The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[smaione618]

hey guys i dont want to seem like i am a pain but as i stated earlier i have an odyssea light fixture. unfortunately i spent too much money at the last swap we just went to and my wife would kill me if i ask to spend the money on a new fixture lol. i was wondering if you guys knew of any things i could do to the light itself to improve it just a little. please if any ideas please help tia.

 

[Michigan Mike]

The cheapest option is good bulbs and a small clip on fan that will blow (not to hard) across the bulbs on the cold spots. All bulbs must be placed in the same way. Label end all on the same side and the fan blowing on that end not on the center of the tube.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Read this for more detail
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2220663&highlight=how+to+get+the+most+out+of+your+t5ho+bulbs

Cooling the bulbs will give you close to a 20% increase in PAR & longer bulb life.

You could start putting away some money for the new fixture, that's what I did. Eventually your gonna have a problem and you should be prepared. Or you could show her all the mishaps of them catching fire & ask her if its not worth the money then. Good luck!

 

[smaione618]

Oh man I never thought of the fire thing lol got any of those threads lol thanks mike ur a life saver

 

[TropTrea]

I'd start with 6-8 hours and go more if you find everything is okay and if its actually beneficial to go longer.
I only run 7-8 hours total a day and some days I don't run that long, sometimes it is more (if company is over). I really don't believe 10-12 hours is beneficial, corals don't need "really need" more than 7 or 8 hours IMO.
If someone wants to prove that 10-12 hours is better than 6-8 hours go ahead.
I've seen awesome growth in very awesome tanks with high power halides that ran 5 hours a day.

Yes it is not so much the time itself as is it time multiplied by the intensity. There does need to a period of time where you both light and darkness as the there needs to be a cycle of resperation as well as the period of photosynthesis. But it is questionable at what level the cycling gets out of balance excessively.

I try to allow 12 hours of darkness or at least of very low illumination. Think of it as in nature you have usualy 8 hours of darkness, roughly 4 hours of sunrise 8 hours of full light and then 4 hours of sunset. Since in the Reef most of us cannot varry our lighting slowly over the 16 hour period we break it down into 2 or three levels of light.

In the case mentiond earlier where we have 6 bubls total to cover a large tank I do not see a problem running a 12 hour cycle on the B+and P+ alone since these will not create a great amount of light. I like to refer this as a pre dawn to post dusk period. The second stag being two additional blue plus bulbs could work nicely on a 8 hour cycle. Then the mid day cycle with the GE 6,500K and another B+ could start with as little as a 4 hour on Cycle and be slowly increased based on the needs of your corals. Since the corals mentioned are not extreme light requiring corals the 6 bulb fixture should be able to provide more than enough light for your needs.

 

[john reefer]

I just bought one of those lights too. Spent too much on the LED for the other half of the tank. I bought a four bulb, hate the color of the light. I unhooked one of the blues and it looks a little better. From what I read you guys really like the ati bulbs I think I will upgrade the bulbs to see if it is any better. Hadn't thought about fire. not a good thought!

 

[smaione618]

I just bought one of those lights too. Spent too much on the LED for the other half of the tank. I bought a four bulb, hate the color of the light. I unhooked one of the blues and it looks a little better. From what I read you guys really like the ati bulbs I think I will upgrade the bulbs to see if it is any better. Hadn't thought about fire. not a good thought!

So ur running just three of the bulbs ?? Is it giving u better growth or just over all color and the bulbs the come with are def anything but ideal over all okay light for a fowlr imo

 

[john reefer]

I only have corals on half of my tank for now. There are some uninteresting brown zoos and some mushrooms that have migrated to that side of the tank. So it is mainly fo tank. I unhooked it b/c of the color the blues are not blue or atnic at all. The 10ks are very yellow.

 

[smaione618]

i know they claim to be daylight 10k and atinic but the liik like the type you pickup at home depot
i just ordered my bulbs i will let you know how the new ati's are in the fixture

 

[Michigan Mike]

When your starting with "freshwater or non blue bubs" < from these, it is a big adjustment. I understand the change.

