My T5 55g tank....and coral lightening

[Horace]

I know quite a few of us here in the US are using the GE daylight bulb....I am wondering if this bulb has something to do with it... We are all using it because it is the highest PAR bulb. This may be another case where high PAR is not necessarly better. My most recent bulb order has excluded this bulb just because I dont think any more PAR is needed. I am now going to run 4 actinic (2xB+, 2xUVSA) and 2xAB. Hopefully my colors start to richen up....namely my greens. If this does not work, I will be yanking out the T5s and putting in MH. I know MH will give me the colors I am looking for....I am doing everything husbandry wise possible, including using Zeovit.

 

[hskim]

Before and After

Before and After

Here is a frogspawn before T5 and after T5 picture. This was most dramatic change.


Before:

After:

 

[Horace]

My frogspawns look very similar...my green frogspawn just has a slight tint to it now, rather than the deep green it used to have. My normal one like yours is just a hair darker...

 

[CamBarr]

i wonder what is causing this

 

[duec22]

I've been haveing kind of mixed results with my T-5's. I'm running 6X24w SLS retros over my tank with 5 bulbs over the tank and 1 over the fuge. Over the tank the lights and times are as follows: all Giesemann bulbs that sit about 3" above water
Actic Plus: 10am-10pm
Aqua Blue Plus: 3pm-9pm
Actic Plus: 11am-5pm
Aqua Blue Plus: 3pm-9pm
Actic Plus: 10am-10pm

I haven't been able to get the Aqua Blue plus's up more than that, everytime I try and increase it beyone this I start getting bleaching. Some examples:
Pink Lemonaid when I first got it:

Now: (The ROBA pink prostrata went white when I first put it in, but has colored up since then and encrusted) sry color is off a little:

Bonsi, the body has lost a lot of it's color, but the tips have gotten extreamly colorfull.

My Green Slimer is loveing life:

Org tort and Cali Tort, both are actually more colorfull than the pic shows, but could still color up some more for sure.

So, it's been kind of mixed result for me..and one full tank shot:

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Take a look at Iwan's killer SPS tank. He is running normal driven 80 watt T5's with aquablue and actinic plus lamps only, here is the kicker, I don't believe that he was using reflectors until he got the ATI system. He has to replace his lamps at 8 months or he starts losing color and growth. How old are your lamps?

My Frogspawn did fabulous under T5's so I can't figure out why some here are having problems. I am not an SPS guy so I can only go by what others say about it. My understanding is browning is usually a result of excess nutrients in the water and bleaching is flow or light related.

There are enough of you guys here having trouble that you should be able to work together to figure out how to make this work better.

Someone can try cutting back the photo period, someone else can raise their lamps. You can partially rotate reflectors or remove some all together to see what that does is you can't raise your lights.

I would also suggest someone try pulling the GE lamps out just to see what that does. If someone has a good ATI/D&D Pure Actinic laying around you might try throwing that in just for giggles. They really pop green colors well where the actinic plus doesn't hardly at all.

From what I hear the new UVL T5 Actinic pops the blues and greens pretty good. I have some on the way but it is going to be a while before I have corals in the tank, just setting up next week.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Sweet fishbowl Duec!

 

[clkwrk]

Has anyone checked the actual UV output with T5's?

Reminds me of the coralvue incidents

 

[fishhouse]

My corals are doing the same, some great colors and some lightening under t5s. Could the megahertz cycle rate of the florescents be a factor. I believe Europe has a diffent cycle rate (slower?) than the US. Just a thought.

 

[wongkwp]

I'm having the same problem, some of the sps are browning and bleaching. I'm running the SLS Tek 6x39W on my 46G tank. No sure if I've too much light as well.

The bulbs combination from front to back:
Actinic/Blue+
Aquablue +
GE Daylight
Actinic/Blue+
Aquablue +
Actinic/Blue+

Anyway, I've just swapped out the GE Daylight with a Pure Actinic bulb yesterday and see if there will be any changes.

 

[dvanacker]

I dont think the cycle of the bulbs would be any different here in North america......the input voltage and frequency is different but the ballast would run the bulbs the same way.

At least thats my understanding.

 

[DitchPlains2]

I don't understand

I don't understand

I don't see this happening to my corals, I have had for 2 months, some newer some much older, my monti's have all super colored up. You know some corals are just more sensitive to other attributes, such as water clarity(turbidity), nutrient levels, temp, salinity, etc... I could be a bacteria, or parasite or poor acclimation like I mentioned before. I just can't see that if that is numerous people have sucess that in general the lighting is too much for the corals, rather its placement and acclimation.

Cheers
David

 

[Jacob D]

Ditch you do have pretty good color and I think that you hit the nail on the head about some corals being more sensitive than others. As most of us know not all corals are created equal. I have found that some of my corals such as montis, and that prostrata I posted a pic of on page 1 have colored up pretty nice (white growth tips are normal for that coral in case anyone noticed that).

Like I said earlier, I'd be shocked to find out that T5 is too intense. I think there's a lot more to it than just lighting, but there is a pattern with people using T5's (some of which have posted here) with 'light' colored corals.

What are you other guys running...
Photoperiod?
Bulbs?
Reflectors?
Ballasts?
Temp?
Salinity?
Ca?
Alk?
Phosphates?
Nitrates?
Additives?
Sandbed?
Bioload?


