T5 Lighting May Be For You

[H2OLUVSME]

how'd you make out at the swap RJ? any goodies?

 

[rjwilson37]

What are you guys feeding your frogspawns? Do you target feed them?

I direct feed the H2Phyto product to my frogspawn and other LPS, as well as direct feed it to my clams and feather duster. I do this about 2 times a week.

H20LUVSME: All my frags sold that I brought and I picked up a bright green Montipora Digitata. So now I have a brown, orange and green digitata colony. Well, the green is just one piece right now, but I am hoping it will be a nice colony in 4-6 months.

 

[Dr]

Montipora Digitata is next on my list.

Do you have them in a high flow area?

 

[rjwilson37]

My Digi's are in different area's, but the higher flow area's get more/faster growth.

 

[rjwilson37]

Hey Everyone, My tank made TOTM on Ultimate Reef, here is a link.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/

 

[H2OLUVSME]

congrats RJ!!! :thumbsup::thumbsup: two thumbs up! that is much deserved for you.

 

[Dr]

SWEET! Congratulations!

 

[rjwilson37]

Thanks, getting TOTM at Ultimate Reef means a lot and makes me feel good.

http://www.ultimatereef.net/

 

[superswimmer]

Wonderful! You deserve it! I loooooooovvvve you tank. It's amazing!

 

[Avi]

Bravo, RJ

 

[NeilPearson]

This thread was a major factor in my decision to go with T5 lighting.

I have 8 - 39 watt bulbs and 8 - 54 watt bulbs for about 750 watts.

84" is a weird tank length so I had to go with these 2 lengths of bulbs and install them like this:

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This tank is pretty young and I just put in my first SPS frags two months ago but they have all encrusted well and I'm seeing great growth already.

You can see here that it was already starting to encrust over the crazy glue after the first week:

Anyway, I'm really happy with the T5's

 

[rjwilson37]

This thread was a major factor in my decision to go with T5 lighting.

Anyway, I'm really happy with the T5's

That is just great NeilPearson, your tank looks wonderful, I love the Aquascaping. What is the bulb combination that your using? I have 2 Aquablue 11k, 1 Blue Plus, and 1 Actinic 03 which is a more blue/white look more to the blue side.

 

[NeilPearson]

Thanks!

It probably looks a little more blue than that in person (camera white balancing)

I am using 11k and Actinic 03 (8 of each)

 

[rjwilson37]

Your tank looks sweet, but I bet it would look better if you swapped out 4 of the Actinic 03 for the Blue Plus. I don't think the Actinic 03's are very blue, they are more of a light blue/green, but the Blue Plus's are very blue.

This is just my opinion of course, but I am contemplating when I do my bulb switchover in November by replacing my one Actinic with a Blue Plus. This would mean that I will be running 2 11k and 2 Blue Plus, but since things are doing well, why rock the boat. If we did not rock the boat we may not know as much as we know today about this hobby, we just don't want to crash the boat.

 

[NeilPearson]

Come to think of it, I am not sure which actinics I got. When I ordered originally I was going to get both but they were out of one kind so I just went with the ones they had in stock... And I'm not sure which ones those were. I'll have to check it when I get home.

Photography is so misleading with the color balancing. This is the same lighting two months earlier when I first added it without any color balancing:

In person, I think the color is somewhere between these 2 pictures

 

[rjwilson37]

I increase my shutter speed by 1.5 steps which on my camera is the exposure compensation setting to -1.5. This does not let as much light in and shows more color from the tank, not a white washout look. I also do not use the flash when taking pictures of the tank.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Tank looks sweet NP, I like the open area above the rock instead of a wall of rock to the lights.

Congrats RJ!

CHeck out the Helios superblue lamp when it's time to relamp, these things are insane

 

[NeilPearson]

Tank looks sweet NP, I like the open area above the rock instead of a wall of rock to the lights.

Thanks, I need to leave some open areas so my tiny little frags can grow up

 

[JamisonRD]

Hey everyone, I'm about to make the plunge into T5 lighting, and I have a few easy questions! I've got a standard 55g tank, and I really, really like the look of an open top, so a canopy is out (and I prefer a pre-fabricated fixture). That being said, I'm basically limited to the Sunlight Supply Tek hood (48"), with 4 bulbs (54w per bulb)... as the six bulb setup just won't fit. I'm really only trying to keep a few moderately sized fish with a bunch of Zoa's in this particular tank. So, before I place my order, I'm curious to get your opinions on what lamps you would use to get the best colors out of the polyps (and keep the fish looking good, although that really isn't light dependind). I'm not a big fan of the really yellow looking tank... but looking for some answers from those who know best!

Thanks to all in advance!

Cheers - Jamison

 

[Fishy1]

I've got a 55 too and really like my T-5's. I started out with a true 03 atinic, 1 sun, 1 blue plus, and 1 aquablue. That was 6 months ago. Since then I've come to the conclusion things look too yellow with the sun bulb. I just switched it out a few days ago for another aqua blue. I like the look very much right now. I do think when the bulbs are due for changing I'll replace the actinic 03 with a blue special. The actinic 03 isn't very bright. I'll be running 2 blue specials and 2 aqua blues when all is said and done. HTH

Janey