T5 SPS tanks

[JosefDevaty]

Who all out there is using solely T5's for their SPS tanks. Just curious what benefits or challenges you have faced not using halides. Im thinking about going all T5's (6 of them) in my new tank. It will be 48x22x12. Let me know your experiences and or bulb combos that you have found to work well.

 

[chrisstie]

I have a mixed reef but there hasn't really been any SPS I couldn't keep and grow well. The only ones I dont have anymore died due to too much grow out and getting stung. Stupid weed zoas choked out my pink mille

I have a teklight 4x54w setup over a 55g tank. I didn't want halides because of heat and power consumption, and man those bulbs are expensive and don't last as long either.

If I get to move out of state and setup a tank again I think I'll go with LED it will even be better. Worth saving up for despite the initial high cost.

I originally had a very well balanced light setup that had a lot of blue. Close to what a 20k halide look would be like. After a little more than a year I changed them out with some local bulbs trying to simulate the look from before. Apparently different manufacturers and what they call their bulbs vary wildly. I ended up with more of a 10k or 12k look where it was a strong white light but things like my rainbow monti look like a brown monti with green polyps.

I read for a 4 bulb setup for a nice balance where colors pop many people liked

2 x 54W Blue Plus T5 HO Fluorescent (ATI1013) by ATI
1 x 54W 10000K AquaSun T5 HO Fluorescent (UVL0005) by UV
1 x 54W Super Actinic T5 HO Fluorescent (UVL0021) by UV

I'm not sure what the combo would be for a 6 bulb setup, my tank is only 12" wide so I went with 4.

I noticed a TON of growth under the whiter light and a more natural reef look but i really like the colors that pop under the more blue lighting scheme.

 

[JosefDevaty]

Yeah I dig the blue too. Im running 2x250 12k reefulx with 2 geismann actinic + t5s. Thats on an 18" deep 75 gallon. I like it but Im thinking with the shallow tank I can do 6 T5s and get the same amount of light as with the halides.
Im also into the lower power consumption and heat. I just dont want to reconfigure my canopy and lighting and find out that my corals arent very happy with the change.

 

[tcwayne]

I have an 8 bulb T5 fixture with individual reflectors, 4 actinic, 2 10k and 2 geisseman aquablue plus on my 90. I'm getting great color and growth from SPS. I've been very happy with it.

 

[chrisstie]

I understand how you feel Josef. I would be prepared, though, if you do make the switch for the first few weeks to be an acclimation period since you'd be somewhat drastically changing your configuration. You may experience some brown out of colors but it is something that should pass once everything acclimates to new lighting. This can happen from changing one type of bulb to another but just something to be aware of.

I would think in the blue light everything will bounce back pretty quick though! And going from MH to T5 you shouldn't have to worry about burning any corals. Just make sure you're using those individual reflectors and you'll have plenty of light.

 

[skinnyjoe1976]

hey if you are looking for the blue look i found some 22k t5's. i will be doing a 20 gallon with (4) 24" (1) 22k aqua science (1) 14k uvl 24/40 watt and (2) uvl super actinic. i love the blue look also and if that's not blue enough for me i will put in (2) current powerbright actinic leds, they really give off alot of blue. they will only spread so far but if you want to make a certain coral pop that the answer. i will also over power them by running (2) workhorse 5 ballast.

btw the link. a little pricey but if they give that color off well worth it in my book.

http://www.cherrycorals.com/equipment/product.php?productid=733&cat=149&page=1

how did the stand come out?

 

[JosefDevaty]

awesome! Thanks for the link. Ill defintiely check it out. Im using the acustart ballasts whixh i hear are good with icecap ends and reflectors. the stand came out well so far. Im going to get it all joined together and hopefully skinned tomorrow. Ill post pics as part of my build thread i want to do for this tank.

 

[dugg]

I have just recently changed tanks, and went from halide to t-5. So far, everything seems to like the t-5 way better. No sps though. I think the t-5 is more intense than the halides.

 

[chrisstie]

While I do support our local stores and encourage you to buy there, sometimes one store favors one brand over another and its hard when the "best" looking combination combines different brands. When I ordered my light fixture originally I found it at reefgeek.com and they set me up with a good combination of lighting so I'd consider them for an affordable alternative if you can't find what you need locally.

