The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[tmantaylor18]

I am sure your corals will adapt in time. We need to bare in mind that wild
corals live at all sorts of depths, and are subjected to varying light intensity levels. Your corals will tell you if they are happy with the light intensity you provide for them. My experience suggests that at very high PAR levels (e.g. 400+), most of my corals start to exhibit pastel colours. In my tank, my corals exhibit fairly deep colouration when they receive between 250-350 mmol PAR. To achieve this, my ATI unit (6 X 39W) is suspended 7" over the water surface and most SPS corals are placed just under 10" below the water surface. I have a shallow tank (18" high).

By the way, here are the two articles I mentioned in my previous post written by Dana Riddle, which I hope you will find interesting:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/3/aafeature1

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/7/aafeature

Awesome post, thank you for the help. Sounds like we are getting about the same par at the same heights. I've noticed my SPS are slightly pastel right now but it may be because I have 0 nitrates and 0 phosphates. I just started to feed more recently so I will just have to play around with the setup while monitoring color, growth, and my levels. I'm at 8" right now and will probably lower it an inch or two next week to see what happens.

 

[TimeConsumer]

Hi I'm new with bulb configurations. I'm looking to replace my stock bulbs. 6 bulb fixture over a standard 75 gallon tank. I do like the crisp bluish white look. What bulbs would give me that look and good coral color and growth? Thanks for any help.

3 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus, 1 GE 6500k, and 1 Coral Plus

 

[reefndude]

3 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus, 1 GE 6500k, and 1 Coral Plus

What order would you suggest?

 

[TimeConsumer]

front
Blue
Purple
Blue
GE
Blue
Coral

 

[reefndude]

Thans for the help. Much appreciated.

 

[Michigan Mike]

500-600 par wouldn't be too much as long as I lower the lights slowly over a period of time though right?

SPS is a pretty loose term we throw around a lot but it really depends on what corals you have, you may have to move some around....just go slow.
As the bulbs get older you'll want to lower the fixture a little to keep PAR levels consistent.

 

[TropTrea]

500-600 par wouldn't be too much as long as I lower the lights slowly over a period of time though right?

That would realy depend on what corals you have. Some can take about 500 max but others can be damaged if they get over 200 for too long. Then there is another factor that few people take into consideration and that is what wave lenght the light is at. If you give them enough light at 680 nm and not enough at the shorter wave lenghts you can do damage at even 100 Par.

Personaly I think PAR can be a very misleading concept. But it is the best that is available to most of us economicaly. Think more about the quality of light than simply the quantity.

 

[Quintis]

Thanks Michigan Mike and TropTrea for the input! Yes the dims are 48L x 24w x 18H, so I'll be looking at getting a 48" 8-bulb fixture. Although I am starting to eye the hybrid fixtures as well. They are pricey but oh so nice! Thanks again.

 

[TropTrea]

Thanks Michigan Mike and TropTrea for the input! Yes the dims are 48L x 24w x 18H, so I'll be looking at getting a 48" 8-bulb fixture. Although I am starting to eye the hybrid fixtures as well. They are pricey but oh so nice! Thanks again.

If your even slightly handy the hyvrid fixtures can be built DIY for a fraction of the cost of most comercial fixtures.

 

[Quintis]

If your even slightly handy the hyvrid fixtures can be built DIY for a fraction of the cost of most comercial fixtures.

Yea, I've been looking into that some as well, but am not sure where to get started. I don't know if it's best to add the leds to a sunpower fixture or what.

 

[Dapg8gt]

If your even slightly handy the hyvrid fixtures can be built DIY for a fraction of the cost of most comercial fixtures.

Personally I have only seen one Diy that looked "semi" decent as a hybrid . Haven't scoured yet though. Is there a link or build thread anyone knows of showing a good looking one? I've seen a few that I'm sure worked well but I wouldn't put it above my tank as I don't have a canopy. I've been contemplating adding a few strips around mine but would like some ideas on mounting.. I have a 6 bulb36" fixture on a 48"tank..

I was also thinking of adding 2 kessils on the end to aim in..

This thread was a great help and don't want to hijack it at all so if it's out of the scope of intention I understand just let me know.

 

[TropTrea]

Personally I have only seen one Diy that looked "semi" decent as a hybrid . Haven't scoured yet though. Is there a link or build thread anyone knows of showing a good looking one? I've seen a few that I'm sure worked well but I wouldn't put it above my tank as I don't have a canopy. I've been contemplating adding a few strips around mine but would like some ideas on mounting.. I have a 6 bulb36" fixture on a 48"tank..