Don't be surprised if your tastes change & you want more blue, purple, or white.

I love the ge6500 in 6 bulb (or more) fixtures, I just put a ge&blue combo (2 bulb) up to my combo today (avatar) & had my wife & I look take a look, its not bad, brighter but I liked it before & still do like it, but I don't run a 6 bulb combo...I wish I did, maybe I should rig it up.(if 6 bulb I could run 1 GE bulb, maybe, its not that bad...)
But...
I use a 4 bulb combo & like a bluer look so I won't use a GE bulb unless I have 6 bulbs (preferably more) & enough blue to satisfy.....this is the most important when using a GE bulb IMO. The more red, the worse it s, GE bulbs have a lot of red, so adding more than 1 purple bulb to each GE bulb is too much IMO.

(Unlike some) I won't add a bunch of red spectum to negate the white/yellow, I'd drop the the red&yellow and go from there, i would add more blue than add more red! Any day!

I'm always disappointed in whiter looking tanks now, it wasn't always this way but I never ever will go back to a whiter looking tank- like Grim said (I can't quote @ the moment) -more blue is the secret - something like that...its true...to some of us.
White tanks look sad now,...is it me?

In the end its up to the user & I recommend trying new bulbs whenever possible. Only way to know for sure what you like, & there is nothing wrong with changing things up for a bit.
Happy Reefing!

 

[TropTrea]

When your starting with "freshwater or non blue bubs" < from these, it is a big adjustment. I understand the change.

Don't be surprised if your tastes change & you want more blue, purple, or white.

>parts deleted>

I'm always disappointed in whiter looking tanks now, it wasn't always this way but I never ever will go back to a whiter looking tank- like Grim said (I can't quote @ the moment) -more blue is the secret - something like that...its true...to some of us.
White tanks look sad now,...is it me?

In the end its up to the user & I recommend trying new bulbs whenever possible. Only way to know for sure what you like, & there is nothing wrong with changing things up for a bit.
Happy Reefing!

I agree with a lot of what you said here. I know for myself the longer I'm into the hobby the more I seem to like a bluer tank for at least some of the viewing time.

But I also tink that it has a lot to do with what people are putting into there tanks. The bluer tanks cause the florescent colors to pop more which is a big factor why most of us love the bluer look. But there are also some beautiful corals that have little or no florescense in them. The fish in out tanks also have little to no florescense. To bring out the non florescent elements in the tank you need the other wave lenghts.

I know when my tanks go into the pre-dawn or post dusk lighting cycle the fish have a tendency of vanishing into the background. The red clown fish look like a dark maroon color, the yellow foxface looks medium brown, and my pink acropora looks grey. Yet my florescent corals pop like an avitar movie, or an old florescent pain picture on a black velvet canvas.

Personal taste it what is important here. I know people who select corals strictly by how much they radiate under deep UV lighting. I know others that pick there corals by how it looks under white lighting. There are some people that like to display there fish as much as there coral, and others that could care less if there was even a fish in there tank. These are all variables the differ between individuals. There is no one perfect lighting system for everyone.

 

[Michigan Mike]

^for sure, but every time I see a SPS tank with 10-12k lighting I wanna say - is that one coral worth it because it still looks bad & its not your lighting. Try changing your parameters and flow.
Even today when I added a ge6500& blue+ to my existing 2 blue+, purple & actinic it looked alright, just enough red/yel-grn to bring out a more natural color but still have enough blue to not make me barf & say why does my @ home reef look like the planted tank in the other room?
4 bulbs are difficult.

