New Lights

[kodiak23]

From the advice of many of you I've finally added some T5's to my reef.
I've been seeing good growth with just LED's, and great blue and green colors from the corals, but wanted to add some additional spectrum to get additional colors from my SPS. Ill let you know how it goes over the next few weeks\months.

This pic is with 6 ATI bulbs and 2 Blue Reef Brite XHO strips.

 

[AMAYEU]

Wow... nice pic and thanks for sharing.

What size and kind of tank is it? Looks acyrlic...

 

[kodiak23]

Wow... nice pic and thanks for sharing.

What size and kind of tank is it? Looks acyrlic...

Thanks. This is the ADA 120P - 48x18x18 - 65 Gallons - Low Iron Glass all the way around.

 

[AMAYEU]

Love ADAs... could of just looked at the logo on the bottom right.:headwallblue:

 

[coonasssaint]

Very nice tank, I really like the rimless look

 

[Grant W]

Nice job Cody. Hope you get the color you're after.

 

[GiantBen]

Which 6 ATI bulbs are you running?

 

[northbay-reefer]

That is a great color combination Cody. You made a great choice. LEDs are great but at this point they are better as supplement lights.

 

[kodiak23]

Thanks all.
My ATI bulbs are....
4-Blue Plus
1-Purple Plus
1-Aquablue

Was thinking about getting an Actinic bulb, but the Blue Plus seems to include that spectrum. Correct me if I am wrong. Or let me know if and why I should include an Actinic bulb.

Also, now that I've had the T5's for a few days, I've tried the tank without the Reef Brite LED's, I am thinking I dont need the Reef Brites anymore. I love the look I am getting in the tank with just T5's and it seems like plenty of light for my tank. 6x54=324 watts for a 65 gallon tank. Any reason you think I should keep the LED's?

It would also be nice to sell the LED's, to get $700-800 in my pocket.

 

[GiantBen]

You are correct, the Blue+ gets down to the violet spectrum. I doesn't peak there, but I think with four of them, you should be fine. I ran some UVL Super Actinics for a while, but ended up pulling them. I am currently running 2xCoral+ and 4xBlue+. I've kept trying to add the purple+ into the mix, but just always feel like it makes my acans all washout in a medium red, where the blue seems to make them look more interesting. I may try it again. Here is a link with all the ATI spectrums, in case you haven't run across it before.

http://atinorthamerica.com/bulbs.php?tabbedtabs=0

 

[Reef Bass]

Whether you retain the LEDs or not, get rid of the watts per gallon thinking for lighting. It doesn't take depth into account.

 

[Danny Luu]

overflow looks a lot nicer! :thumbsup:

 

[kodiak23]

overflow looks a lot nicer! :thumbsup:

Thanks, it took a while but well worth it.

 

[kodiak23]

My brand new ATI Purple Plus bulb didnt work when I received it, so the vendor sent me a new one. Any suggestions on what I should do with the bulb. Can I just throw it in the trash? Or does it need to be recycled?

 

[northbay-reefer]

My brand new ATI Purple Plus bulb didnt work when I received it, so the vendor sent me a new one. Any suggestions on what I should do with the bulb. Can I just throw it in the trash? Or does it need to be recycled?

Have you tried it on a different position inside the hood to make sure it's really is bad? To throw it away properly you need to take it to a collection center since it contains mercury.