T5's: A cautionary note

[The Grim Reefer]

A couple of questions.

If one of your T5 bulbs goes out, will the rest of the lights in that bank continue to work? I know if you remove one they don't.

Second, I see a lot of bulb configurations with a daylight bulb. Why is this? The daylight spectrum is more than half the makeup of the Aquablues already (60/40 split I believe). I don't see many individuals having Power Compact, VHO or MH setup with daylight bulbs.

Just wondering.

cr

It depends on the ballast. I think the real T5 ballasts will shut down to avoid damaging anything if a lamp fails. The cheapie electronics that come on the ebay fixtures might keep running.

Metal halides can provide a lot wider spectrum than fluorescents. An Iwasaki 6500K halide is like the Imperial Grand Pubah of lights when it comes to coral growth. Although they have a yellowish color they still provide a heck of a lot of blue light as well. What I suggest as the best looking (IMO) and what should be the best for the critters in T5 lamps is to try to get a nice look and as broad a light spectrum as possible. If you look at the spectrum of the T5 lamps on reefgeek's site you will see what I am talking about.

The Aquablue lamp is 60/40 as in 60% actinic and 40% daylight but that refers to the phosphores, not light produced. For a time I ran a 50/50 mix of Aquablues and blueplus. It looked cool but I noticed orange things looked red and reds looked purple and yellows looked a little dirty. When I put a GE lamp in the mix the colors all just looked more bright and real but I still had that cool bluish tint to the light.

 

[rioreef]

Thanks Grim, that's the answer I was suspected was out there...'Personal Choice'

 

[CraigsReef]

Just a quick question.

Currently setting up a 150g thats 60x24x24 and was curiuos if 2x250 plus t5 sup. would be good for mostly sps/mixed reef or should i go 3x250 plus t5 sup.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

2 GOOD 250's would work. Just keep them spaced a couple feet apart and your outter 6" on each side for lower light critters.

 

[tgreene]

My other CA Actinic bulbs arrived yesterday, so my tank is finally properly balanced... No more yellowish tinting on the left side of my tank, from the crappy CoralVue 50/50 bulbs!!!

 

[tjay]

tgreene what is stamped on those bulbs? I have Catalina Aqurium T5s myself and the actinic is very different from the others I have seen.

I am using th 54 watt. My fixture has four slots for 54 watt T5s and I ordered all actinics. He shipped two daylight and two actinic and is correcting that.

 

[karlitosway]

I have had my T5 set up fo almost a year now. They destroy Power compacts and hold there own against MH 250watts and under. I have tried a lot of bulb combos but one thing I am still trying to figure out is, What is the defrence between the ATI aquablue+ and the aquablue special. If someone could clarify this for me because I can't find a answer.

PS. One of my favorite 4 bulb combo is
atinic
6500k
6500k
atinic plus

For a mostly SPS tank.

 

[Codeman00]

Question...Does the actinic bulb (as in the Catalina actinic) have any useful light for corals? I'm thinking about switching out a day bulb for an actinic....but Im I going to be losing a lot of usable light for the corals in the process?

tjay..what does the catalina actinic look like to you and in comparison to the VHO super actinic?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I just got a hold of the holy grail of T5 lights

I darkened this first pic to tone down the blues a bit which are still a little brighter than in person. Other than that non of the pics have been touched. The colors are more vivid in person. The blue in the light looks a lot like the deep aquablue color in some pool and hot tub lights.

These are all taken with a single 4 foot lamp with no reflector. The hue of the blue in this pic is about right but it is much more subdued in person and the corals fluoresce a lot brighter.

 

[rioreef]

Grim,

Is that the Catalina actinic bulb?

 

[Codeman00]

C'mon Grim, don't keep us in suspense!! (lol). Where did you get it and what bulb is it? It looks great!

 

[tjay]

Compared to the VHO my CA actinics have much less purple more of an flat blue look, will try and get a pic with the white balance adjusted to get as close as I can

 

[tgreene]

Compared to the VHO my CA actinics have much less purple more of an flat blue look, will try and get a pic with the white balance adjusted to get as close as I can

That's really wierd, because mine are much more purple than blue... :eek2:

One thing that I have noticed, is that the level of consistancy isn't there with the T5's. It seems that each manufacturer has there own level of specs that are vastly different from any level of "standards". Take for instance CV -vs- CA actinics. The CV's are a deep blue (more of what we think of as a Blue+), while the CA's are purplish like VHO's and ZooMed T8's. My actinics from the 2 different companies are paired up in the same fixtures, and they are worlds apart!

Now, it seems that TJay has uncovered yet another hole in the system, in that from what he's telling us, his actinics are very different from mine, yet they are from the same company. Is it possible that there are spectral variances depending upon the wattage..? Because my tank is 72" long, I'm using 39w bulbs doubled up, while most of you have the 54's over a 48" tank.


* TJay, I'll have to check my bulbs to be sure, but if I remember correctly, they simply say "39w Actinic".

 

[The Grim Reefer]

The light this lamp produces can best be described as eerie. There is nothing purple about the light at al. I will play with the camera settings today to see if I can get a better pic.


If anyone has ever ran one of the submirsible blue lights foster and smith sells this lamp causing similar coloring but like on super steroids. The greens look a little more lime green. The orange ricordas are actually more red than orange with a translucent blue rim. The orange shrooms and monti caps look incredible. I have never seen anything look this cool. The yellow torch looks like a cheap fibre optic lamp, the yellow tips look like a washed out orange led. I have to play with this thing with the other fluorescents on to get an idea of how well it works as a suppliment but I think I am going to have some 14K EVC halides for sale. I will probably go with 10K lamps running these as suppliments. I first fired the lamp up with 2 105 watt actinic combos (which I WAS exited about) running and this little 54 watter just blew them out of the tub.

This is another shot from last night.

 

[tgreene]

GRIM: What brand & model of bulb is that..?

 

[horkn]

thats what we need grimmy....

looks awesome, and i bet that it looks even better in person

 

[The Grim Reefer]

GRIM: What brand & model of bulb is that..?

Damn!!! Sorry guys. I can't believe I didn;t list the brand. It is a Superblue Helios strip light and yeah, I couldn't believe it either. As good as I thought the actinic combo looks this thing blows it outta the tub. These supposedly have them both as a bare lamp or in the fixture with the internal ballast which is what I have.

 

[horkn]

i looked at the website you listed grim, and i didnt see any superblue, just blue, or act 03 blue...

 

[rdmpe]

Yep, Grim is still holding out on us.

So... If I hang two of the 8x36" TEK fixtures over my 72x24x24 will I have more light than I can use? I think that the way they are wired I would be running four per wall plug unless I re-wire it (which probably wouldn't be too difficult). So will I create a nuclear winter inside my tank?

 

[tgreene]

Just add clams!