The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[Dapg8gt]

I just bought a 6 bulb sunpower and am loving the pics above for reference. Thinking of going with 3 blue+, 2 KZ purple, GE 6500k.. Too white? What about the KZ mid day sun in place of the GE? Are they any good? Thanks for the pics michigan mike got me a little closer to my goal of getting bulbs LOL.. I tend to like a bluer light. Suggestions?

On my tank now is a Phoenix 14k and 4 blue+. What would be the combo to rival/equal that? With maybe a little more blue..

Also where are you guys thinking of adding the led strips at? The side next to the acrylic? Any pics of finished products?

I have a friend who is running some cheap eBay multichip fixture (20k) and he got each unit for $39 with and has been running them for about a year without a hiccup. His are 10 watt 20k chips . I was thinking of adding two of them on either long side of my fixture pointing towards the center. They are adjustable and mount easily. But my fixture is going to be hung so I'm not sure on these being that appealing. They remind me of a halogen work light housing just smaller. I'm thinking a little paint and a bracket running down the center of the light to either side To mount them. If I had a canopy I would be all over them..

 

[toofrigginswt]

4 bulb combos
.
2 blue plus & 2 KZ purple

My combo, 2 blue plus,1 KZ purple, 1 ATI actinic

3 blue plus & 1 KZ purple

I know sometimes pictures can't capture the true look and color of the bulbs but based on the pics, I'm really digging the 2 blue+ and 2 kz combo you have.

 

[toofrigginswt]

Finally found a setup that I'm temporarily happy with for my 10x54w ATI Powermodule. I have it setup as follows:

Front
ATI Blue plus
ATI Blue plus
ATI Purple plus (Dusk/Dawn)
ATI Blue plus
ATI Coral plus
ATI Blue plus
ATI Coral plus
ATI Blue plus (Dusk/Dawn)
ATI Blue plus
ATI Blue plus
Back

 

[tegee]

Finally found a setup that I'm temporarily happy with for my 10x54w ATI Powermodule. I have it setup as follows:

Front
ATI Blue plus
ATI Blue plus
ATI Purple plus (Dusk/Dawn)
ATI Blue plus
ATI Coral plus
ATI Blue plus
ATI Coral plus
ATI Blue plus (Dusk/Dawn)
ATI Blue plus
ATI Blue plus
Back

That sounds like a nice setup. I have a 10 x 80w ATI PM and have almost the same setup, except I have 2-purple+ and 2-coral+. And I have both Blue+ as my dawn to dusk, but I only run dawn to dusk 1/2 hour before and 1-hr after full photoperiod.

 

[Michigan Mike]

1 GE,1 KZ purple, 2 blue plus

 

[Michigan Mike]

Above I posted the wrong pic about 3 blue & 1 purple, sorry. This is correct now.

4 bulb combos
.
2 blue plus & 2 KZ purple

My combo, 2 blue plus,1 KZ purple, 1 ATI actinic

3 blue plus & 1 KZ purple

 

[rtparty]

Mike, what order are the bulbs in for the pictures? That will play a big role in color as well.

The 3 blue and 1 purple seems that the purple may be in the back because my 3 blue and 1 purple looks different.

This is where pictures become very deceiving. My monitor and calibration is different than yours and yours is different than Joe's.

I've got about 13 bulbs right now and could put together a ton of combos but in the end, pictures should never be used as an end all to pick combos. The 2 blue and 2 purple combo looks good in the picture but I know in real life, it is way too pink.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Mike, what order are the bulbs in for the pictures? That will play a big role in color as well.

The 3 blue and 1 purple seems that the purple may be in the back because my 3 blue and 1 purple looks different.

This is where pictures become very deceiving. My monitor and calibration is different than yours and yours is different than Joe's.

I've got about 13 bulbs right now and could put together a ton of combos but in the end, pictures should never be used as an end all to pick combos. The 2 blue and 2 purple combo looks good in the picture but I know in real life, it is way too pink.

Purple is second from the front in each pic, I raised the lights about 10" above the tank so they would blend better. If I had a wider tanki could do 8,10,14 bulb combos although I don't have enough different kinds of bulbs.
I had to change the ISO from 200,400,500 as I got more blue otherwise the bluer pics were underexposed, they came out pretty close IMO.

