The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[FishysPlace]

Ok this might be the wrong thread but I wanted to ask what kind of lighting would you recommend on a 75g? I would like to have a reef tank with a few select fish. 48"x18"x21"
I'm stuck between T5HO 6 bulb or LED, I have also considered a combination of LED and T5HO 2 or 4 bulb.
All the different threads have me a little scrambled. :fun5:

 

[TropTrea]

Ok this might be the wrong thread but I wanted to ask what kind of lighting would you recommend on a 75g? I would like to have a reef tank with a few select fish. 48"x18"x21"
I'm stuck between T5HO 6 bulb or LED, I have also considered a combination of LED and T5HO 2 or 4 bulb.
All the different threads have me a little scrambled. :fun5:

For what your looking for a fish only tank the lighting is not as important as it would be for someone trying to grow high light demanding corals. So the lighting combination would by 99% for your personal viewing likes and dislikes. However you must keep in mind that 80% of the people that start with a fish only tank after a period of time do eventualy start adding corals and then can end up completly redoing there lighting. So I advise going with a something that will eventualy support corals or can be econmicly switched over.

To bring out the color in your fish a fairly flat spectrum lighting is what brings out there reflective colors the best. However for corals a strong blue spectrumed lighting system willl pop there florescense. I think the build I did for someones 90 gallon tank would work good for you in a different thread with simply selecting different T-5 bulbs.

Comment on that thread and I'll walk you through it.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2275561

 

[TropTrea]

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.

I have a spectrum anylasis on the lagoon blue and while I never ran the bulb myself strongly suspect the same thing as you commented on. The bulb is very wide spectrumed but has its strongest peaks at roughly 480 nm and 520nm. Keeping in mind that what we proceeve as True Blue is in the 460 to 470 nm range it puts these peaks in the Blue Green and yellow green range of the spectrum. there is also a small peak in the 435nm range. To pull it slightly more blue. With a combo of 4 blue bulbs and a purple plus I think one of these bulbs could work nicely.

Here are some spectrum combinations using the Lagoon Blue Bulbs.

 

[Kern6972]

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.

Hey Trop, thanks for answering. I'm not looking to add an extra fixture or strips, I'm not trying to mimic led for the look but for the color that's all. Sorry if I didn't explain that thorough enough previously. I'm looking for the best 4 bulb combo for my tank. I didn't knw if there are more deep blue antitics that kinda resemble led blue. I also need good par for sps lps and inverts

 

[impur]

Epic thread guys, you rock for helping so many people!

I am setting up a 30x30x24 cube and will be running an Aqua Medic 8x39w Ocean Light. I'd like to get the color as close to a Radium MH bulb running on an Icecap ballast. From a few pages back I read that 2 blue plus & 4 coral plus would be pretty close to a Radium on an electronic ballast, what other 2 bulbs would I need to add to keep it the same color? 1 blue plus and 1 more coral plus?

TIA!

 

[warnutts]

Can you guys give me some input on running a 48" 8 bulb ati. Over a 48" rimless tank? Does anyone have pictures of this setup? Worried about light spillage.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Can you guys give me some input on running a 48" 8 bulb ati. Over a 48" rimless tank? Does anyone have pictures of this setup? Worried about light spillage.

What are the dimensions of the tank?

 

[warnutts]

48.x24x21

 

[TropTrea]

Hey Trop, thanks for answering. I'm not looking to add an extra fixture or strips, I'm not trying to mimic led for the look but for the color that's all. Sorry if I didn't explain that thorough enough previously. I'm looking for the best 4 bulb combo for my tank. I didn't knw if there are more deep blue antitics that kinda resemble led blue. I also need good par for sps lps and inverts

Well most LED set ups are using LEds that high poutput in the 450nm to 470 nm range and very little around 480 nm. This is what makes them so hard to mimic. When you even take a atinic T-5 Bulb your actually getting a considerable amount of light above 480 nm. Looking at a Blue Plus you even getting a peak spectrum around 470nm with a strong spectrum up to 500nm. Therefore these T-5's will never look as deep blue as LED's.

But the most Blue T-5's are the Atinics, and Blue Plus bulbs.

 

[Michigan Mike]

48.x24x21

They don't spill much light from the ends IMO, I wouldn't worry about it..but if you really have a issue with it I would do some research and see them yourself if possible. I'm using a 24" fixture over a 30" tank and its great, I'm sure a 36" fixture would work on a 48" tank but the 48" fixtures are so nice...especially for SPS tanks...full coverage!

 

[warnutts]

They don't spill much light from the ends IMO, I wouldn't worry about it..but if you really have a issue with it I would do some research and see them yourself if possible. I'm using a 24" fixture over a 30" tank and its great, I'm sure a 36" fixture would work on a 48" tank but the 48" fixtures are so nice...especially for SPS tanks...full coverage!

thanks mike how many inches off the water do you think i should hang the fixture? I still want to keep low light corals on the sand bed

 

[caustin]

Sorry, double post.

