T5 Lighting May Be For You

MyMonkey,

When I first got into this hobby, I had my canopy designed for T5s with a feeder door and my lamps were about 8-9" from the water. I personally didnt like the T5s...(but others here have succeeded with them). I then moved to MH and luckily I had enough room to squeeze the bulbs in (bulbs are about 5" from the water surface). I'm using 175s so I dont have a lot of heat issues but I can't go up to 250s because I didnt think I would go MH and my canopy is too short.

My advice is to plan for an upgrade to metal halide...actually, my advice is to go for MH from the beginning..thats just my 2 cents though.
 
Yes, the T5's work best 2-3" above the water, I had mine sitting right on top my tank about 1 1/2" up which would put them 2" above the water line. If you put them 8-9" above the tank, you will not get much penatration, and the Actinic 03 bulbs for the T5's do pretty much nothing, you really need to get the Blue Plus bulbs.
 
I have a quick question. if i am not using a canopy, do i need a glass top or can i just set the t5 or PC lighting on top of tank. of course if it wont fall
 
I would have a glass top over it if it is a Tek-Light hood because they do not have waterproof endcaps, if you going to put T5 lighting in a canopy with all that moisture and no glass tops, you should really use the retro kits that have waterproof endcaps and put them 3" up which is the highest amount they recommend.

I had mine sitting right over the top, and I did not have a canopy and the top was pretty much sealed with the exception to a few holes in the acrylic top for electrical cords.
 
Thanks everyone. MH it shall be. I suppose I will start out with one 250 watt then. Later when I bump up to a larger tank I will add another.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6373385#post6373385 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rjwilson37
Yes, the T5's work best 2-3" above the water, I had mine sitting right on top my tank about 1 1/2" up which would put them 2" above the water line. If you put them 8-9" above the tank, you will not get much penatration, and the Actinic 03 bulbs for the T5's do pretty much nothing, you really need to get the Blue Plus bulbs.
Click to expand...

I just checked it... on the bulbs, it says Actinic+ (blue bulb) and Aquablue+ (white bulb)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6374667#post6374667 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Neil,

What kind of corals are you raising? How long have you been running the T5's?
Click to expand...

Mostly SPS... the tank is about 10 months old.

Even the softies are bleaching out but everything is growing
 
Try knocking back to just half your lights for a few days and see what happens. If 8 is enough to bleach things 4 should be enough to sustain them. If things look better you may need to raise the light up 5 or 6 inches higher.
 
I am planning to begin a 10 gallon reef tank. I am planning on getting Odyssea 24" T5 High Output Dual Fluorescent Light 48W for it. Do you guys think this light will be able to support a RBTA and probaly some soft corals? Let me know please
 
The 8 bulb over the 90g is wall to wall lighting, which is why when I was tossing up between T5 and MH I was only going to go with the 6 bulb for the T5 setup. I just don't like wall to wall lighting and like a few dark spots for corals that don't like as much light.

Being your doing a lot of SPS, I would think they like the wall to wall light, but the softies may not like that at all.
 
I have another question. a 10gallon tank is only 20". The light i am plannin to buy is Odyssea 24" T5 High Output Dual Fluorescent Light 48W. Will ths fit or will it be too long and be sticking out?
 
It will stick out on both sides a little, but it's not to bad. I had a 10g nano with 65w PC lighting which was 24" and it didn't look to bad at all I think.
 
I have a T-5 setup and I have some mushrooms at the bottom of the tank that are not doing too well. I suspect the light might be a bit too bright for them. I'd like to have more shrooms, but I think I need to find some that are a little more tolerant of brighter lights. I think the hairy mushrooms should be okay.. and ricordea should be fine as well. Any other shroom variants that would do okay?

This is the kind I have:
May_22_0516Medium.jpg


They are actually less opened up now then they were in this picture, which was taken about 7 months ago. All my other corals are doing pretty well; and my parameters are in range; so I think the lighting is the culprit.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6392611#post6392611 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ratherbediving
I have a T-5 setup and I have some mushrooms at the bottom of the tank that are not doing too well. I suspect the light might be a bit too bright for them. I'd like to have more shrooms, but I think I need to find some that are a little more tolerant of brighter lights. I think the hairy mushrooms should be okay.. and ricordea should be fine as well. Any other shroom variants that would do okay?

They are actually less opened up now then they were in this picture, which was taken about 7 months ago. All my other corals are doing pretty well; and my parameters are in range; so I think the lighting is the culprit.
Click to expand...

I hate to say this, but there weren't any of my mushrooms that liked the T5 light (4) 54W and 2 VHOs. The more light I added, the more the mushrooms ducked back in the darkness...some even detached themeselves til they found a dark spot. I haven't had that problem with my MH setup. However, the shrooms looked so much better under the T5s...the colors were much more rich and vibrant.
 
There is no way I can shade the rock that the shrooms are on-- but maybe I can try fragging a few and sticking in a shaded area. They are at the bottom of the tank, but aren't shaded at all.
 
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