 

[steelwrap]

My personal preference is that for one GE 6,500K two purple plus bulbs neutralizes any yellw green hues perfectly. And then with 3 to 5 blue Plus or other strong blue bulbs you get a nice balance.[/QUOTE]

for a 4 bulb fixture what do you think of one GE6500 2 blue plus and 1 purple plus? what would the color turn iut to look like? thanks

 

[Michigan Mike]

My personal preference is that for one GE 6,500K two purple plus bulbs neutralizes any yellw green hues perfectly. And then with 3 to 5 blue Plus or other strong blue bulbs you get a nice balance.

for a 4 bulb fixture what do you think of one GE6500 2 blue plus and 1 purple plus? what would the color turn iut to look like? thanks[/QUOTE]

Feels weird, old pic, over & over,lol.
Here you go. Closest iPhone pic I have of how it looks.2 blue plus, 1 KZ purple, 1 ge6500.
I like the combo if looking for a natural look with lots of pop, there is a little purple tinge in the top of the water because of the purple bulb & ge6500 bulb - lots of red spectrum, FYI. Looks good though.

 

[Michigan Mike]

You should try 2 blue plus bulbs next the GE6500 & see if that is better than 2 purple bulbs.
Hey we are close ! I'm near St.Joseph, MI. Very close! Lol




Have freshwater fish/tanks needing to go soon! PM me before summer!lol

 

[steelwrap]

Yep We are close. I do like that combo and the natural look, I'm going to have to give it a try. Thanks

 

[Michigan Mike]

One thing for sure, & looked again today, with a ge&blue (2x24w) against my 2 blue/purple/actinic & the GE&blue combo is a great! - its not for everyone, but if I was using a 6,7,or 8 bulb fixture I would be very tempted to use it, especially in a SPS dominate tank.
I would put blue bulbs on each side though.
There is something about that bulb.
I wish I had a wider tank, like 24" wide tank, I can set up 10 bulbs - easy...but I or have a wide enough tank to see how it will look.
I have 3 4x24w fixtures , a 2x24w fixture, and a 1 bulb fixture so I can do aquactinic (5&7bulbs) fixtures as well if I had a larger tank, the only thing I can do is raise the fixtures - that's it unfortunately.
Here's the GE & blue plus, iPhone3 pic, its a nice white, it does fine over my puffer tank.

iPad pici think, its close. I think its a less blue on the sand but its def not a yellow hue- closer to a white with hint of blue hue on the sandbed. Very good for a natural look without any yellow - 15k XM is close.

Close to 150w XM on m-81

You can see the 15k XM has more yellow. The sandbed is older in the first pic so look at the rock. Its kinda manipulating the pics as the halide almost acts like it has a flash type look on the iPhone, the background is much darker as its brighter than the 2 T5 bulbs.

 

[Froggy]

The cheapest option is good bulbs and a small clip on fan that will blow (not to hard) across the bulbs on the cold spots. All bulbs must be placed in the same way. Label end all on the same side and the fan blowing on that end not on the center of the tube.

Is this the recommended way to cool T5's in fixtures without active cooling? It was originally suggested to me by Grim to cool my TEK by blowing an external fan above the center of the fixture. The reason for this was that it is easy to accidentally over cool the T5 bulbs by blowing on the label end cold spot and this is just as bad on the bulbs as them running too hot. I am currently running a fan that blows on the vent slots above the center of the TEK fixture. Is there evidence that I should change the placement of the fan?
Joe

 

[john reefer]

i know they claim to be daylight 10k and atinic but the liik like the type you pickup at home depot
i just ordered my bulbs i will let you know how the new ati's are in the fixture

What did you order blue + and purple?

 

[Michigan Mike]

Is this the recommended way to cool T5's in fixtures without active cooling? It was originally suggested to me by Grim to cool my TEK by blowing an external fan above the center of the fixture. The reason for this was that it is easy to accidentally over cool the T5 bulbs by blowing on the label end cold spot and this is just as bad on the bulbs as them running too hot. I am currently running a fan that blows on the vent slots above the center of the TEK fixture. Is there evidence that I should change the placement of the fan?
Joe

No evidence I'm aware of, do what Grim recommended.
TEK fixtures are vented enough where that is a good way to cool it, either way will work but a fan on the side must not over-cool the center of the bulbs by blowing too much.

Not all fixtures are the same so try to use good judgement, I couldn't cool my fishneedit or other fixtures the way Grim said unfortunately.