Me:
10 hours total, 8 hours per pair of bulbs
(6) 54w Bulbs, D&D + GE
(6) Reflectors, Sunlight Supply SLR
(3) Triad ballasts
My tank is between 80-83 right now, 78-80 in the winter
Salinity 1.025~.026 with Oceanic Salt
Calcium 500 ppm
Alk 2.9 m/eq
Phosphates - don't know
Nitrates < 10 ppm
Additives - Kalkwasser (just started dosing Randy's Alk recipe too)
Shallow sand bed (~1")
Light bioload

Most of these parameters seem pretty good to me, and are stable for the most part. I'd like my temperatures lower and will probably add another fan this summer to help, and I'd like my Alk higher which I have recently taken steps to achieve, which should bring the Calcium down a little too. I'm hoping that these changes will improve my SPS color, but after having most of these corals for at least a year, and some over 2 years I don't expect huge differences.

 

[BucNtears]

I've noticed that since switching over from the standard pc light{coralite}too the 6 bulb t5 setup{reefgeek}most of my corals have lost color.I would almost say the corals showed better with the standard pc {crazy}.
The photoperiod started at 12 now down to 8 hrs.
standard reefgeek tek 5
ballasts standard {as above}
temp 79 night 81 ish day
salt {reef crystals}1.025
ca. 450
alk 3.0
phosphates 0
no2 0
no3 0
ph 8.1
So I'm leaning towards 2 things
1. to much light
2. addittives
I've stopped adding any additives, trying just weekly water changes.

 

[Horace]

Re: I don't understand

Re: I don't understand

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7486514#post7486514 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DitchPlains2
I don't see this happening to my corals, I have had for 2 months, some newer some much older, my monti's have all super colored up. You know some corals are just more sensitive to other attributes, such as water clarity(turbidity), nutrient levels, temp, salinity, etc... I could be a bacteria, or parasite or poor acclimation like I mentioned before. I just can't see that if that is numerous people have sucess that in general the lighting is too much for the corals, rather its placement and acclimation.

Cheers
David

I am not going to pretend that I dont get good colors...But There definitely are some corals that are much lighter than they could be otherwise.

Here is a frag of Pink Birds Nest from my buddy's tank.

Here is the mother colony from my buddy's tank:

If I hadnt seen how good this coral could look I would think my color rox.....

David, while your colors are nice, they arent amazing. Your greens are a bit yellowish too if you ask me.

If you want to see colors...check out these. This is my buddy's corals. You wont see nicer colors anywhere in the world as far as I am concerned. In person this tank just makes you stand in awe. He uses 4x400w XM 20k, 2x54w T5 B+, 2x110w VHO SuperActinic over his 240g.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v...reef/?start=all



I would also like to note that I have several corals that love the T5 and look great, namely all of my digis. They seem to really like the intensity. My acros also seem to really like it. However, my slimer, and my green plate montis dont seem to like it. They grow ok, they just have lost alot of color.

 

[DitchPlains2]

jeeeze

jeeeze

David, while your colors are nice, they arent amazing. Your greens are a bit yellowish too if you ask me.

Man, nothing pleases you, christ lol. I'm not IWAN, or JOENY, I don't claim to be the best coral keeper, heck my tank before these pics has averaged an temp of 83.5 for the last week each day, cause I don't have a good a/c unit or chiller. Ny air temps have been rising like crazy in the past 2 weeks, summer is here now. So there are many reasons for poor coloration. I love my corals btw, sure many folks have much brighter corals, but I never had the brightest corals in my other tanks either. I am not a pro, just a novice only my 4th year keeping corals. Some of the guys who have amazing colors also have been in this hobby for 10+ years. Give me time., and I'll get it down right too. Just my two cents. I didn't see anything but improvement from my 3 150 watt HQI DE Phoniex14k's, now if that isnt the best Mh lighting for a 55 I am not sure what is besides 250's cooking it. I can say the t5 is my preference, for numerous reasons, but if someone wants to do a spectral analysis to show me the t5's are spiking or producing harmful uv's then I will buy into this, until then to it's called learning to keep corals better.

cheers guys
David

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Nicely said. There are enough incredible SPS tanks out there using T5's to demonstrate they are able to give the corals what they need to thrive. Lotsa other factors enter into the coloring of SPS.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Kurt

You ever try a straight actinic in your mix? I'd try swapping out an actinic plus for a pure actinic and see what happens, that would drop the PAR a bit at any rate. IME the actinic really pops greens but maybe that is what it will take to bring out the pink in the Birds Nest too.

 

[DitchPlains2]

Grim

Grim

Thanks, yea I agree I have 2 straight actinics and love the flouresence a lot. my zoos, montis, and gsp pop.

David

 

[Horace]

David, I am not bashing you at all... I dont claim to have any better colors than you man. I am just pointing out that many of us do not really know what "great" color really is because we rarely see it. My tank by no means demonstrates great color IMO. However, I am fortunate enough to see a tank that does have great color and about 1/2 of my corals came from that tank. So have the unique perspective of seeing what my corals true potential really is. If I were never to have seen the tank they came from, I would likely think my corlors are great...That is my only point man. I think your tank looks wonderful man....its just not at the "great" stage yet like most of us . Until I get those colors that I see in my buddy's tank, I will be looking to change it for the better. I guess I may be a bit pickier than most

Oh and for the record, my new order of T5s are arriving on Monday. Included are 2 UVL superactinics which I plan to run like so:

SA
AB
B+
AB
B+
SA

This will give my tank a bluer look and the colors should pop like crazy....

If my at that point my corals start growing super slow, I am either going to change to a halide/T5 setup, or I may consider overdriving the blue+/Actinic bulbs to get more punch out of them, yet still keeping that blueish look.