 

[TropTrea]

Sorry not the best pics, manual focus wasn't good but hope it helps.
After doing this I was digging on 3 blue plus & 1 KZ purple for the strong flourescence.

Wish I could get pictures like that. My Camera keeps auto adjusting the color temp and regardless of what lighting I use the only thing that changes is the contrast levels.

But I will say that this is a good example of personal preference. My favorate was the 1 GE, 2 Purples, and 3 Blue Plus. But I wonder if I would like it more or less if a Blue Plus would be swapped for an Atinic? Or if you used the KZ Blues rather than ATI's?

 

[Michigan Mike]

As promised, a week ago...the pics.
6 bulb- 1 GE,2 kz purple,3 blue plus

6 bulb- 1 GE, 1 KZ purple, 4 blue plus

I prefer not having 2 purple bulbs in a 6 bulb combo.

My girlfriend says she liked the pic with 2 purple bulbs, in real life she liked the 1 purple 6 bulb ombo & the 3 blue-1purple 4 bulb combo.
... the 2 purples doesn't look bad, but to my eye the greens have a reddish tint & the its not as crisp & poppy as the combo with 1 purple, I could use the 1ge,1purple,4blue combo if I had a 6 bulb fixture.

 

[TropTrea]

Thank you much for the advice Dennis. I'll keep it in mind as I play with bulb combinations. If 620 is where the 6500k LEDs really fall flat, I may play with the purple to see what that does for color rendition.

As for the LEDs I have (on each of the two strips) 24 6500k, 4 400nm, 16 450nm, 8 470nm, 4 525, 4 660.

I feel like I have most of what's above 450 pretty well covered (though based on what you said, I may be missing some in the 610+ range too). I'm looking forward to see how it looks with those gaps filled in.

Looks like your LED's seem tunded for a mid day effect that would be fairly bright. Between the 6.5K's and the 660nm you have 28 LED's compared to 28 in the blue range if my number are right. That is close to a 1 to 1 ratio. With 6,500K LED's most people go with between a 1 to 2 and a 1 to 3 ratio with the 1 being the whites. So for your T'5's I could go very heavy into the blues. Between Atinics and the KZ Blues you should not be overly blue.

 

[GroktheCube]

Looks like your LED's seem tunded for a mid day effect that would be fairly bright. Between the 6.5K's and the 660nm you have 28 LED's compared to 28 in the blue range if my number are right. That is close to a 1 to 1 ratio. With 6,500K LED's most people go with between a 1 to 2 and a 1 to 3 ratio with the 1 being the whites. So for your T'5's I could go very heavy into the blues. Between Atinics and the KZ Blues you should not be overly blue.

Yeah. When I ordered them, I was concerned that having them "too blue" would cause color rendition issues, but now having done more reading and looking at more pictures, I definitely think more blue than what I have now would be better. They definitely have a "mid day" look, to my eyes pretty similar to "10k" MH bulbs. Very bright, very white light.

I think combination with the blue T5s will be ideal, I'll likely use the LEDs as a mid day light source, ramping up a few hours after the T5s are all on, and ramping down a couple hours before the T5s come off.

I'll be sure to let people know what bulb combination I end up with and how things look. The Sunpower and bulbs should be here on Thursday.

 

[Outrigger Reef]

Hello new reefer here and just getting my six lamp fixture for my 90 soon to be mixed reef tank. Just have fish right now.

I just bought a used fixture and it came with Eight new lamps. I would like to know which ones to use and what order. Also which ones should be my dusk to dawn lamps. I like a 14k to 20 ish k look.

Three blue plus
Two aqua blue Special
One ati actinic
One coral sun actinic
One power chrome midday

Thank you for you help in advance.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Hello new reefer here and just getting my six lamp fixture for my 90 soon to be mixed reef tank. Just have fish right now.

I just bought a used fixture and it came with Eight new lamps. I would like to know which ones to use and what order. Also which ones should be my dusk to dawn lamps. I like a 14k to 20 ish k look.

Three blue plus
Two aqua blue Special
One ati actinic
One coral sun actinic
One power chrome midday

Thank you for you help in advance.

Me, I'd use everything but the aquablue special bulbs.

 

[Outrigger Reef]

Me, I'd use everything but the aquablue special bulbs.

In what order?

