The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[The Grim Reefer]

Grim, you don't think this will make it too blue? If it does can I add one of the Aquablue Specials back? If so, in what position?

It might but the purple lamp will offset that. If you think it's too blue I'd drop down to 12K halides myself. The dusk/dawn with those lamps will look good. If you decide to add an aquablue do it in the 3rd slot back.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Getting a new fixture (aquaperfekt photon plus) for my new tank (60x30x18) which has 2x250w DE HQI MHs and 6x54w T5s. I will plan to run the MHs 4 hrs a day, so I'll need the T5s to run 8-10 hrs.

Any recommendations? I am ordering from SOS, so the options are ATi, Giesemann, Hagen, Hexarc and UV. Part of me was thinking 2 of each, Hexarc 460 Blue, Oceanic Blue and True Actinic, but I'm worried that may be too blue. I like a 15k tank. I could throw in an AquaSun or something similar. The T5s are on either side of the MHs, so I might need a pair of whiter lamps.

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
Halides
Giesemann Midday
Blue Plus
Blue Plus

 

[llebcire]

3x ATI blue plus
1X GE 6500k

Maybe. Think I'm hoping for a 15k - 20k look.

I'm thinking of going all ATI - I don't have a dealer locally where I can see the combos in person to get a better feel.

Would like to see 3x Blue Plus with a new Coral Plus or 2x Blue Plus, 1 Actinic and 1 Coral Plus in person.

May need to hit up George @ Reef Geek for some ideas.

I know people rave about the KZ Purple, ATI Purple & UVL 75.25 but they seem to pink to me (owned KZ & UVL).

Unfortunately I don't keep old bulbs to test combos.

-Eric

 

[nanoreef16g]

It might but the purple lamp will offset that. If you think it's too blue I'd drop down to 12K halides myself. The dusk/dawn with those lamps will look good. If you decide to add an aquablue do it in the 3rd slot back.

Any recommendations as to a good 12K halide brand to buy?

 

[eledile]

Okay. A couple questions for the pros!

First let me start by saying that I am getting ready to set up a 90g reef, that I am going to be keeping LPS and Softies only in, and want to know what lighting to put on there. I've been told a strictly T5 setup will be perfectly fine, and to be honest, I want to try it out. I just don't know enough about the bulbs and bulb combinations to just order something and "wing it"

So, with that said, what do you guys think will be the best for my tank? To my knowledge the tank is just a standard 90g, 48" long. would a 48" fixture be the way to go, or would a 36" work out better if I centered it in the middle of the tank?

And secondly would be the amount of bulbs and combinations and placement of these bulbs..So what would be a nice amount of bulbs to put on the tank that would give me a modest growth rate, and nothing out of control? 4 or 6? Not only that, but I like the hint of blue look to my tank. Nothing too blue, but nothing too white either, so what would I do to make that happen? I like my corals to fluoresce, so how do I achieve this with T5's? My original thoughts were to just have a set of actinics to just use for at night when I like to just sit and watch the tank, or even have a DIY LED strictly blues set up and integrated with my T5's to keep them on constantly...or is there a way to keep them fluorescing by using only T5's?

And lastly, bulb placement? I know this is essential because when I built my LED system for my nano tank I spent days making diagrams of how to place them in order to maximize growth, overall look, and best spread of certain colors of lights. I am just not sure on how to do this with T5's..

I think that covers it as far as what I'm looking for, and if you need any additional info don't hesitate to ask! TIA

-Jordan

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Any recommendations as to a good 12K halide brand to buy?

Been a long time, seems to me Ushio had a nice lamp in that range.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Okay. A couple questions for the pros!

First let me start by saying that I am getting ready to set up a 90g reef, that I am going to be keeping LPS and Softies only in, and want to know what lighting to put on there. I've been told a strictly T5 setup will be perfectly fine, and to be honest, I want to try it out. I just don't know enough about the bulbs and bulb combinations to just order something and "wing it"

So, with that said, what do you guys think will be the best for my tank? To my knowledge the tank is just a standard 90g, 48" long. would a 48" fixture be the way to go, or would a 36" work out better if I centered it in the middle of the tank?

And secondly would be the amount of bulbs and combinations and placement of these bulbs..So what would be a nice amount of bulbs to put on the tank that would give me a modest growth rate, and nothing out of control? 4 or 6? Not only that, but I like the hint of blue look to my tank. Nothing too blue, but nothing too white either, so what would I do to make that happen? I like my corals to fluoresce, so how do I achieve this with T5's? My original thoughts were to just have a set of actinics to just use for at night when I like to just sit and watch the tank, or even have a DIY LED strictly blues set up and integrated with my T5's to keep them on constantly...or is there a way to keep them fluorescing by using only T5's?

And lastly, bulb placement? I know this is essential because when I built my LED system for my nano tank I spent days making diagrams of how to place them in order to maximize growth, overall look, and best spread of certain colors of lights. I am just not sure on how to do this with T5's..

I think that covers it as far as what I'm looking for, and if you need any additional info don't hesitate to ask! TIA

-Jordan

Tek or Aquaticlife 6x54

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
ATI BLue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

 

[TropTrea]

Any recommendations as to a good 12K halide brand to buy?

When I ran Hides I liked the growth I got from the 6,500K Ushio but for color I liked the 10,000K XM with a lot of Atinics.

