plancton
Active member
Yes, after 3 years of having T5s, I´ve decided to change to HQI.
I have 6x 80 watt t5s with independent parabolic reflectors and ICECAP ballasts.
My decision is due to the fact that coloration is not that great under T5.
I bought a collection of the most colorful and exotic corals and while acros remained as colorful as under MH everything else: zoos, and montis lost coloration and became pastel like in color, the superman monti from atlantis looks pastel, and the zoos remain small not opening much and with duller colors.
Grow is also slow.
I found out a few months back that my JBL alkalinity test was bad, and my alkalinity was low: 5.5 dkh, bought a new test and increased alkalinity to 10dkh, calcium was 450 mg/l, salinity was right, nitrates were 0, phosphates 0 etc.
And things started to color up again once the alkalinity issue was solved. But even though they colored up, they remained pastel like. The sunset monti was brown and pale.
I decided to change when I gave a frag of superman monti and the pale original sunset monti to a friend. They both had dull colors. But when I visited his tank, the superman had grown a lot and the colors were intense metallic and fluorescent, the growth on the superman was amazing, it trippled its size in 2 months, and the sunset that I gave him one week ago was already having the polyps more extended and yellow, and the body had began to turn orange.
All of his zoos looked very big, very open, and very colorful, I had some zoos that were the same and in my tank remain not very open, small and lack color.
He´s using one of those cheap oddyssea lamps, with the cheap bulbs it includes, and was adding the same seachem additives I had to my tank and had the same parameters.
That was the sign that I had to change, I´m buying a 72" oddyssea lamp, since its cheap and even if the ballast fail, replacing them is still cheaper than buying a luxury unit from the beggining.
I have 6x 80 watt t5s with independent parabolic reflectors and ICECAP ballasts.
My decision is due to the fact that coloration is not that great under T5.
I bought a collection of the most colorful and exotic corals and while acros remained as colorful as under MH everything else: zoos, and montis lost coloration and became pastel like in color, the superman monti from atlantis looks pastel, and the zoos remain small not opening much and with duller colors.
Grow is also slow.
I found out a few months back that my JBL alkalinity test was bad, and my alkalinity was low: 5.5 dkh, bought a new test and increased alkalinity to 10dkh, calcium was 450 mg/l, salinity was right, nitrates were 0, phosphates 0 etc.
And things started to color up again once the alkalinity issue was solved. But even though they colored up, they remained pastel like. The sunset monti was brown and pale.
I decided to change when I gave a frag of superman monti and the pale original sunset monti to a friend. They both had dull colors. But when I visited his tank, the superman had grown a lot and the colors were intense metallic and fluorescent, the growth on the superman was amazing, it trippled its size in 2 months, and the sunset that I gave him one week ago was already having the polyps more extended and yellow, and the body had began to turn orange.
All of his zoos looked very big, very open, and very colorful, I had some zoos that were the same and in my tank remain not very open, small and lack color.
He´s using one of those cheap oddyssea lamps, with the cheap bulbs it includes, and was adding the same seachem additives I had to my tank and had the same parameters.
That was the sign that I had to change, I´m buying a 72" oddyssea lamp, since its cheap and even if the ballast fail, replacing them is still cheaper than buying a luxury unit from the beggining.
