The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[xsizzlax]

ATI Coral Plus in the 2nd slot and an ATI Aquablue in the 4th slot. However, I would move the Purple Plus up to the 2nd or 3rd slot.

Like this:

Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
Coral Plus
Aquablue (although I would use another Blue Plus here)
Blue Plus

Appreciate the response thanks....

 

[Faisal1976us]

Hi , is it ok to use this ballast or it will over drive t5 bulbs ?

http://www.bltdirect.com/products.php?cat=497

 

[Psirex]

The 10,000K bulbs were great to balance against the old fashion pure 420 nm atinic bulbs. But with the newer 454 to 460 nm Blue bulbs with a few of them in your lighting scheme you do not need the blue that the 10,000K's produced and the 6,500K with more of the warm light works better.

I hated the 6,500K untill I started to run it with more than 4 Blue Plus bulbs and think it now realy balances out the spectrum and still gives a great overall PAR in the frequencies you realy need it.

I believe in giving options though to people as some like a very blue tank, while others prefer a more pure whhite tank. If you go with 2 of the 6,500K even with 6 other Blue Plus bulbs the predominat yellow of the 6,500K will prevail. But with one of these and a purple plus with the 6 Blue Plus bulbs things will remain in balance yet you will get a deep oceal blue tint.

Some people prefer an even deeper blue tank which is why I then open up the option of somethng like the Gew Generation that has both Blue in it as well as the full spectrum. Others prefer more of a blue purple look so there also the pption of ysing either two purple plus bulbs instead of one or using one or two of the Fuji Reds to realy kick the spectrum to the purple end.

The deep blue light in the 440 nm to 480 nm range is used by almost all corals. Red light is very debatable as some corals do use it however some corals were found to bleach out with an excess of red light. The non florescent pigments however do look better with some red light on them as well. That is why I recommend one purple plus bulb that primarly produces blue and red light to give the purple effect.

ok cool - my main concern is growth of the corals - I don't want to stunt it....

 

[cet98]

what is the word on the UV Super Actinic lamps?....
do these lamps have any place in our T5 fixtures?
would they offer deeper, more fluorescence to the colors of our corals?...

 

[rtparty]

what is the word on the UV Super Actinic lamps?....
do these lamps have any place in our T5 fixtures?
would they offer deeper, more fluorescence to the colors of our corals?...

Not usually. The blue lamps have a ton of actinic in them already. The pure actinic bulbs are washed out.

 

[cet98]

Not usually. The blue lamps have a ton of actinic in them already. The pure actinic bulbs are washed out.

true that the Blue+ has plenty of actinic, but from what I see on the below graphs it appears that the color spectrum of each do not necessarily overlap that much...

thoughts?

 

[TropTrea]

ATI Coral Plus in the 2nd slot and an ATI Aquablue in the 4th slot. However, I would move the Purple Plus up to the 2nd or 3rd slot.

Like this:

Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
Coral Plus
Aquablue (although I would use another Blue Plus here)
Blue Plus

I do not think this will give you the same color spectrum but instead move you more blue. I would replace the Coral Plus with a GE 6,500K and the Aqua Blue with another Blue Plus or Purple Plus. The Coral Plus bulb is realy a very Blue Bulb with just a little of full spectrum light in it.

 

[TropTrea]

I talked with someone that tried the new Coral Plus Bulbs. He is running a 6 bulb fixture with 2 coral plus and and 4 blue plus bulbs. Before he had 1 Aqua Blue, 1 Purple Plus, and 4 Blue Plus. The change acoreding to him was the tank got considerably bluer and looks almost perfect for a 20,000K look now while before it was closer to a 18,000K look.

I know eye preception varies but the big point is he did say it got considerably Bluer with the Coral Plus Bulbs.

Now I[m thinking in my 8 bulb fixture how would work if I still keep a GE 6,500K and replace one of my Blue Plus Bulbs with the Coral Plus. Will it be less blue and by how much?

 

[WayOfTheReef]

I have an ATI Sunpower 8 bulb fixture. Would using 6 blue + (6 blue+, 1 purple+, 1 aquablue) give me faster SPS growth vs 5 blue+, 2 purple+, 1 aquablue?
right now, I would rather have faster growth than aesthetics.

 

[rtparty]

true that the Blue+ has plenty of actinic, but from what I see on the below graphs it appears that the color spectrum of each do not necessarily overlap that much...

thoughts?

Actually, they do overlap quite a bit. The spikes are just in different areas. If you look the actinic spikes hard at 420nm and the Blue Plus spikes around 450nm. That is what gives each bulb their distinct look.

If you feel like running an actinic, that is your choice. Their PAR is very low and growth has never been all that great with them. Color wise the other bulbs overpower the actinic and you really only see their effect when they are on by themselves.

 

[TropTrea]

T properly compare the two you need to align the graphs to coresponding frequencies. This is what you get when you do that. Keep in mind that visual light starts diminishing very rapidly under 420 nm and is basicly undetectable at 380 nm.

 

[TropTrea]

I have an ATI Sunpower 8 bulb fixture. Would using 6 blue + (6 blue+, 1 purple+, 1 aquablue) give me faster SPS growth vs 5 blue+, 2 purple+, 1 aquablue?
right now, I would rather have faster growth than aesthetics.

