T-5 light bulb selection advice sought?

[Trex420]

Well I broke down and bought fossill's T5 6 bulb teklight fixture. Now the decision on what combo of bulbs to use in the 6 light setup. Any recommendations from anyone? I had thought about 4 54W T5 HO 10,000 Daylight SlimPaq Lamps and 2 54W T5 HO 460 nm Actinic SlimPaq Lamps from www.thatpetplace.com (I need to order a return pump also). Any thoughts on the light selection? Would an even combo, 3 and 3, be better? Is it better to have the 4 daylight lamps to help corals grow instead of an additional actinic to just make corals look colorful?
Also I know Eric (emoutz) has said he had had good luck with SPSs under that amount of T-5 light in his 55 gal. Do you all think SPSs will do good under the same light in a 75 gal? Thanks in advance and thanks again fossill (James)!

Tom

 

[artful-dodger]

If you want to spend some time getting experts' opinions (as well as others' questions) on T-5 light combinations here's the thread to do it.

Just a bit over 50 pages currently...

 

[emoutz]

Tom - check out the t-5 thread by grimreefer in the lighting forum - more than you'd ever want to know about T-5s. I run 3 GE 6,500 bulbs, 2 11000k "aquablue plus" and 1 pure actinic bulb over my 90 gallon. Under the current setup, I'm growing a few acros and montis (some at mid-tank level) - and all are doing great.

I'm going to switch out 1 GE bulb for another aquablue and possibly switch out another GE bulb for a pure actinic.

All that being said, you probably only need two actinics. I'd use those in the first and last socket (so you can turn them on/off independently for a dusk/dawn effect).

Other than that, read up on the grimreefer thread. There are specific bulbs that are better than others, so I'd check the thread for both brand and wavelength specs.

Eric

 

[larryl]

I'm not familiar with the bulbs you mentioned, I got mine at Aqualux Lighting (http://www.aqualuxlighting.com/465inlint5ho.html).

I did a lot of reading in the lighting forum and went with this 4-bulb arrangement over my 50 (18" deep):

ATI 20,000K Blue Plus (also sold as D&D Actinic+)
GE 6500K Starcoat (very high PAR)
ATI 10,000K AquaBlue (60% actinic, 40% white)
ATI 20,000K Blue Plus (also sold as D&D Actinic+)

It gives a real nice color balance without being too blue, but the colors still "pop". My SPS are growing like crazy, you will probably have no trouble with 6 bulbs over a 75.

For a 6-bulb setup people in the forum recommended something like this:

ATI 20,000K Blue Plus
ATI 10,000K AquaBlue
GE 6500K Starcoat
ATI 20,000K Blue Plus
ATI 10,000K AquaBlue
ATI 20,000K Blue Plus



Larry

 

[emoutz]

Another thought - get an acrylic shield for your light if it didnt come with one. You lose a bunch of light to salt buildup on bulbs and reflectors.

 

[Trex420]

"get an acrylic shield for your light if it didnt come with one. You lose a bunch of light to salt buildup on bulbs and reflectors"

Do you use a glass or plastic cover for the top of your tank Eric? I have the shield that came with it but it is warped so I had thought of not using it. I figured the tank cover would protect the light fixture. I don't want to get the fixture salty as it is in really good shape.

"6-bulb setup people in the forum recommended something like this"

Larry thanks for condensing what could have been a long read that I wasn't looking forrward to.

 

[emoutz]

Nope - never had a glass or plastic cover (which is why I needed the shield). I'd still try to use the shield if I were you - the tek reflectors are what makes their t-5 lights so powerful. If they get tarnished ....