 

[caustin]

Alright, I would appreciate any advice people can give me as I am brand new to saltwater tanks. I picked up a used 37 gallon tank a couple weeks back that came with two 30" coralife t5 units. I That I believe are 31w or 18w per bulb. I think this depends on whether HO bulbs are used and obviously I'd like to start growing corals, currently it has 3 10,000K bulbs and one actnic bulb. I am assuming that this will be enough light to grow most corals, but I want to check. My vision is zoos covering most of the rock with some stony corals intermittent and a couple of soft corals for movement at both the top and the bottom.

From what I have seen I should be looking at two of the actnic bulbs and two of the blue plus. Or one actnic, two blue plus, and one purple bulb. I just want to make sure that this will be able to support good light throughout the entire depth of the tank which is about 20" after my substrate, with the lights sitting about 2" about the top of the tank. I'm also working on a diy led blue strip, but no optics and low power. I'll probably just use them for moonlights, but it may add some blue color as well during the day.

And sorry, I tried to find as much information as possible, but most of the topics I find are for 55,75 or 90 gallon tanks. Not this odd size I have.
I'd also like to thank everybody for the awesome community that I have been lurking that has inspired me to get this new tank.

CN: Two 2x31W 30" T5HO fixtures for 37 gallon tank. 21" deep. What can I grow where? And what's the best 4 bulb combination.

 

[TropTrea]

Alright, I would appreciate any advice people can give me as I am brand new to saltwater tanks. I picked up a used 37 gallon tank a couple weeks back that came with two 30" coralife t5 units. I That I believe are 31w or 18w per bulb. I think this depends on whether HO bulbs are used and obviously I'd like to start growing corals, currently it has 3 10,000K bulbs and one actnic bulb. I am assuming that this will be enough light to grow most corals, but I want to check. My vision is zoos covering most of the rock with some stony corals intermittent and a couple of soft corals for movement at both the top and the bottom.

From what I have seen I should be looking at two of the actnic bulbs and two of the blue plus. Or one actnic, two blue plus, and one purple bulb. I just want to make sure that this will be able to support good light throughout the entire depth of the tank which is about 20" after my substrate, with the lights sitting about 2" about the top of the tank. I'm also working on a diy led blue strip, but no optics and low power. I'll probably just use them for moonlights, but it may add some blue color as well during the day.

And sorry, I tried to find as much information as possible, but most of the topics I find are for 55,75 or 90 gallon tanks. Not this odd size I have.
I'd also like to thank everybody for the awesome community that I have been lurking that has inspired me to get this new tank.

CN: Two 2x31W 30" T5HO fixtures for 37 gallon tank. 21" deep. What can I grow where? And what's the best 4 bulb combination.

I'm a little confused on your lighting. The standard lenght ofT-5 lighting is 24" bulbs that are 24 watt and 36 inch bulbs that are 39 Watt. Coral life does make a 30" fixture that only takes the Coral Life bulbs that they sell which are 31 Watt. This drasticly limits you to the Coral Life bulbs as I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that produces 31 Watt T-5 Bulbs.

The offereings are very slim for these bulbs, mainly
6,700K Which is farely white and bright but too white for only a 4 bulb fixture in my mind.
10,000K Which is the old stand by Salt water white bulb.
Atinic Which is strong in the 420 nm range and the bluest bulb you will be able to find for your fixture.
ColorMAx Which has a color rating closer to an incadescent bulb and will give you a strong red tint and algea will love.

My suggestion is if that is your stuck with these fixtures then go with 3 Atinics and 1 of the 10,000K bulbs. However in situation you would best off going with just one of the fixtures for only two Atinic Bulbs, Then suplementing them with roughly 40 Watts of Royal blue and True Blue LED's, and 20 Watts of Neutral White LED's.

 

[caustin]

I'm a little confused on your lighting. The standard lenght ofT-5 lighting is 24" bulbs that are 24 watt and 36 inch bulbs that are 39 Watt. Coral life does make a 30" fixture that only takes the Coral Life bulbs that they sell which are 31 Watt. This drasticly limits you to the Coral Life bulbs as I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that produces 31 Watt T-5 Bulbs.

The offereings are very slim for these bulbs, mainly
6,700K Which is farely white and bright but too white for only a 4 bulb fixture in my mind.
10,000K Which is the old stand by Salt water white bulb.
Atinic Which is strong in the 420 nm range and the bluest bulb you will be able to find for your fixture.
ColorMAx Which has a color rating closer to an incadescent bulb and will give you a strong red tint and algea will love.

My suggestion is if that is your stuck with these fixtures then go with 3 Atinics and 1 of the 10,000K bulbs. However in situation you would best off going with just one of the fixtures for only two Atinic Bulbs, Then suplementing them with roughly 40 Watts of Royal blue and True Blue LED's, and 20 Watts of Neutral White LED's.