You would probably be best with 7 Blue Plus bulbs and one GE 6,500K if your not worried about the look of the tank.

 

[rtparty]

I have an ATI Sunpower 8 bulb fixture. Would using 6 blue + (6 blue+, 1 purple+, 1 aquablue) give me faster SPS growth vs 5 blue+, 2 purple+, 1 aquablue?
right now, I would rather have faster growth than aesthetics.

If you want all growth go with 4 blue plus and 4 ge 6500k IMO.

It wont look good but growth would pick up a ton.

 

[montrealreef]

Hi guys,

I have a 6x 54w ATI powermodule + a 48 inch Reefbrite blue LED strip over my 120 G tank. I switched over from MH (2x250 radium 20k + 2 VHO actinics) more than a year ago and ever since the switch I have been having a lot of trouble with bleaching corals. I am now down to about a 5 hour photoperiod. Any time I try to increase it (even when I do it very gradually) the corals start to get pale and then bleach over a period of 2-3 weeks.The powermodule is at 7 inches above water (the max I can do with my set up)

The bulb combo that I am using is what seems to be commonly recommended on this thread

ATI Blue plus
ATI blue plus
ATI purple PLus
KZ new Gen coral Light
ATI blue plus
ATI blue plus

When I was running MH+VHO my total photoperiiod was 14 hours and my SPS had good growth and coloration. Now my lights are on for 5 hours a day and my SPS corals are very pale. My LPS corals and mushrooms on the bottom of the tank are all bleached. My wife is getting tired of looking at an unlit tank. I have been in this hobby for 8 years and I had always been successful prior to the switch. All my water parameters (Ca, Alk, Mg, Phosphate, Nitrate, PH, temp, salinity, Potassium) are in check I have verified using multiple test kits and sent out the water for professional analysis. I have been running an ULNS system for >5 years. I have about 20 fish in my tank and I have tried to feed heavily to help combat the bleaching but to no avail.

I was thinking of replacing the KZ with a Blue Plus to decrease the PAR a bit. Does that make sense or will it still be too high?

Could it be that the red spectrum in the purple plus is causing this?

I am lost. Any advice would be highly appreciated

thanks

sam

 

[rtparty]

Hi guys,

I have a 6x 54w ATI powermodule + a 48 inch Reefbrite blue LED strip over my 120 G tank. I switched over from MH (2x250 radium 20k + 2 VHO actinics) more than a year ago and ever since the switch I have been having a lot of trouble with bleaching corals. I am now down to about a 5 hour photoperiod. Any time I try to increase it (even when I do it very gradually) the corals start to get pale and then bleach over a period of 2-3 weeks.The powermodule is at 7 inches above water (the max I can do with my set up)

The bulb combo that I am using is what seems to be commonly recommended on this thread

ATI Blue plus
ATI blue plus
ATI purple PLus
KZ new Gen coral Light
ATI blue plus
ATI blue plus

When I was running MH+VHO my total photoperiiod was 14 hours and my SPS had good growth and coloration. Now my lights are on for 5 hours a day and my SPS corals are very pale. My LPS corals and mushrooms on the bottom of the tank are all bleached. My wife is getting tired of looking at an unlit tank. I have been in this hobby for 8 years and I had always been successful prior to the switch. All my water parameters (Ca, Alk, Mg, Phosphate, Nitrate, PH, temp, salinity, Potassium) are in check I have verified using multiple test kits and sent out the water for professional analysis. I have been running an ULNS system for >5 years. I have about 20 fish in my tank and I have tried to feed heavily to help combat the bleaching but to no avail.

I was thinking of replacing the KZ with a Blue Plus to decrease the PAR a bit. Does that make sense or will it still be too high?

Could it be that the red spectrum in the purple plus is causing this?

I am lost. Any advice would be highly appreciated

thanks

sam

The blue plus is actually the highest PAR bulb on the market. Pull 2 blue plus for actinic bulbs. That will lower PAR quite a bit. You can also try only running 4 of the bulbs during daylight hours.

 

[rtparty]

Double post

 

[cet98]

T properly compare the two you need to align the graphs to coresponding frequencies. This is what you get when you do that. Keep in mind that visual light starts diminishing very rapidly under 420 nm and is basicly undetectable at 380 nm.

thank you :thumbsup:

 

[centrix]

Hi Grim,

I just started a saltwater tank and received a 8x54W Nova Extreme Pro from a buddy. Can you recommend me a combo of t5s HO to grow sps/lps on a 90 48x18x24?

 

[TropTrea]

Hi Grim,

I just started a saltwater tank and received a 8x54W Nova Extreme Pro from a buddy. Can you recommend me a combo of t5s HO to grow sps/lps on a 90 48x18x24?

Front to Back
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6,500K
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

This will give you a nice blue effect with enough light for good viewing and a high PAR for SPS corals.

If you think it is two Blue you could add a new Generation in place of one of the Blue Plus Bulbs.

 

[centrix]

Hi TropTrea,

Thanks for the reply, is GE 6500k better UVL AquaSun? and what is a 'new generation' in place of one of the blue plus bulbs.