T5 Lighting May Be For You

Nice tank!

My T5's were too much for the GSP and actually killed the stuff once I moved it up on the rocks. You might try a littleon the back side of the overflow tubes and see if that helps it take off.
 
My Green & Pink SP's have always done great from mid tank and below. Any higher than that and they seem to not flourish (lighting obviously). The second pic I posted was showing them actually attaching to the riser tubes. Getting them to stick to the riser tubes was a big challenge until there was coraline alge coating them - now the SP's can't tell the difference between rock and tube.

I think the lighting is going to prevent them from going all the way to the top, but time will tell. The tank is very stable now and I don't stick my hands in it anymore unless something falls (damn snails). I just make sure that Kalk is in good shape (reactor), do water changes monthly, replenish evaporation, and feed zoo & phyto along with some brine shrimp. Pretty simple deal.

System Design:
-70Gal bow front with 20Gal custom sump
-80lbs live rock w/ 120lbs of live sand
-Two 402 Powerheads
-EuroReef Skimmer
-Koraline Calcium Reactor
-No fuge
-No target feeding

If I had it all to do over again I would do it the same way except I would have a closed loop setup for flow and do it in a bigger tank so that my rock-work wasn't laying against the back wall. Additionally - the bow front tank really makes viewing difficult, I wouldn't do that again. We just got a new 90 for our FO tank (to replace the oak System II junk tank), but the lady of the house wouldn't let me move the reef into it.

This tank is just what I wanted for my reef - but my agressive fish now own it:
DSCF2173.jpg


DSCF2200.jpg
 
I figured I would throw this out there, where someone asked me a question about T5 lighting and what they should do. I hope my understanding is correct and good enough to present this so other's can understand what were trying to do with our lighting.

I only have 4 bulbs over my tank which take up about 12" of the 18" front to back width of my tank. I have 3" up front and 3" in back that don't get as much direct light for corals that don't like as much light, this is why my brain corals are all the way up front.

There are Blue Plus T5's which are very blue and there are Actinic T5's which are not as blue and maybe a hint on the green side. The Blue Plus are suppose to bring out the blues in hard corals and the Actinic are suppose to bring out the Florescence in corals. I have 2 11k bulbs which are very white with a hint of blue, 1 Blue Plus and 1 Actinic. My tank is slightly on the blue side I think, but that is the way I like it, especially since I only have 4 bulbs. If I switch out one of the 11k white bulbs for a 6.5k Sun bulb, then I am on the yellow side of things which I did not like as much, but a lot say that the Sun brings out more yellows and reds from corals, where to much Sun (yellow 6.5k bulbs) then your corals start to turn to the brown side.

There is a balance that we all try to play in what looks pleasant to our eyes as well as what is healthy for the corals. Through a lot of reading, I have found that the 11k white T5 bulbs supposedly have more pars (light output) to the corals than the Sun T5 bulbs, not by much but a little more. This high par output is good and healthy for corals that need a lot of light, especially like your Maxima and Crocea clams. If you have to much blue light to bring out the coral colors it may not be enough par (light output) to keep the corals healthy as well as promote more growth.

I am looking at moving to a new custom acrylic which will be 2" more width from front to back, so I will probably go with a 6 bulb T5 setup from Tek-Light. Being I will have an extra Blue Plus in the mix with 2 11k's, 2 Blue Pluses, 1 Actinic, I may put a Sun bulb in there for the 6th bulb just to see what it does for me. If I don't like it in the mix I will just swap it out for an 11k. I want to make sure that I have enough pars of light to keep the corals healthy and growth is good as well as have some nice color.

I hope all this helps you out.
 
i have t5's and rj was my inspiration, here are my observations:
had a 50 gal w/lps and shrooms and 4 3 foot t5 bulbs, color was far superior to my pc's, but things were not growing esp brain and shrooms.
i changed to a 30 gallon, raised the t5's from 2" above tank to 6" above and only run the center 2 bulbs. only been a weak but everything doing much better, my more sensitive shrooms have doubled in size and alot more colorful.....my opinion, t5 are good, just watch the intensity
 
RJ

If you move up to the 6 lamps try a GE daylight. They have more PAR output than the aquablue and look a little greenish to me, much easier to blend out than the yellowish light from the Sun lamp. By the way, the blueplus lamps have almost as much PAR as the suns do, really close. We won't talk about the actinic:p
 
I agree with Grim. I recently added 1 Ge Sun (Brand New) in place of 1 of the AquaBlues. I now have (from front to back) 2 Aqua Blues, 2 VHO actinics, 1 GE 6500k and 1 Aquablue. I can visually see that the SPS are growing now, the colors are good and the light is visually appealing to me (very white). I like the VHO actinics because I know that they do color the SPS better.

