The T5 Q&a Thread - split

I have an ATI Sunpower with 6 bulbs (48") on a 110 gallon, fish only tank. My bulbs are 3 blue+ (ATI), 1 purple+ (ATI), 1 coral+ (ATI), and a midday (6000K Geisemann).

My light fixture has two channels, with two bulbs on one channel and 4 bulbs on the other. I am thinking of using the following bulb combination and schedule:

1. Lights on at 7:30 am with the 2-bulb channel: 1 blue+ and 1 coral+ for 3.5 hours.
2. At 11 am, switching to the 4-bulb channel - 2 blue+, 1 purple+, and 1 white for 7 hours. The 2 channel bulbs will be off.
3. At 6 pm, back to the 2-bulb channel until 9:30 pm. The 4-channel bulbs will be off.

Do you think this is a good setup to start with or is there a better combination of bulbs?

This is a fish only tank and my only plants are algae that has cropped up the past 6 months (tank has been up 4 years) so I have been turning off all light for 4 hours during the middle of the day.
 
thinking about getting back to T5. I'm currently running 2 Radions gen 1, and not very happy with the light. My tank dimension is 48x24x20h. How many bulbs should I get and what is the current top T5 light?
 
tinnghe said:
thinking about getting back to T5. I'm currently running 2 Radions gen 1, and not very happy with the light. My tank dimension is 48x24x20h. How many bulbs should I get and what is the current top T5 light?
Click to expand...


I would say an 8 bulb unit, as would most I believe. 48" length, although you may get by with a 36" fixture if you like low light corals as well.

Can't beat ati for t5 fixtures.
 
How many bulbs for a 300 gall dd 6ftx3ftx 27in tank

And

How many bulbs for a

6Ftx 30in x 25in tank?

Both tanks looking to keep sps acros and some lps
 
tinnghe said:
thinking about getting back to T5. I'm currently running 2 Radions gen 1, and not very happy with the light. My tank dimension is 48x24x20h. How many bulbs should I get and what is the current top T5 light?
Click to expand...

8 bulb ATI would work well. If you have the dough then the ATI LED Powermodule is perfect
 
rtparty
On my 8x24 , what do you recommend for lighting schedule?
I have channel 1 with 2 blue+ and channel 2 with 2 coral, 1 purple+,3 blue+
Bulbs are 10 inches off of water and I don't dim them maybe I should.
 
MarksReef said:
rtparty
On my 8x24 , what do you recommend for lighting schedule?
I have channel 1 with 2 blue+ and channel 2 with 2 coral, 1 purple+,3 blue+
Bulbs are 10 inches off of water and I don't dim them maybe I should.
Click to expand...

I usually ran channel 1 for 12 hours and channel 2 depended on how my corals looked. Anywhere from 4 to 8 hours.
 
Here is an interesting tidbit I found. I have been using a Actinic bulb for a while now and have seen a positive effect in coloration and growth has been very good. I originally replaced a blue plus with an actinic because I found that the "best growth" metal halides, usually had a very large peak at 420nm and not much at 450-470 where our blue bulbs peak.
Anyway, the common thought is that the actinic bulbs are only for color, and have no usefulness for growth, especially because they put out comparatively low par. I then found this:
image_preview

From an old review article, note the low par of the actinic bulb in relation to the others. They also tested PUR(which is Photosynthetically Usable Radiation) and which may be a better piece of data than PAR. For the same three bulbs, it is very interesting:
image_preview

Perhaps a bit more 420nm light is indeed useful...
 
Just installed this combo after suggestions from this thread
B+
C+
B+
C+

Nice color but my, the leds have spoilt me in the umpff and spark of the blue LEDs lighting
 
silas k said:
Just installed this combo after suggestions from this thread
B+
C+
B+
C+

Nice color but my, the leds have spoilt me in the umpff and spark of the blue LEDs lighting
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. I run a strip of blue LEDs in the front for that reason along withmy 8 bulb t5
 
silas k said:
Just installed this combo after suggestions from this thread
B+
C+
B+
C+

Nice color but my, the leds have spoilt me in the umpff and spark of the blue LEDs lighting
Click to expand...

Do you mean you miss the shimmer? Keep in mind the stronger the shimmer the less coverage you are getting from the light source. Thats why there is no shimmer with a T5 rig. If you add enough LED emitters over a tank evenly spaced out it goes away as well.

There is, however, amazing growth and color in the corals with T5 so I guess Ill have to live with that:lol:
 
mhucasey said:
Do you mean you miss the shimmer? Keep in mind the stronger the shimmer the less coverage you are getting from the light source. Thats why there is no shimmer with a T5 rig. If you add enough LED emitters over a tank evenly spaced out it goes away as well.

There is, however, amazing growth and color in the corals with T5 so I guess Ill have to live with that:lol:
Click to expand...

Shimmer comes from a point source light. An incandescent light bulb will create a shimmer because it's point source. T5 and fluorescent bulbs diffuse the light and aren't point source so therefore very little shimmer happens.

You can also tone shimmer down by cutting back on surface agitation.
 
rtparty said:
Shimmer comes from a point source light. An incandescent light bulb will create a shimmer because it's point source. T5 and fluorescent bulbs diffuse the light and aren't point source so therefore very little shimmer happens.

You can also tone shimmer down by cutting back on surface agitation.
Click to expand...
You are correct but the more point sources you have across the tank the less shimmer you will have. Some of the really diffuse LED fixtures like the Sicce and Lani LED fixtures have no shimmer at all, even though they are made up of point source light.

The loss of shimmer is due to overlapping light waves from multiple angles canceling each other out.
The sun makes shimmer largely because the light waves are essentially parallel to each other because the sun is so far from the earth. Fluorescent bulb light forced through enough egg crate can create shimmer, by only allowing light waves that are parallel through. Of course that means a lot of light is lost in the process so its not a good idea to do that.
 
mhucasey said:
Do you mean you miss the shimmer? Keep in mind the stronger the shimmer the less coverage you are getting from the light source. Thats why there is no shimmer with a T5 rig. If you add enough LED emitters over a tank evenly spaced out it goes away as well.

There is, however, amazing growth and color in the corals with T5 so I guess Ill have to live with that:lol:
Click to expand...

No i dont mean shimmer...

I mean the leds make the greens pop more For example ..

But i cant wait to see how my corals react.. So no complaints.. Yet :D
 
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