T5 Users - Please Read

[freddie40]

Recently I have lost 11 clams. I have tried to analyze what could have been the cause and the best scenario I can come up with is my choice of T5 bulbs.

In February I decided that I wanted to try and mimic a 20K MH spectrum with my T5s. So, I put in 5 Blue+ (3 overdriven) and 1 Pro Color (overdriven). I really liked the color and the par was impressive. Within 2 months the clams started dying, many within a short time period. I figure that the spectrum of the blue + is missing colors above 500nm and that the Pro Color does not have enough par to make up for this. Clams are shallow water creatures (less than 10 meters) and the choice of bulbs that I had were more for deeper water creatures. To make things worse my nitrates are very low, futher starving the clams.

My LPS loved the choice of bulbs (Really love it), and the colors of my SPS were good, but there was just not enough good light for the clams on my sandbed.

As for choice of bulb colors, Dana Riddle in this aricle writes that ATI AquaBlue is the color of the Ocean at a depth of 10 meters.

Going with this theory I have changed my lighting to this. From front to back Blue+, AquaBlue, Pro Color, AquaSun, AquaBlue and Blue+ (All bulbs are made by ATI). The Blue+ bulbs are my Dusk to dawn and are balanced out by the Aquasun during the day. The Pro Color was used because the LPS seem to react better to this bulb. The color is probably about a 15k look and is close to what the AquaBlue look like, so lets say reasonably close to what the ocean looks like at 10 meters. The AquaSun was chosen to balance out the Blue+ plus to give more par of the SPS in the back of the tank.

It has only been a week since I made this switch so I don't have any real conclusions. My only purpose of this thread is to warn others about using the color combo that probably harmed my clams.

Dave

 

[freddie40]

Here were the parameters after the first couple of clams died:

Ammonia (NH3-4) ........................Good ......................................... 0.005
Nitrite (NO2)................................Good ......................................... 0.003
Nitrate (NO3)...............................Good .............................................0.4
Phosphate (PO4) ..........................Good ........................................... 0.18
Silica (SiO2-3) ............................. High..............................................1.2
Potassium (K) ...............................Low............................................. 229
Calcium (Ca).................................Low............................................. 217
Boron (B) ....................................Good .............................................3.3
Molybdenum (Mo).........................Good .............................................0.0
Strontium (Sr) .............................Good ........................................... 11.5
Magnesium (Mg) ..........................Good .......................................... 1250
Iodine (I¯)...................................Good ........................................... 0.03
Copper (Cu++) ............................Good ........................................... 0.00
Alkalinity (meq/L)..........................Low............................................ 2.31


My Salifert test kit showed that my calcium was 480. AWT has a strange test for calcium that I don't trust.

Dave

BTW: At this point I cannot add iodine because I am using Ozone. As of today my ORP is 317.

 

[mikesin]

WOW, so sorry about your loss -
Being new to the hobby, having T5 lighting and added a Maxima 1 week ago we are watching an learning from this thread
thanks

 

[goodguy]

Thanks for the info

 

[freddie40]

So, let me first give a better background. As of last Jan I had 6 T5 bulbs, 4 overdriven with an Icecap 660. I was using Tek reflectors. My par was roughly 240. In Jan I upgraded 5 of my reflectors to Aquatinics reflectors and this upped my par by about 20%. Please keep in mind that my tank is 20 inches tall. The bulbs are 5.5 inches off the surface.

I decided I wanted a 20K look due to the fact that so many of the real successful MH users were using 20k bulbs.

So, I changed to (First) 1 Suer Actinic, 4 Blue+ and 1 Pro Color bulb. The a week later to 5 Blue+ and 1 Pro Color. I loved the look and the LPS and SPS did well. However, over the next 1.5 months 7 Clams died. I tried to this of every possible reason. A few weeks back I upgraded my other balast to a 660. Even more par.

To the best of my conclusions I made one big mistake. Blue+ bulbs (according to Grim) are more like 50k. There is very little light above the 500nm spectrum, i.e. no red or Green. Basically I was soaking my clams with a ton of Blue light.

As of about 2 weeks ago I dumped 1/2 of the Blue+ and changed to AquaBlue. No significant change. I then changed a few of the bulbs to UVL bulbs. Go figure, the clams opened a bit more. I then changed 1 more bulb to a UVL. The clam open a bit more, but not all of the way. I was running from front to back (UVL Super Actinic, Blue+, UVL 75/25, UVL AquaSun, ATI AquaBlue, ATI Blue+).

2 days ago I checked the par of this combo, 370. Wow, is this too much?, I asked myself. So, I programmed the AquaController so that the SuperActinic and Blue+ (Dusk to Dawn) only came on for the first and last 30 minutes). With only 4 bulbs I am still getting a par of 245 (keep in mind a 20" tank). The clams opened up even more with this combo and the LPS looked better than ever. Go figure.

To be honest, I figure that I was just giving my clams too much blue and not enough green, yellow and red spectrum, and maybe just too much par. The cool thing about running 2 ATI bulbs and 2 UVL bulbs is that they emphasize different colors. UVL is heavy on 420nm and red, ATI is heavy on 450nm. I chose the 75/25 - AquaSun bulbs because the 75/25 has more 420nm and the AquaSun has more green and red.

Overall I am just happy that my clams are doing better and I am saddened that I lost so many clams due to this. It is still early, but I a hopeful that I have come to a good conclusion. Best of all I like the look and have less heat

Dave