is the new tube layout:
front
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
ATI Coral +
ATI Blue +
ATI Coral +
ATI Blue +
ATI Coral +
ATI Blue +
back
The photo period is as follows: dawn to dusk- 12 hours and full photo period- 8 hours
I hanged the unit 5" over the water surface to ensure good light distribution. After installing new T5b tubes, I normally wait for at least 100 hours before taking PAR reading new T5 tubes. Since some of my corals have started to exhibit symptoms associated with over exposure to light, I have decided to take some measurements earlier than planned. As soon as I have put the Apogee sensor into the tank water, I have nearly dropped my light meter on the floor with excitement and astonishment because I have 350 read mmol on the sand bed (nearer the front glass) :dance: Whereas the same spot received around 200 mmol before. Another example is that my Montipora setosa flourished under 255 mmol PAR before, whereas it is now receiving 440 mmol
I feel that I have no option but to raise the unit until stress symptoms exhibited by some corals ease.
Here is a FTS I took yesterday. The rock structure is deliberately loose and minimal, but by no means is final. My wife does not like it. However, she likes the idea of giving fish free swimming space, which was my objective in the first place. I deliberately keep the coral numbers low because I want them to grow as much as possible without territorial disputes. So, my view is a long term one and is based on patience. Having said that some rocks are still empty and require a few acropora frags on them. I could not place acroporids on them before due to lack of light intensity.
FTS (26/Oct/2014) by
M Bülent Özcan, on Flickr
Montipora setosa in the picture above is situated 20" below the light unit and receives (as I already wrote) 440 mmol (nearer the front glass). The pink Stylophora pistillata is situated 18" below the light unit and receives 550 mmol (nearer the front glass). Yippee ....
