The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[Bpb]

Would this combination also not work for corals?

front

ATI blue +
ATI coral +
ATI blue +
ATI coral +
ATI blue +
ATI coral +

Thanks

I suspected there would be some disagreement. A member of our local club ran 2 blue plus, two coral plus and two 10k metal halides on his sps dominated tank for years and the growth and overall tank health was spectacular. Color was pretty yellow and left a lot to be desired, bit his sps colonies were quite happy. I personally only run 4 t5: 2 blue +, coral +, purple +. I've also considered swapping that purple + for a second coral +

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I suspected there would be some disagreement. A member of our local club ran 2 blue plus, two coral plus and two 10k metal halides on his sps dominated tank for years and the growth and overall tank health was spectacular. Color was pretty yellow and left a lot to be desired, bit his sps colonies were quite happy. I personally only run 4 t5: 2 blue +, coral +, purple +. I've also considered swapping that purple + for a second coral +

Thanks.

You mention that your fellow reefer used coral + tubes for a long time, but I believe coral + is a fairly recent addition to the ATI's T5 tube collection. Are you sure he did not use aquablue special instead of coral +?

I used to use a single 250W 10000K BLV SE MH bulb without any supplementary light source. Both the growth and colouration of my corals were superb. This particular bulb peaked at 420 nm despite its low Kelvin rating.

 

[Bpb]

Probably not fair for me to compare growth rates of halides + t5 vs t5 alone. I couldn't give a specific timeline for how long he used the coral+ bulbs. They've been out for a couple years though haven't they? Not a decade obviously, but it's been a couple years. I know they were for sale when I set my tank up a couple years ago. At any rate, to the original question a couple posts ago...use whatever color combination you like. ATI bulbs are excellent. I personally dislike the ATI aquablue bulb suggested. My preference may be different than yours. I think the coral + looks better. If you're concerned about too much red, use 4 blue+, a coral +, and a purple +. That's way too blue for my taste though

 

[TropTrea]

Probably not fair for me to compare growth rates of halides + t5 vs t5 alone. I couldn't give a specific timeline for how long he used the coral+ bulbs. They've been out for a couple years though haven't they? Not a decade obviously, but it's been a couple years. I know they were for sale when I set my tank up a couple years ago. At any rate, to the original question a couple posts ago...use whatever color combination you like. ATI bulbs are excellent. I personally dislike the ATI aquablue bulb suggested. My preference may be different than yours. I think the coral + looks better. If you're concerned about too much red, use 4 blue+, a coral +, and a purple +. That's way too blue for my taste though

It is a matter of taste with the Coral Plus and the Aqua Blue Plus.

If you use
1 Purple Plus
1 Aqua Blue Special
2 Blue Plus

You should get almost the identical spectrum to using
4 Coral Plus Bulbs.

Foor most people yes running just one Coral Plus is not enough to brighten up the tank for mid day. Simularly if you used all Coral plus bulbs the boost in the red spectrum would be overly noticable.

Dependent on how white or Blue someone like there mid day mid day lighting my recomendation from whitest to deepest blue would be all blue bulbs with the exception of

Brightest
1 GE 6500
2 Purple Plus

Bright
1 ATI Aqua blue Special
1 ATI Purple Plus

Blue
3 Coral Plus

Bluer
2 Coral Plus

Bluest
1 Coral Plus

Also keep in mind that the 8 bulb fixtures with these combinations will be slightly bluer than the 6 bulb combination because in the 8 bulb combo you going to be using more blues. But it still won't be as blue as the next step down.

Personal color taste will determine which of thesewill look best to your personal eye.

 

[TropTrea]

Thanks.

I used to use a single 250W 10000K BLV SE MH bulb without any supplementary light source. Both the growth and colouration of my corals were superb. This particular bulb peaked at 420 nm despite its low Kelvin rating.

Using only 1 250W MH indicates a smaller tank to me with good growth. Be cautious though on the K ratings. Sanjay did a study on bulbs years ago and he found that some were way off there advertised ratings. His data should still be someplace listed on web.

The 420 peak is bairly detected by the human eye. So it does not influencethe K ratings as much as a smaller peak at 470 nm would.

 

[TropTrea]

I suspected there would be some disagreement. A member of our local club ran 2 blue plus, two coral plus and two 10k metal halides on his sps dominated tank for years and the growth and overall tank health was spectacular. Color was pretty yellow and left a lot to be desired, bit his sps colonies were quite happy. I personally only run 4 t5: 2 blue +, coral +, purple +. I've also considered swapping that purple + for a second coral +

With SPS corals some of them have a lot more pigment in them that is reflective rather than florescent. With lighting you listed those reflective colors should sparkle with very little noticable florescense when the hides are on.

As far as your combo I wuld go with the added coral plus that would brighten things slightly and reduce but not eliminate your red tints.

 

[Reef Reactor]

You basicly have a 182 gallon tank. My normal calculations would put it around 900 watts of T-5 lighting maximium. With 14- 48" T-5's your looking at 756 Watts. So yes I would say not beyound the max for most Corals.

But what it could be is the typpe of bulbs you are using. Not knowing that but your description I would suspect your heavy into the longer wave lenghts and possibley thin on the shorter wafelenghts. If you keep 14 Bulbs I would reccomend
Front
1 ATI Blue Plus
2 ATI Purple Plus
3 ATI Blue Plus
4- ATI Aqua Blue Special or GE 6,500K
5 ATI Blue Plus
6 ATI Blue Plus
7 ATI Coral Plus
8 ATI Blue Plus
9 ATI Blue Plus
10 ATI Blue Plus
11 ATI Aqua Blue Special or GE 6,500K
12 ATI Blue Plus
13 ATI Purple Plus
14 ATI Blue Plus
Rear

Note the GE woulll whiten the tank a little more than the ATI Aqua Blue.

