T5 Lighting

[AlexR]

Does anyone have any experience with t5s? And suggeted retail stores that sell them?

Is it better quility then PCs?
How do corals react to them?

Any info would be great.

Thanks

 

[AlexR]

sorry about the double post...

 

[keeperofthefish]

I have a 5 x 54w Aquatinics T5 setup. check out www.aquatinics.com. Plenty of posts on the boards about this.

 

[kpcollins31]

I've been using a 4x54W TeKLight from Reefgeek for over a year now on my 55G - corals seem to like it just fine. As a matter of fact, I am finding that it is almost too much light for my mushrooms - I need to put them under rock overhangs so they are not in direct light.

Reefgeek

Kevin

 

[Elorian]

keeperofthefish- are you keeping SPS under the T5s (specifically acros)? I am considering that same fixture for my 55 and am curios whether acros will keep good color with it. Sorry for the slight hijack AlexR- hopefully the info will be helpful to you as well .

 

[Raiderwig]

Hello all,

I have a mixed set-up on my 65 gl tank. I have a coralife lunar PC set up with 2x96 watt bulbs and 2 coralife T5's at 42 watts each.
All bulbs are combo 10.000 k and Actinic blue.
I like the look of the t5's if I have the PC's turned off but I was told that even if I went all T5's that it would not be enough light for my corals.(mostly LPS).
My mushrooms love the T5's when they are on and open up fully and do not open up fully if I only have my PC's on!
I would say there is nothing wrong with T5's along as you have the correct spectrum of light and strenght for your tank and coral to thrive.

 

[jjoos99]

I have 4 t-5's overdriven by icecap ballast over my 120 and the light is great. Sps corals are doing great. My lps didnt like it at first but have since gotten use to it. My mushrooms and ricordia dont like it much at all. Too strong for them.
Jeff

 

[Elorian]

jjoos99- by how much are you overdriving them (ie what wattage are they with the IC overdriving them)?

 

[jeffbrig]

I have 4 80w T5s (aquablue and blue+), each overdriven to about 100watts on icecap 430s. These are my primary lighting, and I run MHs for ~4 hours in the evening for added punch. Mushrooms do NOT like this much light, but everything else seems quite happy. I can't speak too much about acros (just added a few recently), but montipora, zoas, xenia, frogspawn, etc., are thriving under this setup.

 

[yetti]

I'm keeping the full spectrum of SPS under a 24" 4 lamp Tek light....Reefgeek seems to have the best prices.

I switched from PC to this about two months ago and you wouldn't believe the difference. Growth, color, you name it.

 

[boris MAC]

Take a look, only T5's:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=700454&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

 

[AlexR]

I saw a few tanks with T5's and they looked better then PC's, the blue color looks awesome and they dont heat up at all. But i'm just not sure if the corals will like them as much. There is a LFS here that sells them from www.cadlights.com.

Has anyone ever had any experience with them for these lights?

 

[Stormtrker]

Just be sure each T5 bulb has it's own reflector. Some of the cheaper T5 fixtures have only a single reflector for all the bulbs. You really need the individual reflectors if you want to have variety of SPS corals and have good color/growth. I have T5's on both my 75 and 45G tanks.
Carla

 

[Ti]

used to have T5.
Now it's MH+T5

 

[Scuba_Dave]

T6 lighting is out, you may want to look into that as well