The T5 Q&a Thread - split

Thoughts on this on a 4ft 120... SPS tank

Blue Plus
24x 3w Cree Royal Blues (Dimmable)
Coral Plus
Purple Plus
24x 3w Cree Royal Blues (Dimmable)
Blue Plus
 
Hey grim I've noticed in the past you've suggested this in the past for an 8x54 fixture....Michigan Mike was helping ,e in a different thread but I'd like every one expertise...

Blue Plus
Purple PLus
Blue Plus
GE 6500
Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
Blue plus

I was orginally going with
Blue plus
Purple plus
Coarl plus
blue plus
Coral plus
Coral plus
Blue plus
Blue plus

What wouldn the color difference be? Which one is better for color and growth?
 
HHIreefer843 said:
Hey grim I've noticed in the past you've suggested this in the past for an 8x54 fixture....Michigan Mike was helping ,e in a different thread but I'd like every one expertise...

Blue Plus
Purple PLus
Blue Plus
GE 6500
Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
Blue plus

I was orginally going with
Blue plus
Purple plus
Coarl plus
blue plus
Coral plus
Coral plus
Blue plus
Blue plus

What wouldn the color difference be? Which one is better for color and growth?
Click to expand...

Top will be more blue and have better growth. Bottom will be warm to the point of maybe looking a like someone puked pepto into the tank. Not sure though.
 
Hi The Grim Reefer,

I currently use the following tube combination in my 6 X 39W ATI Sunpower as per your advice and other fellow reefers in this thread:

front
ATI Blue plus
ATI Purple plus
ATI Blue Plus
6500K (Sylvania)
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

I am happy with it, but am considering a change when the tube replacement is due near XMAS, just for the sake of experiment.

What is your opinion on the following tube combination in terms of its impact on coral colouration and growth?

KZ SUPER BLUE X2
KZ CORAL LIGHT X 2
KZ NEW GEN X1
KZ FIJI PURPLE X1

I would not mind slightly yellow 10K look, which is what I used to have when I had a SE 10K BLV MH bulb without blues/actinics. The growth was very good and so was the colouration (BLV 10K peaks at 420 nm).

Can you also suggest a combination of tubes of your choice that will produce 10K look, which does not compromise coral colouration please?

Thank you in advance.
 
^that will be yellow.
The first combo was good.
I'd think just adding a coral plus instead of a blue or purple bulb is all you would need to get it whiter.

See what GRIM says
 
Hello, I have a question concerning the posobility of OVER lighting a reef tank. I'm running a 6 bulb (48in) aquaticlife t5 fixture over my 55g AGA (48in) mixed reef tank with mostly sps corals (acro and monti). The fixture is about 3 months old and I am semi new to sps. Most of the corals are new and have been in the system for about the same time as the fixture. At current, I have some birdsnests of various types highest in the tank and they seem to be doing well. I also have some acros that are going pretty good, but some are not. 2 milli's in a row just don't like it and croak slowly. Water parameters are all optimal for sps and coral in general.

My question is, at 6 bulbs (54w) each I have 324 total watts and 5.9 watts/gallon. I know watts/gallon is not a great way to measure, but I see that 5.9 is very high compared to some other people's posts. AM I OVER LIGHTING?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.
 
Dolmo5000 said:
Hello, I have a question concerning the posobility of OVER lighting a reef tank. I'm running a 6 bulb (48in) aquaticlife t5 fixture over my 55g AGA (48in) mixed reef tank with mostly sps corals (acro and monti). The fixture is about 3 months old and I am semi new to sps. Most of the corals are new and have been in the system for about the same time as the fixture. At current, I have some birdsnests of various types highest in the tank and they seem to be doing well. I also have some acros that are going pretty good, but some are not. 2 milli's in a row just don't like it and croak slowly. Water parameters are all optimal for sps and coral in general.