 

[eledile]

Tek or Aquaticlife 6x54

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
ATI BLue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

Okay, so 6 bulb it is..Which do you feel is a better fixture, the Tek or Aquaticlife? I know the Aquaticlife comes with LED's and a timer, but are those really necessary? I have heard people happy with both fixtures, but I still can't decide which is best for me. That extra $100 I could save by getting the Tek sounds nice, but if I decide to get a timer and moons it will probably cost me that extra $100 if not more anyways right?

And would the way you listed the bulbs be as such, front = top of list and back = bottom of list? or the other way around?

 

[Chrisrush]

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
Halides
Giesemann Midday
Blue Plus
Blue Plus

Thanks Grim. Always a great resource. I'll get the fixture up and snap a few pictures of the color.

 

[dixiedog]

So I've come to realize that the color I like best in my four-bulb fixture comes from running three blue + bulbs and one fiji purple (or purple plus). I like the deeper-water look, and the nice all-day fluorescent pop.

Anybody see a problem with this?

 

[ebayes11]

What's the best T5 single bulb reflector out there for retrofit canopies?

 

[eledile]

Okay Grim, another question for you. I have found my dream tank on CL for cheap, one of the starfire 50g cubes, and if I don't go with the 90 I am going to be snagging this one before it's gone. Question is, would you go with the Aquaticlife 24" 6x24 fixture with the same bulbs listed before for that tank or something different? Tek doesn't have a 24" 6x24 fixture, so I was somewhat confused on what to do.

the Aquatic life fixture puts out 144 watts so that's just about 3 watts per gallon, which is a good thing for LPS and softies right? Or am I going to need more watts?

 

[Jstn]

So I've come to realize that the color I like best in my four-bulb fixture comes from running three blue + bulbs and one fiji purple (or purple plus). I like the deeper-water look, and the nice all-day fluorescent pop.

Anybody see a problem with this?

I was thikning of trying this, i have two blue, ab special and a fiji and some of my sps arent really growing. I though that blue+ gives off more par.

Any thoughts?

 

[nanoreef16g]

Been a long time, seems to me Ushio had a nice lamp in that range.

Thanks for all your time Grim. You're an asset to this site.

 

[TropTrea]

I was thikning of trying this, i have two blue, ab special and a fiji and some of my sps arent really growing. I though that blue+ gives off more par.

Any thoughts?

There realy is a blancing act as far as PAR is concerned in the reef. PAR is the total amunt of light energy emitted between 400 and 700 nanometers. While it is true that the Blue Plus bulbs create to more PAR than most other bulbs they produce the PAR mainly around peak at 450 nm and very liitle under 410 nm or over 500 nm.

Do to the fact that corals live naturaly a various levels in the ocean the ocean water does filter the longer wave lenghts reducing what they are used to see in the 700 nm range. this is why the deeper you go into the ocean the more blue everything looks.

However Corals do use and need a little light the longer wave lenght since the ocean does not filter it all out unless you get very deep. Actualy light at 685 nm in excess has been repeatedly proven to harm some corals when it was in excess.

so the idea is to get the Most PAr from your lights over a broad range which is very short wave lenght heavey. Probably the most ideal light spectrum for Corals would look like a sine wave where it started at zero around 380 nm, peaked out to its mak around 440 nm the sloped back to zero at about 700 nm. As you can see this would be a very uneven distribution over what we are used to seeing with our eyes.

The Blue Plus bulbs do a great job of bringing up that peak where we need it in the Blue 440 to 460 nm range. However a full spectrrum bulb is needed to fill in those longer wave lenghts. But overdoing the wise spectrum lighting compared to the blues is just as bad as not having enough total PAR. Even a ration of 7 Blue Plus to one Full spectrum bulb allows a good balance with adequate longer lenght light to meet the coral needs.

The problem with a 1 to 7 ratio though is for most people the aquarium would look overly blue with little reflection of the none blue non florescent things in their tank. Finding that proper balance point is what is difficult to many since everyones eye is not the same when it comes to personal taste.

 

[dixiedog]

Thanks Dennis.

You know one thing that's amazing to me is, despite how different the purple plus looks from the blue plus, their spectral graphs are practically identical!

 

[rtparty]

What's the best T5 single bulb reflector out there for retrofit canopies?

LET reflectors found on Reefgeek.

 

[rtparty]

So I've come to realize that the color I like best in my four-bulb fixture comes from running three blue + bulbs and one fiji purple (or purple plus). I like the deeper-water look, and the nice all-day fluorescent pop.

Anybody see a problem with this?

No issues. I have seen a lot of people do this with no problem.

 

[rtparty]

Okay Grim, another question for you. I have found my dream tank on CL for cheap, one of the starfire 50g cubes, and if I don't go with the 90 I am going to be snagging this one before it's gone. Question is, would you go with the Aquaticlife 24" 6x24 fixture with the same bulbs listed before for that tank or something different? Tek doesn't have a 24" 6x24 fixture, so I was somewhat confused on what to do.

the Aquatic life fixture puts out 144 watts so that's just about 3 watts per gallon, which is a good thing for LPS and softies right? Or am I going to need more watts?

Watts don't matter, plain and simple. PAR is the important thing to consider.

The Aquatic Life will work but I would look into an ATI Sunpower.

Aquatic Life fixture - $399 on Marine Depot. Add in $150 for 6 new bulbs and you are at $549.

ATI Sunpower - $512 with bulbs from Reefgeek.

You will have a much better fixture with the ATI and selling an ATI down the road is pretty easy if need be. Not to mention that the ATI cools the bulbs much better than AL and you won't have to replace them quite as often.