T5's: A cautionary note

[Drewpy]

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Corals that I would never again place under T5's 4-6 bulbs:
-Yumas (are on top of the list)
-mushrooms red/blue/purple. Seems like the lighter they are the more affected. Sometimes it's hit or miss, you might get a batch that does better than the next. Even under shading sometimes it does not work out & this I really can't understand, especially since the same mushrooms are exposed under MH now & doing fine. (I have seen & heard this from others)
-brains of any sorts. They may start out good, but gradually over time may show you signs of dislike. (I have seen & heard this from others)
-favites- another set that are similar to the brains. They need some serious shading to work.
-candy canes (I have seen & heard this from others)
-some zoos & this is hard to tell. Most seem to like the light though.

Corals that I would watch not to provide too much light to (this pretty much goes for any lighting sys).
-frogspawns, torches, & hammers. Monti cap, blastos, & ricordia.

Corals that love the light:
-monti cap (as long as not too high), monti dig, galaxia, kenya tree, green fuzzy mushrooms, most zoos, toadstools (although I had one that got white & looking back I think it came from a darker environement), gsp, & xenia.

I think these lists help... I have had my Tek light for a month or two now... I switched from from 260 watts (55 gallon) of PC to 156 watts (46 gallon-- tank swap as well)

Purple and blue and red mushrooms have not expanded as well and are somewhat shaded and/or the bottom of the tank. Green mushrooms are tempermental... Sometimes very open (like with the PC's) and other times not fully expanded, this seems random...

One green ricordia has actually shrunk and one has stayed about the same... While a orange ricordia has started to split and grown some (stress or health??-- it is near the top of the tank is a lot light)

A Brain Coral, Trachyphyllia geoffroyi, has been very expanded from the start... It is near the top in direct light.

An Elegance coral has been very expanded and seemingly very healthy (three months old, hopefully it stays this way, i hear they do not always do well?)

Green polyps, zoos, xenia, cloves, a colt coral?, and green/purple tipped frog spawn (all near the top and in direct light), a pearly bubble and capnella (at the bottom) love the light...

One bubble tip anemone is expanded and bubbly near the top in direct light often... It's tip really glow. Another bubble tip (from a split) is at the bottom but does not get nearly as bubbly and its tips are not as bright and may be getting dimmer. ( i may move)

A green candy cane is shaded and only 1/3 the way up and is expanded well...

Lastly a crocea clam has remained seemingly healthy (near the top)

All are feed green water once or twice a week...

Anyone else with lists.... If anything changes i will post it... Maybe there is an adapting time with lights...

 

[Drewpy]

I may add there are no fish in my tank right now as i am battling an ick breakout... Only three cleaner shrimp, and a marginal sized clean up crew...

The water has never been cleaner I have no algae/diatom growth on the glass ever, nitrates are undetectable... I wonder if the lack ammonia and nutrients provided by fish waste plays factor? I have read that some corals suck up a lot of nutrients...

I do feed the tank live phyto, mysis shrimp, and algae disks for the clam, clean up crew, and cleaners... But the feedings are obviously less...

 

[Warnberg]

merk1_99, my tank is 30" tall...... you can check out pics in my gallery.... the whole tank is lit with T5's

 

[horkn]

I think I'd go with a triad (sunlight supply) ballast before I would go with a workhorse ballast. They seem to have had a bad reputation on some threads...

well, my setup is run entiely by one workhorse 5 ballast. no issues whatsoever. and no signs of abuse by rapid starting them either...

been up since christmas.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Grim, so what were your temp ranges with T5's on vs MH?

The long & wide Tek fixtures acted like a radiator it seems like, especially after I added the acrylic shield. They more evenly dispersed the heat & felt much hotter than without the acrylic.

A couple of fans on you say? Just how many? I only have one clip on now.

T5's were in a canopy about 3 1/2inches off the water. I used 2 of the Ice Cap 3" variable speed fans set to run at the slowest speed to cut down on noise. The temp would maybe break 81 on a hot day and I'd let it drop to about 78 at night. The halides are an open air fixture about 7 or 8 inches above. The temp goes from the high 77's at night up to the low 82's on a hot day. Of couse these are only 150 watt halides and my T5 were overdriven and the ballasts were mounted in the canopy.

The 150's will be on the tank another few hours, all my 250 upgrade stuff is here I am going to add a 3" fan to the fixture to help move air and I plan on only running the 14K lamps with no actinics so hopefully the heat wont increase.

 

[Warnberg]

You know Grim.. I'm not sure how you do it, but if I spent as much as you do on lights, my wife would have my wavos.... ya know what I'm say'in?


HAHAHAHAHA.....

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Dude, I am on disability and have nothing to do all day. I can either play with my aquarium equipment take a half mile drive up the hill to the casino and nudi bar. My wife loves my aquarium hobby

 

[Warnberg]

Grim , let me be the fist to say thank you for all the help you have given me with my decision on lights..... I am very happy with my setup thus far......

Thank You Sir

Question for you.... do you think that adding a couple of 54W 11000K Aquablue Special T5 HO Fluorescent instead of a couple of 54W 6000K Sun T5 HO Fluorescent will increase my tank temp much?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I really doubt that the color or brand of lamp will make enough difference in heat to make a measurable difference. The actinics might be a tad cooler, dunno.

