serbusfish
New member
47.5" Length
19.2" Width
19" Depth
Bulbs are mounted around 2 inches from the water surface.
The T5 Q&a Thread - split
- Thread starter eagle9252
- Start date
47.5" Length
19.2" Width
19" Depth
Bulbs are mounted around 2 inches from the water surface.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Well the 48" sun power dimensions are:
Dimensions (LxWxH): 47.0" x 9.4" x 2.1"
So it might Squeeze in there. The problem is the 2" off the water. That is too close in my experience. The lowest I have gone for any amount of time was about 4-5 inches off the water. Is this in a canopy?
The 3ft fixture would be a bit short In my opinion, especially that close to the water. I have 3ft fixtures over a 4ft tank but they are 8" of the water and the ends of the tank are dimmer by design.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I have never heard that running the tubes at lower percents will extend their lifetime. In fact, Ive heard the opposite
serbusfish
New member
It is a Juwel branded tank and light unit. The light units are designed to sit on the aquarium edges. Not my pic but this demonstrates my setup:
I have 2 of the light units, which gives me 54w x 4 T5's. However I cant use ATI bulbs as the Juwel bulbs are odd lengths so I want to switch to an alternate light unit. Arcadia make something called an I bar which is a direct replacement for mine, but fit standard length bulbs. See:
So, I need to know if 4x 39w will work for my needs as that is the biggest I bar I can fit with my dimensions.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
You will have lower light on the ends, but overall ATI bulbs will probably give you greater light output, so I guess it will be fine.It is a Juwel branded tank and light unit. The light units are designed to sit on the aquarium edges. Not my pic but this demonstrates my setup:
I have 2 of the light units, which gives me 54w x 4 T5's. However I cant use ATI bulbs as the Juwel bulbs are odd lengths so I want to switch to an alternate light unit. Arcadia make something called an I bar which is a direct replacement for mine, but fit standard length bulbs. See:
So, I need to know if 4x 39w will work for my needs as that is the biggest I bar I can fit with my dimensions.
serbusfish
New member
It was the wattage I was worried about, id be going from 216w to 156w, that's pretty significant IMO. I know for some corals such as the Elegance coral which I currently have it is recommended to have around 3 watts per gallon, and at the moment I am just about hitting that target.
Another alternative is to keep 2 of my current bulbs and just run 2x ATI bulbs along side them, which would give me 186w total.
Salt Creeper
New member
I have a 10 bulb t5 fixture over a 28" tall tank and I'm looking to get a moderate blue color with maximum sps growth. I plan on doing this bulb configuration..
6x b+
2x c+
2x ati true actinic
Any suggestions?
6x b+
2x c+
2x ati true actinic
Any suggestions?
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
That will be more than moderately Blue, it will be ice blue for sure. This is a test I did with 4 Blue Plus and 2 coral plus on my tank a while back:
You should have fantastic coral growth with that combo however.
If you want it more balanced I'd go I'd take away a couple blue bulbs and replace with a AquaBlue Special and a Purple Bulb(Fiji Purple, Super Purple, Purple Plus)
Salt Creeper
New member
That's exactly the look I'm shooting for!! Thanks for the picture - that's pretty close to what my configuration will look like. I have a couple actinics in there so maybe even a little more blue/violet. I'll swing by the Lfs and grab a couple aqua blues if it's too blue for me. I'm also wondering if the true actinics are worth a damn or if I should just replace them with purple or c+. I've heard people say that the wavelength is extremely useful to sps while I've heard others say they are a waste of a t5 socket. Color isn't quite as important as coral growth to me.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
If yu have the space for them, the 420NM wavelengths are very useful for SPS, so they would be a good addition.
swk
New member
Fwiw - I used to use 4 b+ and 2 c+ over my 75 gal. Growth was good but corals were a bit 2 dimensional. When it was time to swap some bulbs I bought a bunch of gman to play with in addition to my usual 6 ati bulbs. After a bunch of screwing around I ended up with
Blue+
Actinic blue
Super purple
Blue+
Aqua blue azure
Actinic blue
This combination looks great and, just anecdotally my alk demand did increase with the addition of a purple bulb. It could be totally unrelated, but that was my experience
Blue+
Actinic blue
Super purple
Blue+
Aqua blue azure
Actinic blue
This combination looks great and, just anecdotally my alk demand did increase with the addition of a purple bulb. It could be totally unrelated, but that was my experience
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I agree that there is just too much blue in that mix and you will lose all the color nuance. My personal preference is for 1 Purple bulb for approximately every 3 blue bulbs. I also feel like just blue and purple bulbs only gives a very rich but not very "real" color, and it looks dim to me. Therefore, I add a few white bulbs in there to bring up overall brightness and add back more yellow and green.
My current 8 bulb combo over tank #1 is 2 Fiji Purple, 1 ABS, 5 Blue plus. A little more blue but this is the LPS centric tank with a few SPS.
The current combo over tank #2(2 6-bulb fixtures) is 2 FP, 2 ABS, Aquablue Azure & KZ New Gen, and 6 Blue Plus. This is the SPS tank
When I first set up tank #2, I threw a basic combo in there and the corals seemed to really like it, but when I had time to look at it and start fiddling I decided it was just a bit washed out. The corals were coloring up like crazy under this mix though so I may revisit. It was very bright, thats for sure!
4 ABS, 2FP, 6B+
Thinking of my next set of bulbs to get for my 8 bulb ATI unit. This is what I run presently: ATI Blue+, Giesemann Aquablue Azure, Giesemann Actinic Blue, ATI Purple+, ATI Actinic+, Giesemann Tropic, Giesemann Aquablue Azure, ATI Blue+.
Now I am thinking of this combo. I prefer a slightly more blue look. Not sure how this will look.
ATI Blue+
Giesemann Super Purple
ATI Blue+
ATI Coral+
Giesemann Actinic Blue
ATI Blue +
Giesemann Aquablue Azure
ATI Blue+
Center 4 bulbs will be on 9 hours
Outer 4 bulbs will be on 3 hours
What do you think of this combo and would you place bulbs differently?
Now I am thinking of this combo. I prefer a slightly more blue look. Not sure how this will look.
ATI Blue+
Giesemann Super Purple
ATI Blue+
ATI Coral+
Giesemann Actinic Blue
ATI Blue +
Giesemann Aquablue Azure
ATI Blue+
Center 4 bulbs will be on 9 hours
Outer 4 bulbs will be on 3 hours
What do you think of this combo and would you place bulbs differently?
Can you recommend the best bulb configuration for my 6 bulb T-5 light fixture (AquaticLife Six Lamp T5 HO Light Fixture). I've been going with the dealer recommended but I'm not sure that is the best for my tank. I have a couple Branched Montis, Mushrooms, Zoas, Frogspawn, GSP, and a clam that sits about half way up the tank. The tank is a standard 75g 4' wide tank.
Thanks,
Jim
This is the current configuration:
48" come with 1 purple, 1 white and 4 blue lamps.
Thanks,
Jim
This is the current configuration:
48" come with 1 purple, 1 white and 4 blue lamps.
Last edited:
tekjunkie28
New member
How good is the aquaticlife t5 fixture with digital timer?
Love this light! I've had a couple of years now and I'm really enjoying it. It seems to produce a good amount of light. I forgot to list that I have a Toadstool and it's on a rock on the sand bed and it does really well that far down. I wouldn't use to grow Acros or anything though.
The timer has been working good. I have noticed that the main clock gets off (slow) by about 3-4 minutes a year but it is simple to readjust.
The timer has been working good. I have noticed that the main clock gets off (slow) by about 3-4 minutes a year but it is simple to readjust.
