t5 lighting and lps

[coralville]

I have a 45 gallon LPS -only reef (36L X 12W X 24H) lit by 2 X 96W PC lighting. Under the current lighting my corals are surviving OK but not growing, and 1 of the hammers is even bleaching a little. (I do feed my corals about 1x week, but the hammers and frogspawn don't seem to accept the food).

I want to upgrade my lighting to a Aquatinics 5 X 39W t5 fixture. Opinions? Too much light? How do your LPS like the t5 lighting?

 

[jaymz101]

i STARTED WITH THE SAME TYPE OF LIGHT SETUP ASND WENT TO A 4X39w tEK SETUP. mY lps HAVE NEVER LOOKED BETTER AND THEY ARE GROWING LIKE MAD. (Oops sorry bout the caps) Ive got a stand of Candycane and a Trachy Brain. Just make sure you ease them into the change and they should do fine. Either use a screen to dim the lights at frirst or go to a shorter photoperiod and slowly (over a few weeks) ease them into the full light. as soon as I figure out how to post some pics you can take a look at mine. T5 was the best decision (and arguably the only good decision) I ever made.

 

[coralville]

Great, thanks for the response! What bulbs are you using? Did any of your lps change color or are they the same color but lighter?

 

[Serioussnaps]

blue plus heavy for lps ....no need for the sun bulbs either ...maybe an aquablue

i prefer ATI brand...but thats my preference..i really enjoy their blue plus bulbs and so do my acros...i keep blastos on my BB substrate(glass substrate)

 

[jaymz101]

2 Actinic + (blue bulb) and 2 Aquablue + (11000K ??) All Geissmann bulbs. Tank looks great. Great colors, great growth on all of my corals. Of course, coloration is a personal preference so you might want to look at a bunch of differentwavelengths before making a decision. Ask over at the lighting forum or on here for tank pics and light descriptions and go with whatever you like best.

To answer your other question, I think they lightened up a little bit but the colors seem more intense than under the PC.

 

[Ti]

it can b too much for them.

 

[coralville]

OK, thanks everyone for the info!

 

[salt lick]

my hammer is directly under a 1000 watt 14k Hamilton MH and has been growing fast for 2.5 years. I dont think its too much.