T5's: A cautionary note

[tjay]

The bulbs in the middle picture are two daylight two actinic catilina 54 watt T5
The metal Halide pics were with no supplement 20K

 

[rdmpe]

Ah great tjay - thanks so much. So at least on my monitor the 20K halides really don't look all that blue. They look much less blue to me than the middle T5 setup.

I wish I had a bunch of comparisons like that to look at. It really does help a lot in seeing the differnces, even if the computer display is shading it all a bit one way or the other.

It is making me think I want to go with the Maristar 3x250 although my wallet is protesting heartily...

 

[tjay]

DIY retros too me are the best bet. That is ofcourse if you have a canopy that will hold one. Or you can build a canopy

 

[rdmpe]

That does give the most options. However, I am going to do an open top with a hanging fixture rather than a hood. So the wife wants to see a nice looking fixture rather than one of my DIY which she has had to live with for years lol...

 

[dwdenny]

call me wierd but I like the first pic the best. To me the colors stand out the best. Tjay what lighting was that under?

 

[tjay]

2 x 250 MH 20K no suppliment

 

[Codeman00]

I like the second set the best.

 

[tjay]

the T5 gives a very strangely matted look. The color is not brash or harsh at all. I like it as well but it does not make things in the tank POP like MH.

It is a matter of taste I am sure. I did not have a lot of corals to be concerned with so just a matter of choosing. I added a green leather finger today, and last week a branching flowerpot. Should be interesting to see how things grow.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

It is damn hard to go wrong with the maristar fixture.

I got all my 250 watt wiring done. I gotta mount 1 more T5 and splice 2 more quick connect cables to the other 2 ballasts and I be done

 

[dieselab]

is it just me or is the T5 sun bulbs useless?

 

[Codeman00]

what do you mean useless? I like the color of the sun with my VHO actinic and one blue plus.

 

[dieselab]

what I mean was that I tried a sun in my combo. I removed an aquablue for the sun and the color was just nasty yellow, so I just change it back to my aquablue. I currently have aqua, blueplus, actinic, blueplus, aqua front to back on a 660 with a triad for the actinic. i will try again after I install my uri actinic this weekend.

 

[horkn]

rharlow, welcome to RC! I have a softies tank with only 2 39w T5's on it, one daylight and one blue+. It is brighter than most tanks you see in LFSs. The anemones (more light demanding than most softies) are growing and splitting, and every thing is doing very well. I have no sps in there, but one large closed brain that is doing great. My stonies tank has 6 54w T5's. I think a mixed tank with 4 bulbs would be fine.

i have 3x39 of t5ho on my mixed reef 35. 1 6500k ge day, and 2 ati 20k blues. and all is well, even the pocillopora

 

[Codeman00]

what I mean was that I tried a sun in my combo. I removed an aquablue for the sun and the color was just nasty yellow, so I just change it back to my aquablue. I currently have aqua, blueplus, actinic, blueplus, aqua front to back on a 660 with a triad for the actinic. i will try again after I install my uri actinic this weekend.

dieselab,

GrimReefer told me to put the blue pluses in the front of the suns or days to blend out the yellow color. Thats the way my set up is and it loooks good to me...I get more yellow coming through with the day bulb than the sun bulb. More red and green it seems from the sun.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

what I mean was that I tried a sun in my combo. I removed an aquablue for the sun and the color was just nasty yellow, so I just change it back to my aquablue. I currently have aqua, blueplus, actinic, blueplus, aqua front to back on a 660 with a triad for the actinic. i will try again after I install my uri actinic this weekend.

If you put that sun in front it would look nasty. With the Sun mounted in the rear with that combo I wouldn't expect to see a yellow look at all. I would also move the aquas a little more toward the center. I would place them like this

Front

Blueplus
Aquablue
Actinic (He go bye bye when you get URI's)
Aquablue
Blueplus

rear

The Aquablue produces the most PAR, might as well keep them where it will get to most of the tank. Having the blue lamp in front also gives you a little more of a blue look. Try poping the Sun lamp in where your actinic is now and see what you think. Not having it overdriven might give you a look you like even without the URI actinics.

 

[dieselab]

Thanks Code and Grim. I am going to give your setup a try, even though I like my current setup. I will let you know how it all works out. You are right about the actinic going bye bye though. What if I keep the T5 actinic in place along with the URI?

 

[Codeman00]

The one bad thing about the URI, is that it doesn't keep up real well brightness-wise with the 4 T5s. I almost need 2 of them. 1 works nicely with 2 T5's. I was thinking of replacing my day bulb with one of those Catalina or Helios actinics...I thought that might be a good combo. That would give me 2 blue pluses, a sun, a T5 actinic (Helios or Catalina) and a VHO Super Actinic. Im just worried that running 2 actinics will lower my usable light for the corals too much.

Thoughts?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

The superblue helios actually puts out a lot of PAR, almost as much as the overdriven blueplus, can't say about the catalina.

 

[Codeman00]

Grim, but is that a useful amount of par with the actinic??? Do you have some numbers? are you overdriving the helios?

 

[Obi-dad]

codeman, it sounds as if you are saying the 'superblue helios' is actinic, is that true? Or is it more similar to the ATI blue+? The reason I ask is that 'blue' (the range centered around 450nm) falls solidy within the PAR spectrum and is pretty accurately measured by PAR meters, while some of the 'actinic' (the range centered around 420nm) falls outside of the PAR spectrum (or is not measured properly by the typical PAR meter. The PAR spectrum is defined as flat from 400-700nm, while the meters do not have prefectly flat response. So actinic bulbs don't usually contribute nearly as much to the PAR readings as blue bulbs.