sps growth under t5's

[boodlefish]

ok experienced sps reefers i'm sure this has been addressed a hundered times or more but with the growing cost of electricity and popularity of t5 setups, i gotta ask for some pictures and oppinons on your t5 setups.

i am in the planning and buying stages of a 120 tech sps dominated (hopefully) reef build. i am seriously looking at the tech sunlight supply 8x 54 t5 set up.

anyone have any experience with this setup? any pics? or pics of any t5 setups?

common t5 useres i am giving you all a chance to show off what you got.

thanks

 

[kvosstra]

here's my small reef under 4x39 T5 - 2 blue plus, 2 aquablue special. I have plenty of growth and the color of the corals is really hard to beat. There are at least 10 types of montipora and 10 types of acropora in the tank. I have a KR2 calcium reactor and also use kalk for top-off. Lights are on for 9-10 hours a day.

 

[boodlefish]

allright kvosstra,

awsome tank! i'm guessing that this is your 40g sps?
how long has it been running?

keep the pics comming t5 users

thanks

 

[kvosstra]

Yep - thats a 40G - Its been running for about 2 years - the right side of the tank was "cleaned" of some cheep corals a few months ago and I added some nicer corals from my large tank (pink lemonade, oregon tort, cali tort, blue milli, green milli, pink milli, steve elias stag) - so it needs to grow in again.

I have had to add more flow as the corals grew in. I now have 2 Koralia 2's and 2 modded nano stream 9025. Return is through a mag 9.5 that is plumbed into a SCWD.

I am going to try to take pictures every month to chart the growth - should be fun!

 

[pancho]

Here are some pics of my 240 under all T5's.

 

[Mykel Obvious]

Tagging along as I hope to do a 120 upgrade with the 10 bulb ATI Powermodule (if I can swing the $$$$)

Looking good kvosstra! Keep us updated with growth pics

Pancho, what are your tank dimensions? Are you running two columns of 8 rows or is that 16 bulbs front to back????? What bulbs are you running (and in what order)... you have some really nice reds and pinks in there

Man I can't WAIT to do my upgrade

 

[kvosstra]

Thanks - Ill try to get some better pictures of my large tank - Its lit by 14x54 ATI powermodule...nice and bright.
-Kyle

 

[boodlefish]

pancho,
jaw dropping man! i almost thought you just had pinkis lights until i saw your green slimmer and cali tort (im guessing here) in there. unbelievable.

Kyle,
i honestly cant wait to see pics of your other tank, as well.

awesome so far, lets keep the pics coming, calling all t5 users i wanta see some action here!

 

[shag26272]

My growth with T5 is faster then any of the halide systems I have used.

 

[boodlefish]

really cool. do you have any pics?

i wanna see some pics!

 

[ooja3k]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13515653#post13515653 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kvosstra
here's my small reef under 4x39 T5 - 2 blue plus, 2 aquablue special. I have plenty of growth and the color of the corals is really hard to beat. There are at least 10 types of montipora and 10 types of acropora in the tank. I have a KR2 calcium reactor and also use kalk for top-off. Lights are on for 9-10 hours a day.

What fixture are you using?? Is it a retro? How high are your bulbs off the water??

Thanks!

 

[shag26272]

Bought this in July. They might not be in order, the last pic was taken about 2 weeks ago.

 

[boodlefish]

yeah and lets see the pics of your big tank.
with that crazy big 14x54 ATI powermodule.

 

[boodlefish]

shag26272, that is crazy 3 months of growth. really.

is that a sunset monti or a digita? insane PE too. nice pics

 

[shag26272]

some type of digi, Gustav also hit my tank and I lost all fish and acros. This one did well though.

Another frag I got the same day. Ignore the dinoflagellates, I am trying to kill them.

 

[kvosstra]

LOL...ill post next week - off to visit a client for a few days. The small tank has a 4x39 TEK fixture...nothing special. The lights are on the standard legs...

-Kyle

 

[deklin]

Here are a few of my corals under a 6 bulb Icecap retro setup. I'm pretty happy with my T5s and find that I get good growth.

Some general observations are that it provides much more uniform lighting than MH, this is good and bad. If you're setup to grow high ligh SPS, it can be difficult to find spots for low light coral placement.

 

[wramy]

Here is mine when I had 8 T5's on a 120. I have since switched back to MH.

 

[Gig 'em]

I don't have too many sps corals yet, but here are some in my system with T5's

 

[mcliffy2]

You guys are talking crazy stuff putting a 10x54w on a 120, I've got 12x54w on my 238g and it does nicely IMO a 6x39w ATI powermodule would be perfect, Tek retro, 8x39w. (I'm a big fan of leaving a little space not directly under the bulbs if you want anything but 100% SPS - you gotta have someplace for LPS and IME they have bleached whenever directly under T5s)

Shes still a young tank but here she is: