The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[Michigan Mike]

What I've found is placing the "bright" low kelvin lights like the GE bulb away from an area that has high rock work below it. Or it being too close to the rocks.
I used to place it near the back because my rock wall is closer the the lights near the rear & my SPS coral benefits from the higher lighting but it would make a too large of color difference in my tank.
I hope tht came out right & it makes sense, haha.

 

[jdraider75]

I am looking to buy an 8 bulb sunpower for my 48x24x24 sps dominate tank. I have a nova extreme now and have all sps in upper half. Witb a sunpower can I grow sps in sand or does it still need to be upper half. I am looking to rescape my tank wit less rock and not have a big rock wall.

 

[Michigan Mike]

I am looking to buy an 8 bulb sunpower for my 48x24x24 sps dominate tank. I have a nova extreme now and have all sps in upper half. Witb a sunpower can I grow sps in sand or does it still need to be upper half. I am looking to rescape my tank wit less rock and not have a big rock wall.

You can grow on the sand if you keep your light fairly close to the water.

It will be a lot better than that nova pro.

 

[jdraider75]

You can grow on the sand if you keep your light fairly close to the water.

It will be a lot better than that nova pro.

How close you think like 4 inches. The reason I ask I have been debating on goin led or buyn a sunpower. I probably wil have sps a good 6 inches up and 2 inch sandbed so sounds like should be ok.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Wow, thank you so much. Just ordered a few extra bulb to try some of these schemes out.

How close you think like 4 inches. The reason I ask I have been debating on goin led or buyn a sunpower. I probably wil have sps a good 6 inches up and 2 inch sandbed so sounds like should be ok.

You should be fine like that.

 

[shelk]

I'm installing a 4x54w fixture

what do you guys think for a bluish look, but not too much

2 blue plus
1 purple plus
1 aquablue special

or

2 blue plus
1 purple plus
1 12k or 15k bulb

or

1 actinic blue
1 blue plus
1 purple plus
1 12k or 15k bulb

or any other suggestion?

thanks in advance

 

[jdraider75]

You should be fine like that.

Thanks for your help Mike

 

[TropTrea]

I'm installing a 4x54w fixture

what do you guys think for a bluish look, but not too much

2 blue plus
1 purple plus
1 aquablue special

or

2 blue plus
1 purple plus
1 12k or 15k bulb

or

1 actinic blue
1 blue plus
1 purple plus
1 12k or 15k bulb

or any other suggestion?

thanks in advance

What would you be using for the 12K to 15K bulb? Otherwise the single Atinic will give you a tad more florescense from your corals. However it will give you a little less coral growth and PAR than the 2 Blue Plus Bulbs. All three will give you a strong blue tint but with the Aqua Blue Special it will be more of blue/green tint than some of the other 12K to 15K combos.

As far as it being enough light that will vary considerably by what size your tank is.

 

[shelk]

tank is 63 gallons, 1,20 x 50 x 40

in the future will have also SPS is this 4x54 wnough, should i consider a 6x54? or should i complement these 4 with some leds, if so wich ones?

 

[Michigan Mike]

tank is 63 gallons, 1,20 x 50 x 40

in the future will have also SPS is this 4x54 wnough, should i consider a 6x54? or should i complement these 4 with some leds, if so wich ones?

...what are the dimensions converted to inches?

 

[shelk]

roughly

47x20x15

 

[Michigan Mike]

roughly

47x20x15

6 bulb

 

[shelk]

I do have another 2x54 fixture to run if necessary, but i was wondering if i could add some LED lighting to complement the 4 bulbs, any sugestions?

 

[TropTrea]

tank is 63 gallons, 1,20 x 50 x 40

in the future will have also SPS is this 4x54 wnough, should i consider a 6x54? or should i complement these 4 with some leds, if so wich ones?

For this thread I would say you will much better off with 6 54 watt T-5's. However from personal experience I would go with LED's. There is a thread on LED's and T-5's that I started.

For the LED T-5 Combo My recomendation would be:

A predawn to Post Dusk of 6 Royal Blue (454nm LED's) 4 True Blue (460 to 470nm LED's) and 2 near UV ( 420 to 430 nm) LED's. These will dazzle you by the pop you will get from the florescent. Run these at less than 2 Watts per LED for the best effect.

Then bring in your 4 T-5's 2 ATI Atinic, and 2 ATI Blue Plus bulbs for the Dawn to Dusk. Still Prediminatly Blue but the PAR will be up there high enough and

For midday you brighten things up with 6 Royal Blue and 6 Neutral White LED's. The ratio between these are completly up to your personal taste but the Neutral White LED's being aroung 5,000K brighten up the tank considerable with a fairly flat light spectrum. Using 5 Watt LED's you can also varry your brightness depending on if you run these at 2 Watts, 5 Watts, or someplace inbetween.

Actualy running the combination of LED's and T-5's only two T-5's would be needed but you would have to push the midday LED's lighting to around 80 watts total, with only 108 Watts of T-5's.

 

[shelk]

Any led fixture you would recomend for that?

thanks for the input

 

[Michigan Mike]

Any led fixture you would recomend for that?

thanks for the input

Reef brites, ecoxotic, current true lumens are the only ones I've really seen and they all seem pretty close.

 

[TropTrea]

Any led fixture you would recomend for that?

thanks for the input

I still have not found that perfect comercial fixture. Most are running roughly technology that is roughly 2 to 3 years old compared to what you can do with a simple Do It Yourself fixture for LED's. Then there is also the price difference. In most cases what would cost you $100 in a do it yourself fixture will cost you three times that comercialy.

If you have to go with a comercial fixture look at the various strip light fixtures that will work good when combining them with T-5's. For the predawn you want one with just blue LED's. and low wattage under 30 watts for your tank. Then for Midday you want about 60 Watts of mainly white LED's. But be real carful on these as different white LED's will result in drasticly different effects.

Keep in mind 1 Watt of LED lighting will give you as much light as 1 1/2 to 2 Watts of T-5 lighting. So you do not want to over do the LED's either.

 

[Kern6972]

Hey Grim, I was referred to u by a friend to talk to u about bulb setup. I have a 48" t5 ho 4 bulb fixture on 75 gal tank. It's a mixed reef tank with lps sps and softies, I want to get a clam that will be in front of tank in sand. I want the night setting to look deep blue to pop out greens and oranges (like led blue) and day settings to mimic led color as much as possible if that makes sense (hid car lights with a a purple tint lol) but obviously need great par for sand bed. What do u recommend for what im looking for? And is there another setup u really like so i have something to compare it to? Thanks so much for ur time, I really really appreciate it a lot.

 

[TropTrea]

Hey Grim, I was referred to u by a friend to talk to u about bulb setup. I have a 48" t5 ho 4 bulb fixture on 75 gal tank. It's a mixed reef tank with lps sps and softies, I want to get a clam that will be in front of tank in sand. I want the night setting to look deep blue to pop out greens and oranges (like led blue) and day settings to mimic led color as much as possible if that makes sense (hid car lights with a a purple tint lol) but obviously need great par for sand bed. What do u recommend for what im looking for? And is there another setup u really like so i have something to compare it to? Thanks so much for ur time, I really really appreciate it a lot.

T-5's can never mimic LED's. Simularly LED's can never mimic T-5's. Basicly LED's produce a very narrow light spectrum while T-5's are wider spectrumed. But There is noting wrong with mixing the two together. In your case you already have a 4 Bulb T-5 fixture and you can either boast it with 2 more T05 bulbs or with LED's. From your comments I would liook into adding two strips of about 30 watts each of mainly Royal Blue LED lights. Then for your T-5's using 2 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus and either an aqua blue special or a Coral Plus.

 

[SneekaPeek]

Wanted to get a talk going about giesemann's t5 bulb lagoon blue. Anyone's thoughts, comments, results feel free.
My take on the bulb is that it is identical to the new gen kz bulb with a spike in green. I find it very crisp white with a touch of red and high blue/green.
I am trying it out on my fixture with a 6 bulb combo of 4 blue, 2 lagoon blue. I find the tank very blue and it is not the purple hue blue which I dig even more. I am not completely satisfied because it does not bring out the warm colors as I intended it would. The tank has major fluorescence which is nice, but it does not have that umph that a purple bulb/ge6500 will bring out. With my bulb combo, I really am trying to stay away from the purple hues, but still bring out the wide array as possible. I wonder if I put a coral+ instead of one of the lagoon blues, hmmmm? so many possibilities.