In regards to what dugg said about halides, some corals prefer more PAR and others don't. In a tank that is only so deep you have to arrange them like they would be in the wild for best effect but I still think people run MH lights that are too intense and corals are exposed to more light than they technically need.

I'm also interested in the lighting schemes you see in asian tanks where they are going beyond the blue and white spectrum to include a small amount of other "colored" light to make their tanks extremely eyepopping. I think in part, LEDs are allowing us to play with that a bit more, too. Lighting is something in the engineering community that is going to drastically change in the upcoming years. Between us being encourged to use more PC bulbs in our houses to companies developing better PC bulbs used without harmful chemicals to more research being done to develop better LEDs and other longer lasting, less power using sources of light, the reef tank is going to have a LOT more options eventually. Its a very exciting time!

 

[GaryR1984]

Check the power consumption, i remember reading in the lighting section a guy did the math and only saved 2 dollars a month if he switched to T5's.

 

[chrisstie]

Oh by the way, I came back across the lighting combo site I had found to help me find my bulb combo its http://tfivetesting.googlepages.com/combinatio

Hope this helps!

 

[phunkie99]

I have a very "mixed' reef with lots of SPS I have T5's and have had no issues. Everything has done well. I was given a sps frag by a great local and she was curious how it would do in my tank because its "requires" lots of light and it has done fine. The only things you might notice is certain corals will turn a different color under T5's. Which I think is kind of cool.


For instance this is what one peice looked like when I firs got it

and here it is now

 

[JosefDevaty]

Thanks for the pics. Actually I think that coral is looking better under th t5s than when you first got it. Good stuff. What bulb combo are you using?

 

[phunkie99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14070808#post14070808 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by JosefDevaty
Thanks for the pics. Actually I think that coral is looking better under th t5s than when you first got it. Good stuff. What bulb combo are you using?

I agree and the person that I got it from had MH's. Bulb combo is:

Blue Plus
Super Blue Actinic
AquaSun
Blue Plus
Aqua Blue

 

[phunkie99]

You should go to the Lighting, Filtration & Other Equipment forum and check out "The T5 Q&A thread" ask Grim Reefer what setup you should get for what you want to do he is like the Wizard of Oz when it comes to T5's

 

[plyle02]

Here is my old tank, same size and demensions you are using. I had a 6x54watt tek fixture. I ran with 2xkZ coral life, 2xfiji purple, 1x10k, 1x420nm. I dont rember the order. T 5's rock, running a cube with a pendant halide now, otherwise it would be t5s all the way. Anway, here is a pic of my old tank.

 

[JosefDevaty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14074106#post14074106 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by phunkie99
You should go to the Lighting, Filtration & Other Equipment forum and check out "The T5 Q&A thread" ask Grim Reefer what setup you should get for what you want to do he is like the Wizard of Oz when it comes to T5's

I already got a response from Grim Reefer. I just want to find someone in Orlando that sells the bulbs I need. If not ill just order them. I have a bit of time as the tank wont be done for about a week or so.

 

[akwtampa]

I'm running 8 T-5 on 2 IC 660's with Geismann Daylight (White) and Geismann Actinic Plus (Blue) 4' bulbs and 4 VHO Actinic Plus 4' bulbs over a tank that is 96x32x26 and my acros are doing great.. My blue tort actually ended up with a bit of green streaking through it and my green slimer got an insane deep green.. But otherwise, the corals are growing well and have great PE..

Also, I've noticed that T-5 has incredible intensity.. Enough to burn corals.. I had the same 8 T-5's over a 48x24x24 tank to replace 2 x 250 MH.. After the change, I noticed some pretty crappy PE and even bleached a few corals.. This changed after raising the T-5 array an additional 4 inches, to about 2 inches higher than the halides had been..

As far as power consumption, the only thing you *might* save on is the cost of a chiller, although, I didn't run one in either case.. My T-5's pulled more watts than the 2x250's.. But the colors were brighter and I had more control over the temperature..

My 2 cents..

Aaron

 

[JosefDevaty]

So I guess the next question is who around here sells the ATI bulbs? Based on grimreefers recomendation I need to get ahold of some ATI blue+ bulbs. I know aquaria studio and SITC don't have them. Anyone know where besides online has them?

 

[Famous]

ReefGeek is the way to go for T5 bulbs. I need to replace mine soon, thats where I got mine originally and they had great customer service and are very quick to respond to emails. Send them an email and see what bulbs they suggest for you.