I had that combination but using aquablue special instead 6500k bulbs.

 

[TropTrea]

I had that combination but using aquablue special instead 6500k bulbs.

The Aqua blue specials would not be as bright however you would not need as many purple plus to balance the spectrum out. If you want to blue it even more replace the a Aqua Blue special and Purple Plus with 2 Coral Plus.

Remember everyone eye and personal taste is different. For one person saying it is too blue ander will tell them it is not blue enough. The number one person your trying to please is yourself.

 

[natron]

I am trying to blue my tank up a bit. I have an ATI 6x39 with:
front
blue+
purple+
blue+
ge6500
blue+
blue+
back
I am wondering if I swap out the ge 6500 for a coral+ will that blue me up a bit and not hinder growth?

 

[Reef Reactor]

The Aqua blue specials would not be as bright however you would not need as many purple plus to balance the spectrum out. If you want to blue it even more replace the a Aqua Blue special and Purple Plus with 2 Coral Plus.

Remember everyone eye and personal taste is different. For one person saying it is too blue ander will tell them it is not blue enough. The number one person your trying to please is yourself.

Totally agree, the most important thing here is get my corals inflate as they were on my lfs. I feel it is too much light and that is the cause. Am I mistaken?

 

[TropTrea]

Totally agree, the most important thing here is get my corals inflate as they were on my lfs. I feel it is too much light and that is the cause. Am I mistaken?

Chances are the lighting at the local fish store was on the very low side for your corals. So dependent on how long they were at that lower lighting level would determine how the corals adjusted to that lighting level. Now your giving them close to an ideal lighting situation and again they will need to adjust. This is why some people raise there lights when they introduce new corals or they locate even high light demanding corals near the bottom untill they adjust to there particular lighting.

I know when I had my store the second most expensive bill I had was the electric bill mainly because of the lighting that was needed for close to 100 tanks. In the store enviroment you just want to put out enough light on the tanks for them to be presented nicely to the public. If I had light on all my tanks that would allow the best conditions for coral growth my electric bill would be more than double.

 

[jasony816]

I have a ATI 6x54W with the current bulb configuration and mostly SPS and I need new bulbs and would like some recommendations or should I keep it the same. The current setup is bright to my eyes and not blue enough, but my main goal is growth.

Front
Blue+
Purple+
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
Blue+
Back

 

[castrojc]

Noob question

Noob question

Sorry guys, I've only ever had fish only so I never really got into the lighting.... My question is, for a T5 set up, do I just need to buy the T5 bulb and put it in my existing light fixture? or do I need a specific fixture too?

 

[natron]

I have a ATI 6x54W with the current bulb configuration and mostly SPS and I need new bulbs and would like some recommendations or should I keep it the same. The current setup is bright to my eyes and not blue enough, but my main goal is growth.

Front
Blue+
Purple+
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
Blue+
Back

Thanks...you answered my question.(mostly)
Im going to try aqua blue special and see if I can get more blue instead of coral+

 

[TropTrea]

I have a ATI 6x54W with the current bulb configuration and mostly SPS and I need new bulbs and would like some recommendations or should I keep it the same. The current setup is bright to my eyes and not blue enough, but my main goal is growth.

Front
Blue+
Purple+
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
Blue+
Back

You have 1 Coral plus and 1 Purple plus both of these have a strong red element in there spectrum. To get it more blue simply replace the purple plus with another bue plus. If you want it brighter replace the coral plus with an Aqua blue Special.

 

[TropTrea]

Sorry guys, I've only ever had fish only so I never really got into the lighting.... My question is, for a T5 set up, do I just need to buy the T5 bulb and put it in my existing light fixture? or do I need a specific fixture too?

There are Standard T-5's and High Output T--5's. The High output T-5's need aspecial balast to put out the poser that they require. As far the standard T-5 some fixtures work fine that are designed for the older T-8 bulbs. But there are others that have issues running them.

Note 47" Standard T-5 - 36 to 40 Watts.
47" High Output T-5 = 54 Watts.

 

[nbsdsailor]

Time to replace bulbs. I have a ati sunpower 6 bulb 48". With the addition of coral plus, what is the most popular bulb set right now? I currently run 4 blue plus, 1 actinic, 1 aquablue special. I have mostly lps, few sps and like it more blue.

Grim reefer still post here?

 

[TropTrea]

I am trying to blue my tank up a bit. I have an ATI 6x39 with:
front
blue+
purple+
blue+
ge6500
blue+
blue+
back
I am wondering if I swap out the ge 6500 for a coral+ will that blue me up a bit and not hinder growth?

That switch will cause a considerable amount of bluing things up. but it would also boost your reds. If it make things to blue for you then also swap out your purple plus of a another Coral plus.

As far as hindering your corals NO. Corals need mainly blue light with just a little amount of light in the other spectrums. If it not looking pure blue to the naked eye they are probably getting enough other light already. The addition of white light in more for our viewing pleasure than anything else. And everyone has there taste in what looks best in their tank.

 

[TropTrea]

Time to replace bulbs. I have a ati sunpower 6 bulb 48". With the addition of coral plus, what is the most popular bulb set right now? I currently run 4 blue plus, 1 actinic, 1 aquablue special. I have mostly lps, few sps and like it more blue.

Grim reefer still post here?

Nope Grim seldom shows his face here now.

How do you like your color now? I personly would only swap out the atinc for an ATI Purple Plus if I were you.

 

[andrewbram]

So I have two blue plus and 2 coral plus I am adding another four bulbs for a total of 8 what other four bulbs should I add. 2 blue plus purple plus and true atinic or 3 blue plus and purple blus.