The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[Kurkis493]

I have an ATI dimmable 8 bulb over my standard (48x24x24) 120 gallon.

The bulb combination front to back:

Blue +
Blue +
Coral +
Blue+
Blue+
Coral+
Purple+
Blue +

I have a par meter and right now I am running the 2 Coral + at 55% for 4 hours a day and the rest of the bulbs at 70% for 6 hours a day. This is giving me 400s par at the top and 200s par at the bottom.

If I run this fixture 100% I'm pushing a huge amount of PAR at the top and I am a little scared to go that high...

I actually run the fixture from 9am until 11:30pm but outside of the primary 6 hours a day of lighting the intensity is usually between 5-20% Blue + and Purple + and the Coral + go down to 20% after the initial 55% for a few more hours. The par though is pretty low and I'd imagine is more for my viewing pleasure than anything else.

Do you guys ramp your bulbs up and down like this or do you just run everything at 100% for x amount of hours a day? I'd like to get my T5 fixture running everything at 100% during peak lightning hours but I'm not sure with T5s how much I should ramp up a week...

5%? More?

Everyone in my area just runs their T5s at 100%... When I inititally was burning my bulbs back at the end of June I was bleaching corals at the 100% to both channels so I throttled way, way back....

 

[Mark426]

I have recently started to use Pacific Sun tubes. Their Crystal Blue tube is ATI blue + equivalent, but it provides deeper blue. Have a look at this link for more information.

Thank you. I know PS makes some quality stuff. I think I will give it a try.

 

[TropTrea]

I have recently started to use Pacific Sun tubes. Their Crystal Blue tube is ATI blue + equivalent, but it provides deeper blue. Have a look at this link for more information.

Having worked in the industry and looking at the spectrum it would not surprise me if both the Pacific Sun and and ATI bulbs actually came off the same assembly line on different dates. I personally doubt that either one of these companies own a plant that makes their bulbs exclusively. I know my prior employer made bulbs sold by at least a dozen different brand names for other corporations as well as there brand name.

To economically make florescent tubes your talking about a sizable production facility. The aquarium industry alone could not come close to the sales required to make such a facility profitable.

 

[mhucasey]

Having worked in the industry and looking at the spectrum it would not surprise me if both the Pacific Sun and and ATI bulbs actually came off the same assembly line on different dates. I personally doubt that either one of these companies own a plant that makes their bulbs exclusively. I know my prior employer made bulbs sold by at least a dozen different brand names for other corporations as well as there brand name.

To economically make florescent tubes your talking about a sizable production facility. The aquarium industry alone could not come close to the sales required to make such a facility profitable.

I believe KZ and ATI bulbs(and Aquascience too?) are produced in the Sylvania Facility.

 

[ZON]

You are right but Aquascience , giesemann and d&d are made by NARVA..

 

[lushuk]

Hey guys I've got a ati (dim) 8 tube on my 24" mixed reef cube, can anyone share a lighting schedule for the 2 channels which has proven growth success, I'm currently

B+
B+
B+
P+
C+
B+
P+
B+
Front to back
I'm just fading my lps at the bottom so need to knock it down a bit, thanks for any help

 

[ZON]

Keep 1 channel almost 12 hours and other 10 will be ok

 

[mhucasey]

I have the blues on for 11.5 hours and all lights on for 6.5 hours

 

[lushuk]

Big difference there guys, what about brightness level on each channel?

 

[mhucasey]

I do not have dimming so 100%. Full light for more than 8 hours is overkill - many halide tanks for example get by with halides on for only 4-6 hours with great results. Longer use of full light seems to not benefit anything and may negatively affect color.

 

[jdraider75]

I have non dimmable sun power and run 10 hours actinic and 6 hours daylights. I am having better color with shorter daylight period.

 

[lushuk]

My unit is as high as i can get it which is 7" I have the 2 tubes on 100% and the remaining 6 on 65% but I'm still bleaching my lps which are all at the bottom with my sps from middle upwards remember my tank is only 24" deep, so how about I try

CH 1: 1 hour ramp up 0%-50%
10 hours on 50%
1 hour ramp down 50%-0%

CH 2: 1 hour ramp up 0%-50%
6 hours on 50%
1 hour ramp down 50%-0%

Of course the ramping is for my pleasure do people think this schedule will promote good growth in my 24" cube, thanks for your thoughts again

 

[ZON]

The T5 Q&a Thread - split

I do not have dimming so 100%. Full light for more than 8 hours is overkill - many halide tanks for example get by with halides on for only 4-6 hours with great results. Longer use of full light seems to not benefit anything and may negatively affect color.

