T5 for 180 gal

[icbic]

Hi Grim. I really need your help with my 180 gal with canopy.
How many bulbs, what wattage or size and what color combinations? In other words I need help with it all.
I would like to keep softies, LPS, and I doubt if I will want to keep SPS in the future.
I apologize if you have already answered this question before but I was unable to find it. The body of work you have done is appreciated by the whole reefing community. We are lucky to have you.

Thank You in advance icbic

 

[sjm817]

There are a few ways to go with 6' tanks. I went with 6 x 60" driven by 2 Ice Cap 660s for my 180. I also took advantage of Ice Cap's offer to sell pairs of 33" SLR reflectors at a discount. They dont make a 60" reflector and the SLS brand is not as good.

I'm currently running (3) ATI Blue+, (2) ATI Aquablue and (1) Giesemann 6000K Day. I had 1 Giesemann Pure Actinic in place of one of the Blue+, but didn't like it.

 

[TracyZeuner]

I have a 6ft 180 also. I dont have a hood so I went with a 72in Aquactinics fixture. It has 14 bulbs, this is my setup:
1 ATI Blue Plus
2 UVL Super Actinic
3 UVL Aqua Sun
4 ATI Aqua Blue
5 UVL Aqua Sun
6 UVL Super Actinic
7 ATI Aqua Blue

 

[vic8361]

I went with 6x60" bulbs with two icecap 660 ballasts and bought 8 four foot slr reflectors the two extra one's I cut down and extended the refectors to 70" . Came out great and I have pleaty of light I have some sps's almost at the bottom.

Vic

 

[sjm817]

Vic, what are you using for bulbs?
You have the reflectors longer than the bulbs? How does that work?

 

[vic8361]

LOL I ment 60"s actually it's less than that the bulbsd are a little shorter.

I used 3 actinic plus and 3 aquablue pluses
The color took a little getting used to.
I'm going to buy A super actinic and a ge 65k to play with the color as bit and see what I come up with.

Vic

 

[sjm817]

You cant get a UVL Super Super Actinic in 60". I have a Giesemann Pure Actinic and dont like it. Swapping out a aquablue for the GE sounds like a good idea. That would be the same setup I have except that I have a Giesemann 6000K Day.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Damn I must be living right

Glad I could answer your question

Adding the GE to the 50/50 actinic plus aquablue mix will give you a lot nicer look. I liked adding in a pure actinic as well, it really pops green fluorescing corals way better than just the actinic pluses.

 

[hahnmeister]

FWIW, look at the ultra-solaris units by fauna-marin.
http://www.aquariumobsessed.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=AO&Category_Code=FM-LX

Their 5' units are a steal (you could go with dual 4 bulb units, or a single 6 bulb... or if you want more light you could get two 6 bulb units (they are 11" wide, so 2 would fit over a 180). theur 5' units are the same price as a reefgeek Tek retro, but better after all (better reflectors, and you get the fixture box, not just a bunch of endcaps and such). the bulbs are included BTW, and active cooling is made possible by the awesome OSRAM thermal monitoring built into the ballasts.

Otherwise, in the past I have suggested usng a combo of 5' and 4' bulbs (so you can use the UVL superactinic) by running 3x5' bulbs on an Icecap 660 ballast at a slightly overdriven 100watts (from the stock 80 each). These bulbs are your daylight, and should be aquablues and sun bulbs. Then you can use 6x54wattT5s in between the 5' bulbs, staggered, for the bluer and actinic bulbs.

 

[sjm817]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8922500#post8922500 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Damn I must be living right

Glad I could answer your question

Adding the GE to the 50/50 actinic plus aquablue mix will give you a lot nicer look. I liked adding in a pure actinic as well, it really pops green fluorescing corals way better than just the actinic pluses.

Thought is was OK to post since I have the same setup.
I saw just the opposite. With the PA, it was blah. Didn't pop a thing. Very washed out looking. Replacing it with another Blue+ helped a lot. It seems the 2 B+ and 1 PA were not enough to overcome the 2 AB and Day bulb. Its still kind of washed out looking, but not as bad as before. I think adding some Actinic to what I have now would be an improvement,

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8922586#post8922586 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sjm817
Thought is was OK to post since I have the same setup.
I saw just the opposite. With the PA, it was blah. Didn't pop a thing. Very washed out looking. Replacing it with another Blue+ helped a lot. It seems the 2 B+ and 1 PA were not enough to overcome the 2 AB and Day bulb. Its still kind of washed out looking, but not as bad as before. I think adding some Actinic to what I have now would be an improvement,

Hey dont get me wrong, its great that you other guys have been using this stuff long enough to start feeling comfortable answering questions. I have never ran a 180 so all I can go by is what I've heard. If I was asking the question I would rather hear from people that had th same tank I did.

Lamp selection is personal taste. I thought having the pure actinic looked a lot better. It does in the 54 watt systems too. I wonder if you maybe got a hold of a bunk lamp or if it's just the corals you have.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8922510#post8922510 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
FWIW, look at the ultra-solaris units by fauna-marin.
http://www.aquariumobsessed.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=AO&Category_Code=FM-LX

Their 5' units are a steal (you could go with dual 4 bulb units, or a single 6 bulb... or if you want more light you could get two 6 bulb units (they are 11" wide, so 2 would fit over a 180). theur 5' units are the same price as a reefgeek Tek retro, but better after all (better reflectors, and you get the fixture box, not just a bunch of endcaps and such). the bulbs are included BTW, and active cooling is made possible by the awesome OSRAM thermal monitoring built into the ballasts.

