T5's: A cautionary note

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No, I didn't. Well, sorta?
I am heading there though, but don't ban me from the T5 club just yet.

I've been given the opportunity by a local reefer to test drive a set of MH. Since he is not using this set anymore I can take my time with it & will also be given opportunity to buy. I wanted to know if 175W will be sufficient enough with my next lighting purchase, or maybe just go for 250W'ers.

Specs are as follows:

40" fixture
2x175W Hamilton 14K (IC E-Ballast x2)
2 39W T5 D&D Actinics (WorkHorse Ballast). Individual reflectors.
2 fans
Room to add moonlights.

I have the fixture on 2x4's now & temp of tank has not gone up yet (surprisingly), perhaps in time it will. Tank temp is at 80deg. If I were to hide the fixtures from you, there is no way you can tell that they are really made for a 3' tank. Colors look amazing, also a big surprise, since I was expecting more of a whitish look, but I got the mystique blue look that I always aim for.

Observations right off the bat are that my toadstool (the green one) in a few hours has polyp extensions that I have not seen in such a long time, probably since changing T5 fixtures from 96w to 384/216W. The toadstool is facing one of the MH bulbs more, seems to already be migrating in that MH bulb direction. My purple coralline has never looked better, right away it reflected a dark rich purple, whereas with the T5s they kinda looked washed out purple. Certain corals fluoresce more, I am sure because of the actinic T5 bulbs. Other than this not much else to report, it's still way too early, need more time.
 
Sounds like you might have the best of both worlds going on there?

BTW, I just received my rock yesterday...the tank is going through a very slight cycle...no ammonia to be found. You can really tell the difference in the super actinic VHO vs the VHO lighting..it really adds a nice flouresce...although I don't have much to flouresce. On thing I am happy about is the temperature...my tank stays at a constant 80 degrees with only a 3" Icecap smart fan pulling from the canopy. I would have gone halide, but was afraid of heat. The electric bill will be lower too!

FastUno..about picture taking...any tips to get my camera to show the same color that I see with my eyes? Your pictures were always really good. I read an article on white balance...but do you have to make the adjustment at every light setting?
 
If you want to do it properly, then yes. To get the best results you should manually adjust. You would need to readjust for each setting/area, since light reflects/refracts & behaves differently in any given area, sometimes it does so in a way that not even manual adjustment can predict. I tried to borrow a friends cam again to take some pictures to show, but gave up due to poor WB control. If you don't have manual adjustment, try to take picture in cloudy mode, fluorescent, tungsten, & sun wb mode. See how it comes out, it's hard to predict how every camera will respond.

I see what you guys mean about the actinic, it's damn purple. Looking at the lamp it looks like a very dull blue, not nearly as bright or blue as the blue+. With my Tek fixtures & only 1 actinic it was impossible to see the true nature of the effects of this bulb. I can't believe how purple it really is & how much purple & fluorescent everything looks with just actinics on.
 
FastUno said:
If you want to do it properly, then yes. To get the best results you should manually adjust. You would need to readjust for each setting/area, since light reflects/refracts & behaves differently in any given area, sometimes it does so in a way that not even manual adjustment can predict. I tried to borrow a friends cam again to take some pictures to show, but gave up due to poor WB control. If you don't have manual adjustment, try to take picture in cloudy mode, fluorescent, tungsten, & sun wb mode. See how it comes out, it's hard to predict how every camera will respond.

I see what you guys mean about the actinic, it's damn purple. Looking at the lamp it looks like a very dull blue, not nearly as bright or blue as the blue+. With my Tek fixtures & only 1 actinic it was impossible to see the true nature of the effects of this bulb. I can't believe how purple it really is & how much purple & fluorescent everything looks with just actinics on.
Click to expand...

I told you the actinic was purple. :p
 
Uno,

Running 14K 175's you likely had a huge decrease in PAR so be sure and keep an eye on your high light critters. You may need to do a little rearranging.
 
amazine that someone see's it like I do

amazine that someone see's it like I do

Originally posted by FastUno Stirring it up is what this place should be about and those so called instruments aren't even made to measure the spectrums we have in our reef tanks and the ones that do measure in the correct spectums cost 15 to 20 thousand dollars. I have read much on this subject and none of those measurements are done with the correct instruments and even then you would need a table for converting the wattage differences between bulbs and the fact that one bulbs intensity is spread out over a greater distance than the other, so accurate readings would be near impossible either way,not to mention the huge difference in rated output between a halide and a VHO bulb. From what I have seen in many halide tanks compaired to my 880 watt rated output VHO tank is that they don't appear to be nearly as bright and the colors of the corals after I take them home always have better colors in the purple pink and blue species. Halides seems a bit better with oranges and greens but that may be due to intensity differences and not just spectrum. I'm only using 520 watts for my rated output of 880 watts and even then I cannot run my ballests full time because it's just plain over kill. I have seen the 4 LFS's around here with their halide systems, and have been very unimpressed with both the color and intensity of those systems even though they all use much more wattage than my VHO system. I won't even go into the heat issues common in halide systems because that should be saved for another thread.
We need reefers like chevell to stir things up a bit, because he is right in a way. I have seen some extraordinary reefs using only VHO's & they don't seem to have these issues described by us Extreme MH or T5 users. Although I must say 880W of lights sounds like a heck of a lot.

chevell, do you have issues with corals bleaching or not acclimating well to the light? Do you need to use the screen method? You are laughing at us, aren't you?

We have seen successful systems with VHO's, MH's, & T5's. There are no right or wrongs, because there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Click to expand...
 
Not hot at all

Not hot at all

Originally posted by tgreene I can put my face on my VHOs after running all day with not a chance of any burning what so ever. They are slightly warm but not hot at all.Not exactly the pot calling the kettle black in my opinion. They seem to be working on the spectrums of the T5 bulbs where as the spectrums of VHO's have had much more time to be perfected and I'm sure in time they will be compairible as they are both high output fluorescents. Many T5's are actually MUCH cooler than VHO's, MH's or PC's... I was convinced, when the local shop owner told me to touch the T5 bulbs in his system, and I was able to actually hold the bulb even after it had been running for a couple of hours!

I dare you to try that with your VHO's, but would suggest agaisnt it if using MH's! ;)

BTW Chevelle: You came into the T5 thread and said exactly the very same thing to us, that you bashed others for doing to the VHO guys... This screams of pot-n-kettle syndrome! :hmm4:
Click to expand...
:p
 
spectrums

spectrums

Originally posted by RGibson Like I said they are still working on the spectrums of t5's.
In about 30 days a new true actinic t 5 will be coming out i hope try one on my tank.
Click to expand...
 
I am seeing some changes already.
Hairy mushrooms- Really spreading & stretching from the base up. I have never seen them this stretched up before, it looks more like a desperate stretch upwards, although they look very healthy & pretty. I think you are right grim, not enough par output.

Galaxia- More stretched out

Torch- Finally coming out, have not seen it this out & pretty (at least 1/2 of it, other half is most likely gone) since before the bleaching.

orange zoos, Frogspawn & Rics- Seem stretched out more too. More flesh is apparent.

Clam- even it too seems stretched out more

Overall everything seems to be more spread out & gives the illusion of being more healthier. The eggcrate & book that I had on 1/2 side of the tank is gone, finally. The blastos, which I was worried about have not shown any negative signs with direct light exposure. Not a single coral is showing any really negative signs yet. My Maze Brain remains 1/2 bleached & I don't know what is to become of it yet?

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