I disagree.. I use 12 hours of light (11h tubes and 12 leds..)

Never had problems .. And when i want more color or brightness use some hours more..

 

[TropTrea]

My unit is as high as i can get it which is 7" I have the 2 tubes on 100% and the remaining 6 on 65% but I'm still bleaching my lps which are all at the bottom with my sps from middle upwards remember my tank is only 24" deep, so how about I try

CH 1: 1 hour ramp up 0%-50%
10 hours on 50%
1 hour ramp down 50%-0%

CH 2: 1 hour ramp up 0%-50%
6 hours on 50%
1 hour ramp down 50%-0%

Of course the ramping is for my pleasure do people think this schedule will promote good growth in my 24" cube, thanks for your thoughts again

My first thought when I hear bleaching is to much red light. What is your bulb combination? And how old are the bulbs.

 

[TropTrea]

I disagree.. I use 12 hours of light (11h tubes and 12 leds..)

Never had problems .. And when i want more color or brightness use some hours more..

The ideal for 90% of corals is having 4 hours ramp up, 8 hours of full lighting, 4 hours ramp down and 8 hours of near to total darkness.

But there is also a factor of the total light received for different corals which varies as well as the spectrum. If you intensity is not ideal for your corals then you need to either expand or reduce the cycle to match your corals with to get as close to the total amount of light they require. However the efficiency of the light decreases the further you move away from this ideal cycle. and if the intensity is to extreme usually requiring a cycle time of less than 3 hours ramp up 6 hours full and 3 hours ramp down then the chances of bleaching or burning the corals is extremely magnified.

On the other end of the spectrum if yu do not give the corals at least 8 hours of darkness you will also get a negative return because they will will not have an adequate time for there respiration cycle.

 

[lushuk]

Thank you for your input, an interesting read, my tube layout was
Act
P+
B+
C+
AB+
Act
B+
B+

I noticed instant growth improvement from my radions in literally days but on the downside it came with a dusting of algae on the glass after just 24 hours (I normally had to clean the glass twice a week) the unit and tubes are only 4 weeks old. It is only my hammerhead, torch that are losing colour at the bottom of the tank my acans, zoas, etc are fine, my sps halfway up and higher all look fine.

After reading some posts in this thread early on there was some guy Yariel0527*who's layout seemed successful and plenty of people agreed and used it which is

B+
B+
B+
P+
C+
B+
P+
B+
Front to back

Today is the 1st full day of that schedule so I have no idea of what it will bring! I'm hoping for a less bright tank as I think the AB+ and C+ made it to bright but I'm guess this is going to look quite red/pink even at 45%.
Thanks again for the help

*http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2277871

 

[asmodyus]

I have an ATI dimmable 8 bulb over my standard (48x24x24) 120 gallon.

The bulb combination front to back:

Blue +
Blue +
Coral +
Blue+
Blue+
Coral+
Purple+
Blue +

I have a par meter and right now I am running the 2 Coral + at 55% for 4 hours a day and the rest of the bulbs at 70% for 6 hours a day. This is giving me 400s par at the top and 200s par at the bottom.

If I run this fixture 100% I'm pushing a huge amount of PAR at the top and I am a little scared to go that high...

I actually run the fixture from 9am until 11:30pm but outside of the primary 6 hours a day of lighting the intensity is usually between 5-20% Blue + and Purple + and the Coral + go down to 20% after the initial 55% for a few more hours. The par though is pretty low and I'd imagine is more for my viewing pleasure than anything else.

Do you guys ramp your bulbs up and down like this or do you just run everything at 100% for x amount of hours a day? I'd like to get my T5 fixture running everything at 100% during peak lightning hours but I'm not sure with T5s how much I should ramp up a week...

5%? More?

Everyone in my area just runs their T5s at 100%... When I inititally was burning my bulbs back at the end of June I was bleaching corals at the 100% to both channels so I throttled way, way back....

