T5 and SPS

[tibbs2]

I am thinking of adding two more t5 bulbs to my tank in order to get better colors from SPS.

Currently I have 4-54 watt bulbs powered by an icecap ballast.

The bulbs I have are
Aquablue
BluePlus
Aquablue
BluePlus


The Bulbs I was thinking of adding were
6500 GE Daylight - for growth and color of the SPS
Blue Plus - for a little more blue light to make the corals flouresce more.


Any T5 guys here have any opinion on this selection?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Ball]

From my past experiance when I used to run T5's, I wouldnt recomend the GE 6500K bulb. The reason? I had a strip of hair algae growing from one end of the tank to the other that was directly under the GE bulb. I had a 6 bulb fixture and there was no algae in the tank except for directly under that bulb. Im sure there might have been some problem that let the algae grow in the first place, but it was the GE bulb that brought it out. After I replaced the GE bulb, the algae went away.

Just my story...

 

[rc1214b]

I run 4 over my 75 and don't think you really need anymore unless you want more bulb options. Right now I have 3 actinic + and 1 aquablue. If your water is really clear it will penetrate better.

When you say better colors are they brown?

 

[slovan]

rc1214b, do you feel 4 bulbs is enough for a 75 gallon to keep SPS? Also, do you have another tank using MH?

 

[rc1214b]

I do feel 4 overdriven T5's on SLR's is enough. In fact my lights are about 10 inches off the surface. I have quite a few nice corals at the lower end and they are nicely colored IMO.

I only run my MH just to mix things up on the coral, I haven't turned it on since last Fri now that I think of it. If someone has a meter I would love to take some readings and compare with others in the area.

 

[Philby]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11082205#post11082205 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by slovan
rc1214b, do you feel 4 bulbs is enough for a 75 gallon to keep SPS? Also, do you have another tank using MH?

I'm hoping that 4x39W overdriven is enough to keep SPS in my 70 gallon that I'm currently setting up.

I feel pretty confident that 4x54W is from the research I've done, but my tank is only 3' wide so that's why I've got the 39W bulbs (plus I was originally going to setup a 40B at 16" tall instead of the 25" height I've got now).

If necessary I'm going to add 2 normally driven bulbs which will definitely be enough...but I'm hoping I don't have to do so (I'd rather spend that $100 on coral!!)

 

[slovan]

Hey Phil, you're probably right that it'll be enough. However, I'm still not sold on the coloration of SPS using strictly T5's. I've used a 6-bulb Tek Light over my old 120 and never cared for it. It seems like my corals did better(color and growth) under MH. But I guess every system is different.

I hope you can get by with your current plan. I know Tinytool will still tell you 400W MH is the way to go. :lol:

 

[Philby]

Depending on the situation I would tend to agree with him!

For my tank's footprint T5s make sense - but for a 120 I think I'd probably choose 2x400w MH (if SPS dominated of course)

 

[rc1214b]

I agree some T5 fixtures are not very good and hurt the overall opinion of T5's. If your not using individual reflectors your really limiting the bulbs potential.

I also think too many people throw a big wattage MH bulb over their tank thinking it will give them the best color, if people spent a few weeks trying to improve their clarity and nutrient levels they would be surprised what a smaller wattage bulb could do.

 

[tibbs2]

4 bulbs are enough to keep an SPS alive. Will it be as colorful as it was in the tank that had metal halide bulbs in it? Probably not. At least that was my experience from the SPS I received from others at previous frag auctions. I have a purp montipora growing about 5 inches from the light. It is purplish but not as purple as it could be.


For my next tank I will go Metal Halide but this one will stay T5.
I know you can get good coloration and growth from T5. I remember an awesome TOTM on RC that was all T5. The guy was in Europe somewhere. I'll have to see if I can find it.

 

[rc1214b]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11082607#post11082607 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tibbs2
4 bulbs are enough to keep an SPS alive. Will it be as colorful as it was in the tank that had metal halide bulbs in it? Probably not. At least that was my experience from the SPS I received from others at previous frag auctions. I have a purp montipora growing about 5 inches from the light. It is purplish but not as purple as it could be.


For my next tank I will go Metal Halide but this one will stay T5.
I know you can get good coloration and growth from T5. I remember an awesome TOTM on RC that was all T5. The guy was in Europe somewhere. I'll have to see if I can find it.

There are many nice tanks that use both types. If I had a large and deep tank I would use MH as my main light. I think one advantage to T5's would be if your running multiple bulbs you can tweak the spectrum to suit your needs.

I'm curious though what your not happy with as far as coloration. Is the purple I assume digitata purple but not intense? Or is it kinda purple and kinda brown?

 

[tibbs2]

Actually this month's TOTM Is T5 lighting only. He's running 28 54 watt bulbs on it!

My colors aren't holding for other SPS coral. Last year I bought a yellow milli at the frag auction and it started to turn green. Also the monti's purple isn't intense. That's it. It's purplish brown. Before I could monitor it more, my ballast broke and I lost all my frags.

From what I understand more output equals brighter color. If you take a look at Reefermadness's corals. They are very very colorful. Many people thought they enhanced the color through photoshop. But it turns out they have 1000 watt metal halide lamps on them which gives them their great color.

