T5 lighting for a 90 - best setup?

[CaptainDave]

my tank will be mostly SPS, so I posted here

I currently have an IceCap 660, and two IceCap reflectors. I will be inheriting two Tek reflectors soon. I have a bead on a used Tek 8 bulb hood, but can't decide if eight normally driven bulbs would be better than 4 overdriven and two normally driven bulbs, or 6 or 8 overdriven bulbs.

This is going over a 90 gallon tank (24 inches).
let me know what you guys think!

 

[CaptainDave]

any thoughts on whether normally driven bulbs will have a hard time penetrating to the bottom of a 24" deep tank? i plan on SPS top to middle, with some LPS on the bottom.

 

[ikn0xl]

I have the 8x54 watt NOVA extremes and am partly satisfied, they are bright but it doesnt have that extra Bang for the buck feeling.
I just purchased the Reefstar 2x250watt HQI 14K pendants and they will arrive Thursday, cant wait to see the before and after comparisons.

BTW I HATTTTTTTTTTTTTTE the daylight 10K's on the T5's they are extremely ugly.

Regards


Sev

 

[CaptainDave]

thanks for the input Sev.

i'm just trying to decide on how many bulbs and whatnot. right now, I'm leaning to six bulbs. I'm trying to decide if it;s worth it to buy another IceCap ballast to overdrive those last two. anybody have an opinion? anybody running T5s on a 90?

 

[dvanacker]

I imagine 4 overdriven and 2 normal would put about the same amount of par as 8 normal driven.

I would definately pic between these two.

 

[CaptainDave]

thanks for the input, 'nacker. i think 4 OD + 2 ND is my cheapest option right now, too.

 

[CaptainDave]

well, 8 bulb fixture fell through, so I think the most economical is definitely 4 overdriven and two regular driven. i guess i could always squeeze two more in later if i need to.

 

[naterd1976]

I have a 90 with the 6 bulb set up. I use 2 Icecap ballasts. I have 2 bulbs on the 430 ballast (430 will only light 2 54w T5's) and 4 on the 660 ballast. Pretty happy with it, although I'm still searching for the perfect combination of bulbs. I hear some new T5 bulbs are going on the market soon that will bring some improvements.

 

[CaptainDave]

thanks for the first-hand experience naterd. what kind of corals do you keep? do SPS grow well? are you having any trouble torching lower light corals like some others are?

thanks!

 

[Chip Douglas]

Danano is using 9 high output T5's on his 110 which is 22" tall. I pm'd him to get his opinion on using that same set-up on a 120 which is 24" tall and he feels that using 9 would still be sufficient. He's using 6 white and 3 blue with reflectors. I believe the key is to have them close to the surface, I think his are 3" off the surface right now.

Check out his TOTM thread here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=541121&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

The last few pages have his most recent updates.

 

[dvanacker]

Ya he is using 9 bulbs.....but his tank is 24" wide and a 90g is only 18".

You couldnt even fit 9 if you tried.

 

[CaptainDave]

I could squeeze 8 into my canopy if I use 4 IceCap reflectors and 4 Tek reflectors, but that has lights going from one edge to the other, and i'm not sure how much those two on the end would actually do. that's another reason i was leaning towards 6

 

[CaptainDave]

oh, and thanks for the link Chip

 

[dvanacker]

Oh and I forgot to mention Danao just added the 9th bulb. When his tank was TOTM he had only 8.

 

[naterd1976]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7210224#post7210224 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CaptainDave
thanks for the first-hand experience naterd. what kind of corals do you keep? do SPS grow well? are you having any trouble torching lower light corals like some others are?

thanks!

I haven't really torched anything, I currently have a bunch of SPS frags that are growing like crazy. I have Zoa's, a few shrooms, Xenia, and a couple Acan frags. Tank is only a year old so most of my stuff is still frags. The only thing I noticed is that some of my SPS seems faded, their growing like crazy, but the vibrant color just isn't there. I suspect the "color" of light I have going. I guess it could also be the intensity of the T5's on individual reflectors in combo with the overdriven bulbs with the Icecap ballasts. I have thought about raising my canopy a couple of inches to see if that makes a difference.

I personally would go with 6 bulbs, one over driven ( icecap 660, 4 bulbs) and one not overdriven for the actinics. I personally wouldn't add more that 6 bulbs in a 24" wide canopy. I can take pics later tonight to show you my setup.

 

[CaptainDave]

sorry, I just realized my first post was somewhat misleading. This will be a regular sized 90, i.e. 18 inches fron to back and 24 inches tall.