I wouldn't expose a baby's eyes to bright lamps...like EVER. Seems easy enough to not put your baby in the vicinity.
The T5 Q&a Thread - split
- Thread starter eagle9252
- Start date
I wouldn't expose a baby's eyes to bright lamps...like EVER. Seems easy enough to not put your baby in the vicinity.
It's just light spillage. My question was more about the light spectrum than intensity.
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Hi again Dennis,
Indeed I gambled on Pacific Sun tubes being a good buy and bought two-year worth supplies. Sadly, the gamble did not pay off :fun2: I have gone back to ATI tubes again.
I have recently bought a brand new Powermodule (8 X 39W) too and use the following tubes: 5 X ATI Blue + and 3 X ATI Coral +, i.e.
front blue + blue + coral + blue + coral + blue + coral + blue + back
You kindly provided me with a spectrum chart for my previous tube combination (3 X ATI Blue + and 3 X Coral +) in the past. I wonder if you could possibly provide me with another spectrum chart for my new tube combination please.
Dapg8gt
New member
What was the deal with the Pacific sun bulbs? No good? On paper they seem like they are a good choice in curious why you swapped them out so quickly..
Dapg8gt
New member
Imo light spillage is not going to do anything radiation wise to the skin. I doubt it's for long periods either right? .. Fwiw my kid is totally fine and my tank was the instant babysitter for her when she was an infant.. She spent at least half hour a week in front of it and now that she is 3 it's probably triple that on her own.
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Dapg8gt
New member
I'd personally feel that there would be too much red/pink in the mix adding the purple + together with coral+. I'd go 8 x B+ and 4x C+ with a few more bulbs to swap in if you don't like the look . But that's all personal preference your choice will grow coral for sure it will just have a pink cast to it Ime.
Giesemann's new line up is pretty sweet also I'm super impressed with the bulbs so far.. Running 5x Actinic blue, 1 super purple (not sure I'll keep it in) t, 1 aqua blue azure and 1 aqua blue coral.. I also really liked the 5x actinic blue and 3x aqua blue azure is was a really bright white/blue like a phoenix 14k Mh temperature..
Acey1011
New member
I've been throwing around the idea of only going with an 8 bulb fixture instead of the 12 with 4 bulbs over each section of the tank? Would this still be enough for coral growth? Also I'm thinking 6 blue plus and 2 coral plus for the combos on this fixture. Any suggestions?
Dapg8gt
New member
How deep front to back is the tank? Is it a glass125g long? If So its 18 " right? It depends totally on the coral your going to keep and what fixtures you get, well really what reflectors are equipped in the fixture if you want to only run 4 bulbs .
You could always do a 60" 6 bulb ATI sunpower and have great coverage to grow basically anything you want.. You may be able to get away with the 60" 4 bulb version also but that leaves a little to be desired on bulb choices but if the tank is 18" it should work . But just for reference I have a 48"105g SPS dominant tank and run a 48" 8 bulb powermodule. It's a tad bit overkill and a 6 bulb would probably be perfect, but I am certain a 4 bulb would not do it for my tank (22" F to B) with the coral I'm keeping..
Another thing I've read is the 39watt bulbs put off less par per watt vs other sizes maybe something to look into. Although I ran one on my tank (39w x 6 sunpower) in the beginning and it worked fine.. Also had decent coverage with the 3' fixture over a 4' tank.
Acey1011
New member
Ya it's a standard 125 so it's only 18 inches wide 23 deep. Corals will be all Lps. Euphillias acans etc. no sps at all in the tank which is why I figured the 8 bulb would be sufficient and the 12 would be overkill. Plus I figured with the 12 bulb fixture would be extremely wide for the tank and there would be a lot of light spillage that gets unused. The fixture will be an aquatic life with angled reflectors
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Light intensity has dropped too soon (into the second month of usage). I will create a thread in due course to give a balanced view of my experience with two types of PS tubes I used over my tank. They were PS Spectra + and PS Crystal Blue.
Yeah, no long periods and never directly under/next to the tank, rather on the sofa next to it a few feet away. My concern were more the eyes than the skin. I don't have actinic or UV bulbs, yet I know B+ bulbs do get to low 400s/nm and just thought that this might be a problem.
Good to hear about your experience, thanks for chiming in.
Av8bluewater
New member
Got some PAR numbers.
Conditions:
All photos are the same photo so disregard the colors. Photo was with all lights on.
Pumps on in all photos.
A few of the numbers of the middle far right number are all the way on the wall. It's interesting that that number went up when fixture moved from 6" to 10". Better light for the edge with higher light.
tank is 72" long with 60" fixtures.
LED strip is a build my LED XB actinic strip. Appears to add 30-60 PAR. Could vary with the tilt. This is 90 degree model.
Bulbs are about 2 months old. 4 Blue+, Purple+, Giesman actinic , 2 coral +.
Far right numbers are directly under bulb edge except on wall numbers and number inside that green cup coral.
Interesting to get 515 on middle sand with fixture 6" above water. I was definitely burning some corals. So I am now moved up to 10".
One photo 6" above water with all lights on...the rest are 10".
Very top number is about 1/2" below water, then about 6" for next number down and a middle number in mid tank.
In the bottom two photos LED strip is off.
Conditions:
All photos are the same photo so disregard the colors. Photo was with all lights on.
Pumps on in all photos.
A few of the numbers of the middle far right number are all the way on the wall. It's interesting that that number went up when fixture moved from 6" to 10". Better light for the edge with higher light.
tank is 72" long with 60" fixtures.