Well, First of all, thank you for your response. And you are right. I have two coralife fixtures which take the 30" bulbs, which from all the boxes I have are coralife bulbs as well. And as a college student I don't have a large amount of money to keep spending. I'd like to limit it to $100 or so with coral. This means that I'd be limited to a DIY method for the LEDs. I can solder and build the mount fairly easy, I'd plan on using an old laptop charger for the power supply at 19.5 V. That should power two rows of 30 bulbs with good illumination. but I'm not entirely sure I understand optics. How necessary are they a tank with a 21" depth? And it seems that I should get a relatively even spread with an LED per inch. Or is this too far off topic for a T5 thread? :lol:

 

[Michigan Mike]

thanks mike how many inches off the water do you think i should hang the fixture? I still want to keep low light corals on the sand bed

What light fixture do you have, is it actively cooled with fans?

 

[SlavicSavage]

I am looking for some opinions on what bulbs I should choose. Currently I have a 70 "cube" (30x30x~20) with a 250 watt AquaMedic HQI fixture over it running a Pheonix 14k. I plan on putting 4 24" T5s over the tank to suppliment some extra light. I was going to do all 4 bulbs as actinics, 2 purple and 2 blue, but wasnt sure what brands were the best these days or for the 24" bulbs or what people thought would nicely compliment the Pheonix 14k. I will be using a Workhorse 5 to drive the T5s with individual reflectors and will get some fans to cool the endcaps.

I'm excited to have that T5 actinic goodness over my tank again. Last time I ran something other than just halides was probably ~6 years ago. It's crazy this thread is still around considering this is where I came to get bulb recommendations from TheGrimReefer all the way back then.

 

[Michigan Mike]

I am looking for some opinions on what bulbs I should choose. Currently I have a 70 "cube" (30x30x~20) with a 250 watt AquaMedic HQI fixture over it running a Pheonix 14k. I plan on putting 4 24" T5s over the tank to suppliment some extra light. I was going to do all 4 bulbs as actinics, 2 purple and 2 blue, but wasnt sure what brands were the best these days or for the 24" bulbs or what people thought would nicely compliment the Pheonix 14k. I will be using a Workhorse 5 to drive the T5s with individual reflectors and will get some fans to cool the endcaps.

I'm excited to have that T5 actinic goodness over my tank again. Last time I ran something other than just halides was probably ~6 years ago. It's crazy this thread is still around considering this is where I came to get bulb recommendations from TheGrimReefer all the way back then.

Actinics are 420nm "violet", while 450-460nm is "blue (much more intense) & purple bulbs are quite a bit on the other end of the spectrum although T5HO bulbs have a mix of the usual "violet/blue/yellow/green/red" colors (unlike led) to create the bulb do there are many spectrums in each T5 bulb, sometimes the only difference is a lack of green/yellow spectrum between bulbs that makes a difference .

So a 250w Phoenix (what ballast?) will depend on what you want to do with the T5HO, if you want more blue color for dawn/dusk than 3 blue & 1 purple is hard to beat. I wouldn't use T5HO actinic with halides though, maybe a mix between low kelvin (ge6500,aquablue special,coral pls/KZ new gen) bulbs and blue bulbs or something if I wanted a bit more equal color & higher PAR.

But for strictly blue its hard to beat blue bulbs like ATI/KZ & a purple bulb.

 

[SlavicSavage]

It's running on the AquaMedic ballast that came with the fixture. It's one of those old silver AquaMedic OceanLight pendants. I am looking mostly for coloration and slightly less severe shadowing since its one bulb over a 30x30 tank. I already have excellent growth with the Pheonix but wish my corals popped a little more. I am used to having a Radium 20k and miss the color of that.

It would also be great to have dawn/dusk effect. I currently run my halide for 12 hours a day and would like to run the T5s for 12 hours and cut the halide on for maybe 7 hours in the middle of that during summer.

If I do 3 blue 1 purple what brand & bulbs should I go with to hopefully get more pop without making the tank look overwhelmingly blue? IE like a Radium 20k.

 

[Michigan Mike]

It's running on the AquaMedic ballast that came with the fixture. It's one of those old silver AquaMedic OceanLight pendants. I am looking mostly for coloration and slightly less severe shadowing since its one bulb over a 30x30 tank. I already have excellent growth with the Pheonix but wish my corals popped a little more. I am used to having a Radium 20k and miss the color of that.

It would also be great to have dawn/dusk effect. I currently run my halide for 12 hours a day and would like to run the T5s for 12 hours and cut the halide on for maybe 7 hours in the middle of that during summer.

If I do 3 blue 1 purple what brand & bulbs should I go with to hopefully get more pop without making the tank look overwhelmingly blue? IE like a Radium 20k.

Good M-80 ballast I think. Great for Radiums & Phoenix.

Well having a dawn/dusk of 3 ATI BLUE PLUS & 1 ATI PURPLE PLUS is my favorite 4 bulb combo, you can use KZ bulbs also. I use the KZ FIJI PURPLE (its kinda expensive). The KZ SUPER BLUE is supposed to be a little deeper blue than the ATI blue pls bulbs. So any combo of these 2 brands are a safe bet.

As for making it look more like a radium ? I don't think you can have both, but adding some white bulbs like the ge6500, Aquablue special, coral plus or KZ new gen with a couple blue bulbs may whiten it up a little. But I'm not sure exactly what would be needed.
I don't think anything will look like a radium honestly.