I think I am running into this problem on my 120 I have 4 dual retro T5 with reflector and when all 8 are on they seem to be lighten my zoa, and other non SPS and the SPS are loving it. I was thinking about removing the reflectors. I wish I can put them on a dimmer not sure if it would work. But I am currenlty running 5 blue + 2 Purple + and GE 6500k blub.

 

[mgould73]

I have recently started to use Pacific Sun tubes. Their Crystal Blue tube is ATI blue + equivalent, but it provides deeper blue. Have a look at this link for more information.

Just wanted to follow up on the Pacific Sun T5 tubes as I don't see to many people here posting about them yet. I just recently bought a new round of T5's for my 5 bulb Aquatinics fixture. Here is my experience.

Their Crystal Blue Tubes are a darker blue then the ATI Blue +, my color's pop more and aren't as easily washed out by the Brighter (more visible) blue from the ATI BLUE +.

Their Pigment INT+, similar to ATI Purple + and KZ Fiji. I would say this is closer in color to the KZ Fiji Purple, but a bit brighter. A lot less Red then the ATI has.

Their Spectra+ Similar to ATI's coral plus bulb (19k) is also very close in color, but the white is just a bit brighter then the coral plus.

I've replaced my ATI Bulbs with the new Pacific Sun bulbs and after Burn in I like the colors a lot better. My Bulb Combo in my 5 bulb fixture is:

PS Crystal Blue
PS SPectra+
PS Pigment INT+
UVL Actinic
PS Crystal Blue

I get better blue from the Crystal Blues without that bright blue look as well as better pop in the greens/oranges.

They may be made in the same facility but there is most definitely spectral differences between these bulbs and ATI.

my 2c

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Just wanted to follow up on the Pacific Sun T5 tubes as I don't see to many people here posting about them yet. I just recently bought a new round of T5's for my 5 bulb Aquatinics fixture. Here is my experience.

Their Crystal Blue Tubes are a darker blue then the ATI Blue +, my color's pop more and aren't as easily washed out by the Brighter (more visible) blue from the ATI BLUE +.

Their Pigment INT+, similar to ATI Purple + and KZ Fiji. I would say this is closer in color to the KZ Fiji Purple, but a bit brighter. A lot less Red then the ATI has.

Their Spectra+ Similar to ATI's coral plus bulb (19k) is also very close in color, but the white is just a bit brighter then the coral plus.

I've replaced my ATI Bulbs with the new Pacific Sun bulbs and after Burn in I like the colors a lot better. My Bulb Combo in my 5 bulb fixture is:

PS Crystal Blue
PS SPectra+
PS Pigment INT+
UVL Actinic
PS Crystal Blue

I get better blue from the Crystal Blues without that bright blue look as well as better pop in the greens/oranges.

They may be made in the same facility but there is most definitely spectral differences between these bulbs and ATI.

my 2c

I used to have the following tube combination:

front

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

I have replaced this combination with the following:

front

PS Crystal Blue
PS Spectra +
PS Crystal Blue
PS Spectra +
PS Crystal Blue
PS Spectra +

I definetely think that both the reflective and fluorescent colours of my corals look better. While replacing the bulbs (in increments over a month), I was able to observe the differences between the two brand of tubes. I concur with your observations about the PS Crystal blue and PS Spectra plus. I will wait another month before taking PAR readings and will publish them in my tank thread. I expect a slightly higher readings because Spectra + has higher yellow/orange in it compared to ATI coral +. This in turns makes the tank look tad brigter. For more information, readers may wish to refer to the spectrum charts in this thread. I personally expect better coral colouration and growth under these tubes.

PS. I have also the PS Shallow water tube but have not used it yet for comparison with ATI Aquablue special, which I also have. I expect this PS tube to be a little less bright due to its slightly less yellow/orange content. It is possible that this will address the "washout effect" many complain about while using ATI aquablue special.

 

[Mark426]

I ordered a few PS Crystal Blues yesterday for my dimmable Sunpower. I assume that there is a break in period similar to the ATI lamps they are replacing. Think the 50 hour break in is about right? Less, more, none?

EDIT: Never mind. I just got an email from PS letting me know that they are out of T5 and wont have any for 2 months.