I was also thinking of adding 2 kessils on the end to aim in..

This thread was a great help and don't want to hijack it at all so if it's out of the scope of intention I understand just let me know.

Check this thread out

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

 

[Mrlttran]

B
Blue
Coral-2 bulb channel
Blue
Purple
Coral-2 bulb channel
Blue
F

Kinda opposite from what most people think of dawn/dusk. 3blues & purple is your dawn dusk, then add the 2 coral plus bulbs for midday boost.

For the blues, I was thinking of swapping from ATI Blue + to the KZ Super Blue as the consensus seems to be that they have more of a true blue with less green. Thoughts?

What if I didn't want to run it in reverse as I just got lucky and landed an LED blue strip that looks decent for moonlights? Now I am just really confused....

 

[skimmy]

been out of t5's for awhile...
used to be that giesemann blue plus was the bluest bulbs,
is there anything now with more blue, or is this still the most blue bulb?

 

[TropTrea]

For the blues, I was thinking of swapping from ATI Blue + to the KZ Super Blue as the consensus seems to be that they have more of a true blue with less green. Thoughts?

What if I didn't want to run it in reverse as I just got lucky and landed an LED blue strip that looks decent for moonlights? Now I am just really confused....

The KZ bulbs are slightly shorter wave lenght probably closer to 460 as oppoosed to a 470 nm blue ATI Blue If your combining them with Royal Blue LED's 450-460 nm I would stick with the ATI. This gives better lighting on that 470 to 500 range. If your not going the Blue LED's it becomes more of personal color preference. True Blue is about 465 nm and The KZ will make it look like a light purplish Blue, while the ATI will make it look more like a Aqua Blue. Note Green is up at 520 nm so the slight shift 10 nm is barely noticable to many people.

 

[TropTrea]

been out of t5's for awhile...
used to be that giesemann blue plus was the bluest bulbs,
is there anything now with more blue, or is this still the most blue bulb?

Put the ATI Blue Plus and the KZ blue in the same general bracket. They are on the edge of a pure blue of roughly 465 nm. But everyone eye is slightly different and some will detect too much pirple in anything under that and others will detect to much green in anything over that.

 

[Michigan Mike]

been out of t5's for awhile...
used to be that giesemann blue plus was the bluest bulbs,
is there anything now with more blue, or is this still the most blue bulb?

I believe its called actinic plus, its nearly the same as ATI's blue plus & KZ's superblue.
I couldn't answer because reefgeek sent me ATI actinic instead.

 

[jgraz]

Instead of the usual which bulb questions, here is a which fixture question.

I currently running a 8x54w Tek fixture over my 90 gal mixed though SPS heavy reef. The fixture is quite old and I'm considering upgrading. Obviously the ATI fixture is better and I'm considering it but I'm not sure if I want to put out that much. How does the AquaticLife 8x54w stack up to the Tek unit? I've read good things about it but I figured I'd pose the question here. Thanks in advance.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Instead of the usual which bulb questions, here is a which fixture question.

I currently running a 8x54w Tek fixture over my 90 gal mixed though SPS heavy reef. The fixture is quite old and I'm considering upgrading. Obviously the ATI fixture is better and I'm considering it but I'm not sure if I want to put out that much. How does the AquaticLife 8x54w stack up to the Tek unit? I've read good things about it but I figured I'd pose the question here. Thanks in advance.

I'd keep what you have, and cool the bulbs's cold spots (the end with the manufacturer's label on the bulb) with a small clip on fan. Grim's advice was to have the fan pointing downward from the top end, but I would just clip it on the side of the tank since they aren't particularly strong fans.

Jut my opine, take it or leave it.

 

[TimeConsumer]

I'd keep what you have, and cool the bulbs's cold spots (the end with the manufacturer's label on the bulb) with a small clip on fan. Grim's advice was to have the fan pointing downward from the top end, but I would just clip it on the side of the tank since they aren't particularly strong fans.

Jut my opine, take it or leave it.

I'm on the same side as Mike here. Keep the Tek, the reflectors are far superior to the AquaticLife. If you want some extra power and don't mind doing a little DIY work I would open her up and ditch the workhorse ballasts for some spec T5 ballasts for about $100. While you're inside you can do the fan mod kit, which will give you active cooling and keep the fixture looking sleek for about $30. By doing that you can easily increase the output of the fixture by over 25%.