Dave
 
I have actually heard the T5 blueplus is better for coloring the SPS than the VHO actinic. Dunno.

I am going to be getting a 6500K T5 lamp to compare to the GE. Oh great, more lights:) The claim is it blows the GE away. We'll see.
 
I finally received my 4x39w Teklights. In my excitement to try them out I flipped them on facing up towards my face and pretty much fried my retinas. Geez, these things are bright compared to my PCs!

Anyway, I've got three Coralvue 50/50s and one Coralvue actinic lamps in there now. What do you guys think about this combo for softies and LPS over a 46 gallon (36 inches wide)???
 
Did you get an actual Tek light (made by sunlight supply) or the coralvue unit? The real Tek light is even brighter than the CV if you can belive that.

Even with the coralvue you should be fine for any softies or LPS.
 
Well two weeks without a reply? I cant deal with that! I took some pics today guys and pulllleaze excuse the first one, the full tank shot, i had to get it in before the lights switched off and its increduliosly horrible but hey it gives you a general idea...

Full tank shot (yuck crappy i'll get a beter one for you soon)
ed1c4de4.jpg


Some Zoas and my new lawnmower blenny
Lawnmowerandzoas.jpg


A nice nice incredibly lucky shot of my clowns, flame hawk, manderian, coral beauty and lawnmower, see if you can find them all.
GroupShot.jpg


and heres a semi-full tank shot, things have been alot better since i've incorperated this refugium
TankAndSump.jpg


someone mentioned coraline coverage and i'm here to say that mine freaking EXPLODED once i got the t-5s and now i'm havin to razor the stuff down every week to keep it from growing too much, i decided to not clean the left side (rightside for us) of the tank to see what would happen and man its insane! i love my t-5s....
 
Got a question for you t5 guru's...

Umm, I order a 2 or 3 crocea inch clam online and was sent a 5 inch monster!?!? clamzilla...
When i first opened the bag i thought it was a really big scallop or piece of live rock rock or something... then i did the old double take...

It looks bigger in the aquarium with the magnifying effect.

I was going to buy 'a pick what you see clam' but just didn't bother as the internet or server or something was not letting me...
Instead, I left a comment on the order notes that read:

"pick out a nice clam for me again guys, bigger with nice colars"

Yeah, they took that real literal!!!

It has responded well to acclimation and is nearly fully open-- It's big....

Here are my concerns:

I am little concerned with my lighting system being able to feed it. May have to grow more phytoplankton i guess. Any thoughts?

I know t5's are new and there is a lot of speculation about what you can keep under them... In this case i hope it's not hype for the clams sake.

My other crocea's shell has grown about an 1/8 inch since i got the T5's in june... But that one is only 2 1/2 inches...

I don't know--this second clam is at least four times the 3 dimensional size and weight!!! I will place it high up, but i will have to rearrange corals to make room.

Here is a picture of where it is:
Is this high enough and do these lights put out enough light for it? I read that bigger clams need more light...

89862beaver_lodge_059.jpg
 
new2u said:
Well two weeks without a reply? I cant deal with that! I took some pics today guys and pulllleaze excuse the first one, the full tank shot, i had to get it in before the lights switched off and its increduliosly horrible but hey it gives you a general idea...

...

someone mentioned coraline coverage and i'm here to say that mine freaking EXPLODED once i got the t-5s and now i'm havin to razor the stuff down every week to keep it from growing too much, i decided to not clean the left side (rightside for us) of the tank to see what would happen and man its insane! i love my t-5s....
Click to expand...

Great pics! What bulb combination are you using?

Thanks,

Mike
 
I too am looking into the T5's. I currently have the Aqualight 36 inch Lunar Aqualight with dual 96 watt bulbs. 192 watts total output. Should I switch ti a T5 setup, or simply add a small T5 fixture to my existing lights. These PC bulbs don't seem to last very long. How much life do you see from the T5's? In addition, what would be the best choice if I went full on T5?
 
MyMonkey,
I went with the 36" teklight made by SLS since I dont know anything about electrical wiring. I also got the legs for it so they still on top of my tank. From what I've read, it seems to me that t5's go for about 18 months. I guess it would depend on the amount of hours you run it for as well. Check out www.reefgeek.com for the lights and prices.
 
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