 

[rc1214b]

Purple Digitata's are very sensitive to water quality IMO.. Have you tested PO4 or NO3?

If you had a yellow milli and it's turning to green it's hard to say. The coral could be producing more green pigment to adjust to your lighting or it could also be a nutrient issue.

 

[tibbs2]

I have in the past. Not recently though.

The milli and other sps frags died when the ballast broke but it seemed all the coral was turning color. My nutrients were high at that time and I had a macro algae problem. I've add the reactor and upgraded skimmer since then. I'll measure my nutrients tonight.

I should also add that I have two crocea clams in the tank that I added early summer. They have grown a few new layers of scuta and they seem to be retaining their blue and purple colors.

I haven't tried to add any nice SPS since I've upgraded the skimmer and add the reactor. Maybe they would be OK now.

Another reason I would like brighter light is to possibly slow the growth of my mushrooms and ricordeas. Right now my tank is infested with them. I cut them away with razors and kalk them but there are still hundreds of them.

 

[rc1214b]

More output doesn't always mean brighter color, we are probably giving many types of sps more than they need and others not enough. When you approach photoinhibition you are risking bleaching the coral if it becomes stressed.

If you have the "pastel" look and want to deepen color feeding the tank is a good way to do it, although you don't want to raise PO4 or NO3 while doing it.

I think you should save your money instead of buying more T5's check your parameters, get them all in check, work on water clarity and see what some sps do in your tank.

 

[tibbs2]

That may not be a bad idea. I'll check my nitrates and maybe snag a frag off of someone and see how it does.

Thanks

 

[Double-J]

I've ran t5 only tanks and had t5's over my prop tank till I just recently changed it out for MH. I'm not a fan. After looking at my tank now vs my previous tank with T5's I wouldn't use T5 only. I think they are fine for actinics but still not as good as VHO's for the actinics look IMO.

No doubt I've seen some incredible tanks with T5's only, like the tank of the month. I'm not sure what they are doing to get color and growth that amazing so they do work obviously, but I've never had anything near that incredible with them, then again I can't get some of those awesome colors with MH either.

Also all my T5 setups have been overdriven by Icecap ballasts with SLR reflectors.

 

[dascharisma]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11084299#post11084299 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tinytool
I've ran t5 only tanks and had t5's over my prop tank till I just recently changed it out for MH. I'm not a fan. After looking at my tank now vs my previous tank with T5's I wouldn't use T5 only. I think they are fine for actinics but still not as good as VHO's for the actinics look IMO.

No doubt I've seen some incredible tanks with T5's only, like the tank of the month. I'm not sure what they are doing to get color and growth that amazing so they do work obviously, but I've never had anything near that incredible with them, then again I can't get some of those awesome colors with MH either.

Also all my T5 setups have been overdriven by Icecap ballasts with SLR reflectors.

I too have used both and prefer halides. I know that lots of tanks look amazing that use T5s. For me however, I haven't been able to get results that are as good with T5s as they were with halides.

I think that water quality affects a coral's lighting needs. Therefore, some tanks might do better with one type of lighting or another. For the water quality in my tank, I think halides look better. It sounds like JJ has experienced the same thing. Other's tanks might look better T5s.



As for the original post, I think that as long as you are running a sufficient number of non-actinic bulbs, you should be fine (assuming good water quality). Just adjust your photo period to fine tune your coloration. Remember that whiter bulbs will make red and pink corals look better, and blue bulbs will really make greens stand out.

Brad

 

[vvolfe1]

I have 4 T5's on my 90. I have 2-B+, 1-11k, and 1-6.5k GE. I only have a few SPS and all seem to be fine. They were all brown sticks when I got them. The purple digi is turning more purple every day. The one is now blue and green. The only one not turning bright is a pink "cats paw"? I do not have any hair algea except in my overflow. I've been thinking of adding 2 more also but was thinking an actinic and another B+ or a 11k. My SPS are right under the 6.5k. Maybe your yellow milli needs a different spectrum?

 

[Covey]

I use to be the "T-5 guy" and now run 400W MH so I know both sides of the story.

Four overdriven T-5s are more than enough to keep SPS in a 75G. That was in fact what the same exact T-5 setup I was running in my last tank.

Like rc said the "pastel look" is a nutrient thing.

To me PAR is PAR and unless Grim has been lying to use most decent T-5HO rigs can throw as much if not better numbers than MH at far less wattage.

If you looking to round out the look with a few more bulb you add purple actinics Like the URI or the Aquascience bulbs.

Also a farely interesting bulb that has come out recently is the red bulbs. The only supplier I found right away was Zeo
http://www.zeovitusa.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=ZUSA&Category_Code=RedSpec
The people that have used them said they helped red and orange corals pop and the tend to get washed out in a overly blue bulb bend.

I have used both and honestly would prefer BOTH in a display.

Glimmers line are nice and MH always seem to have a crispness to that is ascetically pleasing to me but MH by it self is to shadowy for my taste and everything grows to the point source. You end up with unnatural growth patterns.

T-5 only is honestly duller looking in my opinion but you can get some glimmers with good surface movement. Like I said PAR is PAR and you get a lot more natural growth patterns with even light distribution . When I get my frag tank set up the overdriven T-5 are coming back out of retirement.