 

[Codeman00]

I've finally started to add some corals to my tank. So far, I've added 2 purple mushrooms, one green striped mushroom, I giant fuzzy green mushroom, Star polyps, a supposed green/yellow Kenya tree, and a frogspawn.

I have been reluctant to put them out in the direct light of the T5s. The Kenya tree in particular didn't look healthy at all in the shady spot..like it was leaning toward the light. So I moved it halfway up the tank. Its a happy camper now...extended, puffed up, with polyps extended.

The frogspawn is doing great on the subrstate. All the mushrooms but one of the purple ones are loving the light. All of them are on the substrate. The star polyps are 1/3 of the way up..but a little bit in the shade...and they are extended and doing well.

No signs of green coralline on the glass either. I'm starting to become more and more confident in the T5s..

Whats my secret?? I'm running (2) T5s and a VHO super actinic for 9 hours a day and 4T5s and the VHO for 2 hours midday. That's it.

Can someone tell my why everyone uses so many T5s to light their tanks if only a couple of them will work out fine? Why burn the heck out of the corals and go through all the stress of acclimation if you don't have to? My 3 lights are as bright as most metal halide tanks that I see. Will the coral growth not be as much with the lessened amount of lighting? Is that the issue here?

Please shed some light on this if you don't mind.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

You need a number of T5's to get the combination of lighting to get the color you want AND we dont friggin know how powerful the things are. I think me and Odi-Dad were the first to throw a PAR meter under the things and I was the first, and as far as I know, the only one to measure PAR on T5 vs. halides on the same tank. At this point I assume overdriven T5s are equal to good 250 watt halides.

 

[luckycat]

You need a number of T5's to get the combination of lighting to get the color you want AND we dont friggin know how powerful the things are. I think me and Odi-Dad were the first to throw a PAR meter under the things and I was the first, and as far as I know, the only one to measure PAR on T5 vs. halides on the same tank. At this point I assume overdriven T5s are equal to good 250 watt halides.

Are the T5 Tek Light hoods and retrofit kits overdriven with the ballasts included by default (not IceCap)?

 

[merk1_99]

From what I gather the two Actinic bulbs I am running are useless correct? In a month or so after the intial acclimation I would like to change out the actinic bulbs. I plan on getting a crocea clam in the near future. I am waffling on my 2 bulbs. I can't decide to get either 2 blue + a blue +/11000, or a blue + 6500. I'll probably buy all 3 bulbs and just play with them.

I did measure the Tek unit off of the top of the tank. Right now it is 7'' off of the tank. Right now everything is doing great. My frogspawn, and branching hammers are doing well. As well as the open brain. My green shrooms look they are going to split....My Pagoda cup coral is new from someone so I am not sure how it is really suppose to look and like. But it came from the guy who sold me the Tek's. So far so good...The water looks crisper, and the annoying red string algae is burning up...

 

[horkn]

codeman, my kenya tree really likes the direct light of my t5s.. so do the zoos (and they do multiply quickly -you warned me grim) and the xenia. the micromussa i have are all doing great as well, and the monti cap is doing well now after moving it down a bit in the tank. the gsp i have is going crazy. one kind in particular (i have 2) is growing all over the rocks already, and theres no end in sight.. the movie the blob comes to mind...


i am giving shrooms a try again, hopefully these dont melt.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Luckycat

The Tek lights are not overdriven. You would probably have to wire an IC ballast remote to the fixture to do it. I heard they wont fit inside. Unless you are doing SPS and clams only I would stick to the normal ballasts.

MERK

If you want a crocea I would go with 1 GE, 1 Aquablue and 2 Blueplus if you have a 4 lamp fixture. The GE has the most PAR followed by the Aquablue. The Blueplus is no slouch either. They have about the same PAR as the ATI sun lamp according to people who have measured both.

 

[merk1_99]

Thanks Grim. I have the 6 bulb Tek. I will probably go with a GE 6500, with an Aquablue...

 

[Codeman00]

VHO / T5 bulb combo

VHO / T5 bulb combo

Hey guys..finally I took a picture that shows the true coloration of the VHO / T5 combo. It took awhile with messing with the camera settings.

In this picture, I'm using a 3 bulb combo.. (back to front) VHO Super Actinic / Sun / Blue Plus. I will have to say that I love this bulb combo...Purple, Red, Green, all come out great...and there isn't any nasty yellow like I see with the Day bulb. I'll work on a 5 bulb combo here soon....I think the perfect combo would be 2 Suns/ 2 Blue Plus / VHO...but I only have 1 Sun right now, so I can't try that out yet.

VHO Super Actinic / Sun / Blue Plus

 

[The Grim Reefer]

LOOK GUYS!!! I am temporarily back in the T5 club.

Introducing the Griminator 525 custom deluxe lighting system

Might look ugly but look what it does for the tank

Too bad I've fragged the corals down so much. this is a shot with just the 2 actinics

These things are way bright. The blue is more clear than the pic shows, maybe a hint of violet in the light. This lighting setup pops the colors better than the halides. If these new 14K lamps I am upgrading to don't do a way better job that the 10K's my new tank will be lit with fluorescents.

 

[Ti]

Which reflectors are those?

 

[merk1_99]

cODE AND gRIM....NICE COLORS...