LED strip is a build my LED XB actinic strip. Appears to add 30-60 PAR. Could vary with the tilt. This is 90 degree model.
Bulbs are about 2 months old. 4 Blue+, Purple+, Giesman actinic , 2 coral +.
Far right numbers are directly under bulb edge except on wall numbers and number inside that green cup coral.
Interesting to get 515 on middle sand with fixture 6" above water. I was definitely burning some corals. So I am now moved up to 10".
One photo 6" above water with all lights on...the rest are 10".
Very top number is about 1/2" below water, then about 6" for next number down and a middle number in mid tank.
In the bottom two photos LED strip is off.
Av8bluewater
New member
Forgot to mention tank is 24" tall. 
Also I think in last photo the middle number 145 should be dead center middle.
Also I think in last photo the middle number 145 should be dead center middle.
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Av8bluewater
New member
I know.. I've been burning corals near the bottom. lol
Pacific Sun RD
Przemek Cybulski
We are suprised reading this because all our tubes have the same parameters(and lifetime/intensity decrease time) like other "popular" brands. All tubes change spectrum/intensity a little if you will compare them on 1st day and after two months. This rule is actual for all tubes - and its very easy to see by spectrometer.
We did several readings and all they can confirm/say the same - like Corals in most amazing tanks - like Lunar tank who use our tubes since half a year(since we introduced tubes on EU market)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g_PLtPCTGI
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1755962
You can see more pictures(under several months old tubes) here:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1755962&page=14
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DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
I was going to create a separate thread about my experience on Pacific Sun tubes, but since you responded to my post, I can provide it in this thread, which is as below:
I am surprised as much as you are. I had so much expectation from your tubes that I purchased 14 of them (2 X ShallowWater, 6 X Crystal Blue, 6 X Spectra +) when they were on a 20% offer last summer. This equates to more than two years supply.
I installed 3 X Crystal Blue and 3 X Spectra + between 7th August 2014 and 24th August 2014. I used an ATI Sunpower unit (non-dimmable). I installed the tubes one at a time in intervals to avoid light shock to my corals. Initially, the light unit was 12 cm above the brace bar. I normally aim at ~250 µmol m-2 s-1 at a specific point, which is where my Montipora setosa is situated (Figure 1). This coral is approximately 13" (33 cm) below the aforementioned brace bar. Once all the Pacific Sun tubes were in place, I used them at least 100 hours before I took a PAR measurement with my Apogee sensor. I run my ATI unit's fans at 9V to ensure that the tubes are exposed to ~35C at the vents of the unit. I installed the tubes in such a way that the labelled end of the tubes were directly under these vents (Figure 2) to ensure that the tubes would be properly cooled during operation. For more details refer to my tank thread. I ran the light unit several hours to ensure that they reached their peak operating temperature and then adjusted the height of the unit so that I get ~250 µmol m-2 s-1. What happened afterwards was that in a space of two months I had to lower my light unit repeatedly to maintain the same PAR level. Here is the quantitative data I gathered while running the Pacific Sun tubes:
24/08/2014 the light unit was 12 cm above the brace bar;
09/09/2014 the light unit was 11.3 cm above the brace bar;
23/09/2014 the light unit was 10.5 cm above the brace bar;
04/10/2014 the light unit was 10 cm above the brace bar;
09/10/2014 the light unit was 9 cm above the brace bar.
Here is comparative data: Before using Pacific Sun tubes, I used ATI tubes (3 X ATI Blue + and 3 X Coral +). The orientation of the ATI tubes was exactly the same as the PS tubes (i.e. front ATI blue +/PS Crystal Blue, ATI Coral +/PS Spectra +, ATI blue +/PS Crystal Blue, ATI Coral +/PS Spectra +, ATI blue +/PS Crystal Blue, ATI Coral +/PS Spectra + back)
I installed the ATI tubes on 20/10/2013 (using the same incremental process). I repositioned my light unit ~9cm above the same brace bar on 13/04/2013 to get ~ 250 µmol m-2 s-1 reading (nearly six months after the first PAR reading). Notice that I used the "~" symbol, because ATI and Pacific Sun tubes are not identical though they are quite comparable. I have further data about the interim results, but I have not included them here as they would not demonstrate anything beyond that already demonstrated.
I am not going to pretend that my experiments are scientific. I would welcome constructive criticism as it would give me a learning opportunity. Nevertheless, I believe that they are systematic enough to enable me to make informed judgements.
On a positive note I really liked the combination of Spectra + and Crystal blue together. Spectra + is a little brighter compared to Coral + perhaps due to a bit more yellow peak in it. Similarly, I liked Crystal Blue even more because my corals that have fluorescent pigments fluoresced better under it compared to ATI blue + as you explained in this thread. Moreover, the UK reseller (CCUK) was exceptionally helpful during the purchasing process. His credit card machine did not work when I collected the tubes from his premises. He let me take the tubes without paying for them. I then paid in full approximately fourteen days later (if I remember correctly) via paypal and only after I wrote to him that I wanted to pay. He never chased for payment. I do not think one can get better customer service than this.
On a negative note, the same reseller was completely silent, when I raised my concern over the longevity of the PS tubes.
Consequently, I decided to switch back to ATI tubes. They cost significantly more, but they last significantly longer too.
In my review, I have stated the facts and endeavoured to be balanced. Thanks for reading it.
Figure 1: My reef Tank
Figure 2: Orientation of my T5 Tubes
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