Should I get another type of lamp to make anything better?

I like a bluer tank.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Hello new reefer here and just getting my six lamp fixture for my 90 soon to be mixed reef tank. Just have fish right now.

I just bought a used fixture and it came with Eight new lamps. I would like to know which ones to use and what order. Also which ones should be my dusk to dawn lamps. I like a 14k to 20 ish k look.

Three blue plus
Two aqua blue Special
One ati actinic
One coral sun actinic
One power chrome midday

Thank you for you help in advance.

B
Blue
Actinic-dawn/dusk
Midday
Blue
Actinic-dawn/dusk
Blue
F

You can try a coral plus or new gen instead of the midday. A purple wouldn't hurt to try either, try it and see what you want to change about it. Are these new bulbs you say?

 

[Outrigger Reef]

B
Blue
Actinic-dawn/dusk
Midday
Blue
Actinic-dawn/dusk
Blue
F

You can try a coral plus or new gen instead of the midday. A purple wouldn't hurt to try either, try it and see what you want to change about it. Are these new bulbs you say?

Yes they are brand new. Thanks for your help.

 

[TropTrea]

Yeah. When I ordered them, I was concerned that having them "too blue" would cause color rendition issues, but now having done more reading and looking at more pictures, I definitely think more blue than what I have now would be better. They definitely have a "mid day" look, to my eyes pretty similar to "10k" MH bulbs. Very bright, very white light.

I think combination with the blue T5s will be ideal, I'll likely use the LEDs as a mid day light source, ramping up a few hours after the T5s are all on, and ramping down a couple hours before the T5s come off.

I'll be sure to let people know what bulb combination I end up with and how things look. The Sunpower and bulbs should be here on Thursday.

I just viewed Reef Magazine on line and they had some interesting pictures comparing different light sources on one large Acan.
1. 10 K light source alone Showed a strong orange hue
2. 1 Blue Plus and 3 10 K bulbs Showed a slightly duller Orange color
2, 3 Blue Plus and 1 10 K Bulb Showed a briliant Cyan color with dull Orange Streaking
4 At Blue Lighting showed a li==ot more of the blue and green with much less Orange.

Interestgly I have same ACAN that look very dull orange/red under midday lighting that is close to level 3 above but under strict blue light the colors of red and orange pop. I think this is a fine example of where the coral selection will determine what colors are working best for you. In the case of the coral they showed there was a lot of reflective orange, But there was also florescent blue and green pigments that barely showed or were washed out by the 10 K lighting.

In the case of the pictures they showed I lkied the effect of the sole 10K lighting alone best. But for my corals I my tank would look dull with that kind of lighting.

 

[GroktheCube]

I just viewed Reef Magazine on line and they had some interesting pictures comparing different light sources on one large Acan.
1. 10 K light source alone Showed a strong orange hue
2. 1 Blue Plus and 3 10 K bulbs Showed a slightly duller Orange color
2, 3 Blue Plus and 1 10 K Bulb Showed a briliant Cyan color with dull Orange Streaking
4 At Blue Lighting showed a li==ot more of the blue and green with much less Orange.

Interestgly I have same ACAN that look very dull orange/red under midday lighting that is close to level 3 above but under strict blue light the colors of red and orange pop. I think this is a fine example of where the coral selection will determine what colors are working best for you. In the case of the coral they showed there was a lot of reflective orange, But there was also florescent blue and green pigments that barely showed or were washed out by the 10 K lighting.

In the case of the pictures they showed I lkied the effect of the sole 10K lighting alone best. But for my corals I my tank would look dull with that kind of lighting.

Interesting. I ordered a lot of different bulbs (actinics, blue plus, superblues, and purples), and the LEDs are dimmable (hooked up to Apex, but have manual dimmer too), so I'll have fun playing around to see what happens.

 

[Michigan Mike]

The pics...the more I look the less happy I am with them. Too large a size & way too cropped & colors are hard to dial in.
Like my normal 4 bulb combo of 2 blue, 1 purple, 1 actinic looks off, the coralline alage is too blue & the purple montis are way too blue & dull looking as well.

I redid a few pics on my Mac but now it looks more blue on my iPad. This was closer to what I see but it looked better on my Mac, the purple monti I can never get it to look like the true deep purple it really is, sad.

Does this look closer Ryan?