My question is, at 6 bulbs (54w) each I have 324 total watts and 5.9 watts/gallon. I know watts/gallon is not a great way to measure, but I see that 5.9 is very high compared to some other people's posts. AM I OVER LIGHTING?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.
Click to expand...
Do Not leave your lights on all day and night, that would be over lighting with t5's.
You only have to worry about coral placement, low light meeting corals may need to be acclimated or lower in the rank or shaded by ledges or other corals.
Watts per gallon is viable with new technology, IMO it only was meant for power compact lighting.
My green Millie doesn't seem to do well in my tank under 4x24 sun power, haven't figured out why either, it colored up since it was brown when I got it but it seems to have receded from the frag plug upwards and when I move it around it doesn't seem to help much.
 
jdraider75 said:
Whats the difference between ati sunpower 8 bulb 48 in. fixture and tek elite 8 bulb fixture besides $.
Click to expand...

Pretty much everything. I have a sunpower and it is great, the active cooling works great and you can control the fan speed. The reflectors are different, the ballasts are different, the active cooling design is better.
The TEK elites have been having fan issues and have been recalled.

The TEK fixtures are a bit wider (bout an inch and a half, i think on the 8 bulb fixture)than the same bulb ATI fixture. TEK spreads it's light more while ATI focuses the light better giving higher penetration.
 
Michigan Mike said:
Do Not leave your lights on all day and night, that would be over lighting with t5's.
You only have to worry about coral placement, low light meeting corals may need to be acclimated or lower in the rank or shaded by ledges or other corals.
Watts per gallon is viable with new technology, IMO it only was meant for power compact lighting.
My green Millie doesn't seem to do well in my tank under 4x24 sun power, haven't figured out why either, it colored up since it was brown when I got it but it seems to have receded from the frag plug upwards and when I move it around it doesn't seem to help much.
Click to expand...

Thank you Michigan Mike. I run 2 Geisemann actinic+ bulbs for 12 hours, and the other 4 (3 aquatic life duel actinic and one aquaticlife purple) for 10 hours. When I get back from my current field collection trip I'll be replacing the aquaticlife bulbs for ATI probably (suggestions???). At night the fixture has 4 VERY bright blue moon led's that are on for all but 1.5 hours just before morning when the 2 actinic+ bulbs come on. The moon lights almost seem like they are overly bright. Would you suggest I do anything different? Again, thanks for the assistance.

P.S. Fixture is 9in above water level and sps coral is at depths of 4in below water level - 12in below water level. Birdsnests and acro's up high, monti caps and encrusting species lower.
 
Dolmo5000 said:
Thank you Michigan Mike. I run 2 Geisemann actinic+ bulbs for 12 hours, and the other 4 (3 aquatic life duel actinic and one aquaticlife purple) for 10 hours. When I get back from my current field collection trip I'll be replacing the aquaticlife bulbs for ATI probably (suggestions???). At night the fixture has 4 VERY bright blue moon led's that are on for all but 1.5 hours just before morning when the 2 actinic+ bulbs come on. The moon lights almost seem like they are overly bright. Would you suggest I do anything different? Again, thanks for the assistance.

P.S. Fixture is 9in above water level and sps coral is at depths of 4in below water level - 12in below water level. Birdsnests and acro's up high, monti caps and encrusting species lower.
Click to expand...

Wow my post (#2054) has so many misspelled/wrong words in it!lol:hmm2:

I'm unfamiliar with aquaticlife bulbs , I don't know what the dual actinic is(420/460nm?) but it sounds like you like a very blue colored tank, is that right? What color are you looking for with new bulbs?- Deep blue/actinic 20k, medium blue 14k,or more white like a 10k look? Looking for growth, color or try for both?
 
Love the Coral plus!

Love the Coral plus!

So I finally got my hands on a coral plus bulb for my 6 bulb sunpower and switched out my KZ FP for the Coral+. My current combo front to back is

Front
Blue +
Blue +
Coral +
Blue +
KZ superblue
Blue +

Might be too blue for some but it looks amazing to me. Don't be afraid to go too blue. When the Coral + is on it looks like my old 250w Ushio 20k on M-80 ballast.
 
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