Otherwise, in the past I have suggested usng a combo of 5' and 4' bulbs (so you can use the UVL superactinic) by running 3x5' bulbs on an Icecap 660 ballast at a slightly overdriven 100watts (from the stock 80 each). These bulbs are your daylight, and should be aquablues and sun bulbs. Then you can use 6x54wattT5s in between the 5' bulbs, staggered, for the bluer and actinic bulbs.

Do you know if they make a decnt looking fixture? My canopy is not holding up real well and I am toying with the Idea of going with a fixture of some sort.

 

[sjm817]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8922709#post8922709 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Hey dont get me wrong, its great that you other guys have been using this stuff long enough to start feeling comfortable answering questions. I have never ran a 180 so all I can go by is what I've heard. If I was asking the question I would rather hear from people that had th same tank I did.

Lamp selection is personal taste. I thought having the pure actinic looked a lot better. It does in the 54 watt systems too. I wonder if you maybe got a hold of a bunk lamp or if it's just the corals you have.

Dont know. I can say it does not pop anything like the UVL SAs did in my 90G. I never had the 54W version of the PA bulb, so no idea there. I have a really nice green frogspawn with purple tips, a green torch, green hammer. All of them look much better with the bulb change. The other color corals also look better. These were all transferred over from the 90G. Again, before it was really washed out, now it looks decent, but still not quite what I want. I'd like to add some good Actinic into the mix. Maybe a VHO UVL or a pair of 36" UVL SA's

 

[hahnmeister]

The ultra-solaris is their only model so far. I think its a decent looking enough fixture on its own, but if you want something nicer... you better call up your buddies at ATI... you know you want it. But Ill take the removable reflectors and waterproof endcaps of the fauna unit anyday.

At that, I have seen a couple people on the german boards simply take black acrylic... say 48"x8" strips for a 4' unit, and hang them on the front edge of these types of units for a nice look... you could even make ones for the ends to hide the endcaps if you like. It doesnt mess up the ventilation any. Heck, you could even weld-on the pieces into a solid skirt and then simply rest the fixture on top... its mounting lips at either end sitting on the acrylic.

Who knows... with how things went in 2006, maybe 2007 will be the year that more companies like Aquaconnect, Gro-Tech, Arc-Noah etc. will start importing to the US. Then we will have some really nice options for pimping with T5s...lol.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Or pray UVL brings out 60" lamps which I think will happen at some point. T5's are becomming pretty popular for big tanks.

 

[sjm817]

Lets hope so!
The 60" setups dont have the bulb choices that the shorter bulbs do.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8922864#post8922864 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
The ultra-solaris is their only model so far. I think its a decent looking enough fixture on its own, but if you want something nicer... you better call up your buddies at ATI... you know you want it. But Ill take the removable reflectors and waterproof endcaps of the fauna unit anyday.

At that, I have seen a couple people on the german boards simply take black acrylic... say 48"x8" strips for a 4' unit, and hang them on the front edge of these types of units for a nice look... you could even make ones for the ends to hide the endcaps if you like. It doesnt mess up the ventilation any. Heck, you could even weld-on the pieces into a solid skirt and then simply rest the fixture on top... its mounting lips at either end sitting on the acrylic.

Who knows... with how things went in 2006, maybe 2007 will be the year that more companies like Aquaconnect, Gro-Tech, Arc-Noah etc. will start importing to the US. Then we will have some really nice options for pimping with T5s...lol.

I wish I knew someone at ATI so I could get a deal

I actually like the looks of the Tek the best but unfortunatly....

I don't want to hang a fixture so the solaris wouldn't work out. If I go with another canopy I will stick with the T6's, these are cool.

 

[hahnmeister]

Well... its really just the UVL bulbs that dont come in 5'... which I can easily live without. I like the UV-A output of my G-man actinic03s better (it seems to make some corals really pop). The super-actinic is really the only bulb that some might miss in 5'...

whoopie.

You can always 'add on' a couple 4' T5s if you really need to anyways.

I do wonder about 5' T5s though. See... from the wattage/length standpoint, they have 16watts per foot, while 4'ers are at 13.5, and 3'ers at 13, and 2's have 12watts per foot. This means heat buildup and such could be greater with 5' bulbs than with the others, as 80watts would be the wattage for a 6' bulb going with the ratio that the shorter bulbs use.

Perhaps its partly sue to the 'true' length of the bulbs... since the ends o the bulbs are useless, meaning the 'true' bulb is really about 3" less, possibly 4", and keep in mind that every T5 is a good 1.5" shortert than its spec length. This would place the 2' bulb at a true length of 19.5, a 4'er at 43.5", and a 5' at 55.5". But even at these ratios, the 5' bulbs have a higher wattage/length than the others. The 5' bulb is at 1.44 watts per inch, and the 4' is at 1.24watts per inch.

This would suggest that the 5' bulbs may have a shorter life?!?!? I would imagine a higher wattage per length to cause more bulb wear after all...

 

[The Grim Reefer]

So I am not nuts, you like the actinic too

What I heard early on was the longer T5's were more efficient than the shorter ones and produced more intense light. Once you start overdriving the opposite is true.

 

[sjm817]

Well it sure doesn't make a thing pop in my tank. The same corals looked great in the 90G.

Maybe the single PA is just not enough. The AB and Day bulbs just wash it out. The other thing I notice is the B+ bulbs dont seem as blue as the 54w DDs were. Not sure if its an ATI Vs DD or 660 driven Vs Triad.