? on bleaching when switching to T5s

mcliffy2

New member
Question on lighting intensity - I think my Sfiligoi Stealth 12x54 is bleaching my corals. I had it about 7" above the water on my 26" deep tank, and full blast light was on about 10 hours/day. My corals were under a 400w XM 20k MH (although they had a week of reduced light as I got my tank setup). I moved it up to about 12", will this be high enough? Or should I reduce the photoperiod as well?

Oh yea, and bulb combo is 4 Blue Plus, 2 Fiji Purple, UV Aquasun, ATI procolor, 2 Aquascience Duo, ATI AB Special, Aquascience Special.
 
I am also getting a reduction in color after switching to T5 from 400 20k. I am only running 8 hours but I am closer to the tank. I am going to kick up my feeding and see if that helps.
 
400 W 20 K MH bulbs make colors pop more than any other bulb IMO. Also, you are making a drastic change not only in intensity but spectrum. I always start with a lesser photoperiod and great distance between source and surface when getting new lights. You then tweak from there. I suggest a more blue plus heavy arrangement....you don't really lose much intensity with them either.
 
I recently made a change similiar to yours. You might want to try reducing your photoperiod back to 7-8 hours. Another thing that has made an improvement in coloration is running more blue plus bulbs (which are spectrally almost identical to a 20K radium) in place of your aquasun and procolor. A combo I use that I really like in a 10 bulb fixture is 2x fiji purple, 1 or 2x UVL SA, and 6-7x blue plus. I am still getting good growth this combo as well. if you want to lighten it up some, start replacing the blue plus with aquablue specials.
Anyway, just my two cents worth, but this combo works well for me.
 
12x54.. Bet that looks nice!!! Reduce the photoperiod to 6-8 hours as suggested before. Increase the time over a few weeks
 
ok I'll reduce the photoperiod. I also have just ordered a couple geissman actinic plus, that I plan to swap out for a couple of the whiter bulbs. From what I understand these are similar to the blue plus (with slightly less PAR)?

FWIW I think colors pop more under blue plus than the XM 20k MH...I was running blue plus supplement on my old tank and liked the colors better under the blue plus, than when the 20k MH was on.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12663941#post12663941 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Primetime33
12x54.. Bet that looks nice!!! Reduce the photoperiod to 6-8 hours as suggested before. Increase the time over a few weeks

And yea, it does look nice IMO :)

IMGP2293.JPG
 
based on your photo your not heavily stocked (dont see a fish) so increasin your feeding along with adjustin your photoperiod might be needed. i have 6 t5s on my 40 breeder frag tank with a couple clowns for fish and have recently started upin my fish feedin and also started using some refrigerated rotifers from reef nutrition and my colors have started to come back nicely
 
Here is a link to a bunch of good T5 info that Grim had posted awhile back, along with many bulb pictures. Basically, the blue plus and aquablue special bulbs have only about 10% less PAR than the "white" bulbs, but the blue plus sure do make the greens, blues, and some of the reds pop!
A mix of blue plus with some fiji purples really seems to work well.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1159820


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12664474#post12664474 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mcliffy2
ok I'll reduce the photoperiod. I also have just ordered a couple geissman actinic plus, that I plan to swap out for a couple of the whiter bulbs. From what I understand these are similar to the blue plus (with slightly less PAR)?

FWIW I think colors pop more under blue plus than the XM 20k MH...I was running blue plus supplement on my old tank and liked the colors better under the blue plus, than when the 20k MH was on.
 
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