SPS on T5's Success

R

Reefing4Fun

New member
Does anyone have T5's for over a year now and are still happy with it?

How the growth of you SPS's like caps, mille's, and tort's. Mine have shown growth but very slow. I've heard some have had great successes with their T5's.

Show some of your T5 successes.
 
RC TOTM last year (May, I think?)....Danano's 110ga

Check out Iwans tank in the "large tank" forum.
 
Yea, I've seen the TOTM with T5's.... I've noticed that there aren't too many reefers that are on T5's with SPS's - or at least I can't search very well with RC's search function.

I'm just debating in adding more T5's from 4 to 6 across my 55 acrylic tank. I might add two more retros from TEK T5 retrofit.

Or I might upgrade to MH - though I'd rather stay with T5's.

I was hoping I can get a general idea on how many reefers actually use T5's and have success.
 
instead of adding more, get a 660 ballast to overdrive them and also run good reflectors like slr's. i had a 660 setup with slrs and had great growth, just wanted to go MH for my new 180, also i get better colors IMO

Tim
 
I know what zapata is talking about and I talked to Dan Gan about this. The T5's tend to result in kind of a "soft pastel" coloration. You can get GREAT color, but not that "pop" color that some people achieve with MH/VHO.

Recently I've heard many claim that T5 actinic is rather weak compared to VHO.
 
Im sorry but T5s are considered by some to be the BEST lighting out there. Especially for SPS. They will color a coral much more evenly than MH does. Only the top sides of corls on MH tanks get good color while on T5 tanks darn near the whole coral is colored up. This is becaue flourescents light the tank alot more evenly. If you run the properly you cant get any better colors PERIOD. It just depends on the tank and husbandry. If you look at Iwan's tank, you will see that T5 can achieve the very best any SPS tank has to offer.

Show me a MH tank that looks better than this one....PURE T5

DSC00977.JPG
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6860377#post6860377 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by onthefly
Recently I've heard many claim that T5 actinic is rather weak compared to VHO.
Click to expand...

I depends I have never liked the pink look from the URI VHOs. The blue antinics have more useful par compared to the more purple bulbs.
 
Covey could you please explain what you mean by this quote

"The blue antinics have more useful par compared to the more purple bulbs"

I have never heard that before and was curious about what that meant and where you obtained that information. I just recently added a T5 tank to my tank and am very impressed with its performance thus far.
 
Sorry, that was a stupid question. What threw me off was the term 'useful' as opposed to 'available'. I am familiar with the measurement and I guess when thinking about it, it is obvious that the blue bulbs put our a lot more light than the 03's.

I think what makes the '03's so popular is the way they can get the corals to flouresce. I have become quite partial to a mix between the aquablue bulbs and the 03 actinic when combined together.
 
Don't get me wrong Horace!

You can get great color......it is just a preference as to the "type" of color.

MH examples:
JBNY
gqjeff
Some of those japanese tanks
 
I'm working on designing my new 120G tank. I was just going to move me currently lighting over to it (2x 250wDE & 96w T5), but after doing a lot of reading and research on light with just T5's I think I might go with 8x 54w T5 setup over driven by Icecap 660's. My reasons for doing it is:

1) a lot less heat with the T5's therefore less cooling costs
2) cheaper to bulb replacements and they say you can go for around 2 yrs with the T5 bulbs so that saves even more.
3) better light coverage and no shadowed areas, this is due to the fact that the bulbs cover the whole tank and can be angles so that light is over the whole coral. This should give you better color through out the whole coral.
4) Easier to adjust and tweak lighting by just changing a bulb or two.
5) Less energy use.
6) Nice low canopy with T5's.

I'm sure there are other reasons but thats mine for now...

Rich
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6864970#post6864970 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by onthefly
Don't get me wrong Horace!

You can get great color......it is just a preference as to the "type" of color.

MH examples:
JBNY
gqjeff
Some of those japanese tanks
Click to expand...

FYI I live 20 mins from GQJeff... most of my frags come from him... his tank is UN FREGGIN REAL! I would not say its better colors than Iwan though. Its a bigger tank I thing (longer) and Jeff does have quite a bit more corals I think...I will tell you what, if I can get even close to either of those tanks I will be thrilled.

Jeff also runs 20k halides too btw. Not PAR monsters like 10ks. I would bet that his 20ks dont put out any more PAR at the sand bed (well his is bb) than Iwan's T5s.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6861003#post6861003 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Horace
Im sorry but T5s are considered by some to be the BEST lighting out there. Especially for SPS. They will color a coral much more evenly than MH does. Only the top sides of corls on MH tanks get good color while on T5 tanks darn near the whole coral is colored up. This is becaue flourescents light the tank alot more evenly. If you run the properly you cant get any better colors PERIOD. It just depends on the tank and husbandry. If you look at Iwan's tank, you will see that T5 can achieve the very best any SPS tank has to offer.

Show me a MH tank that looks better than this one....PURE T5

DSC00977.JPG
Click to expand...

It's all Subjective.
MH FTW!

Delbeek20010.jpg



Delbeek20013.jpg


Delbeek20009.jpg
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6868287#post6868287 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefing4Fun
D@##, some of those T5's are just un-believable. Holy cow!

Ti, what does FTW mean and is your tank pic under T5's or MH?
Click to expand...
That's MH
 
one thing about bost replacement cost. add it up, say you run aquablue bulbs at 30$ ea, thats 240$ each time to replace, and they dont give shimmer lines which really livens up a sps tank. run 2 250w halides over that same tank and now your bulbs cost is about the same maybe less depending on bulbs.

Tim
 
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