The T5 Q&a Thread - split

According to the ATI website, an 8 bulb combo for:

16K - 20K - Bluish white with a noticable blue and red under-tone
- 5 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Coral Plus
- 1 ATI Purple Plus

12K - 16K - Cool white with a noticable blue and red under-tone
- 4 ATI Blue Plus
- 3 ATI Coral Plus
- 1 ATI Purple Plus

10K - 14K - Crisp white with just a hint of blue
- 4 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Aquablue Special
- 2 ATI Purple Plus


I currently run the follow:
- 5 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Purple Plus
- 1 Gieseman Midday (6000K)

Where do you think my color temperature fits? Sounds like around 14000K?
 
According to the ATI website, an 8 bulb combo for:

16K - 20K - Bluish white with a noticable blue and red under-tone
- 5 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Coral Plus
- 1 ATI Purple Plus

12K - 16K - Cool white with a noticable blue and red under-tone
- 4 ATI Blue Plus
- 3 ATI Coral Plus
- 1 ATI Purple Plus

10K - 14K - Crisp white with just a hint of blue
- 4 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Aquablue Special
- 2 ATI Purple Plus


I currently run the follow:
- 5 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Purple Plus
- 1 Gieseman Midday (6000K)

Where do you think my color temperature fits? Sounds like around 14000K?

Right around there. I don't totally trust those combos. 10k and 14k are very different and that's a large range.

I'm running 2 blue plus, 1 purple plus, 1 actinic, 1 aquablue and 1 coral plus. With everything on, I feel it is 14k or so. I'm actually enjoying the look overall which surprises me.
 
I felt my 4 bulb combo of Ge6500 , 2 blue plus & fiji purple was around 12k and when I added 2 more blues it helped a little. I bet the aqua blue instead of the ge6500 would be close to a Phoenix 14k.

I'm over trying to get fast growth and have enough freshwater tanks so its nice having the contrast between the deep blue of my salt tanks and yellow/white of my freshwater & planted tanks.
 
Hey Grim, I have a DIY 36" setup of five T5's, powered by IceCap 660 ballasts (2 bulbs on one ballast, 3 on the other).

You recommended to me not long ago to go with four ATI Blue+ and one Purple+. The color was really nice but my ballasts kept blowing the Purple+ so I swapped in a white bulb, then finally a true actinic.

I honestly like the combo of only one ballast powering two Blue+ and one Actinic. I decided to focus on low/med light corals like favia, chalices, acans, etc and I think the four Blue+ is too much par.

Do you think three Actinic and two Blue+ is enough par? Do you think my tank would be too washed out with that much blue?
 
Hey Grim, I have a DIY 36" setup of five T5's, powered by IceCap 660 ballasts (2 bulbs on one ballast, 3 on the other).

You recommended to me not long ago to go with four ATI Blue+ and one Purple+. The color was really nice but my ballasts kept blowing the Purple+ so I swapped in a white bulb, then finally a true actinic.

I honestly like the combo of only one ballast powering two Blue+ and one Actinic. I decided to focus on low/med light corals like favia, chalices, acans, etc and I think the four Blue+ is too much par.

Do you think three Actinic and two Blue+ is enough par? Do you think my tank would be too washed out with that much blue?

3 blue on one ballast
2 actinic on the other
I doubt 2 blue plus would be enough but it is overdriven so its better safe than sorry, the actinics will help from the blue washing the tank out.
 
Hey Grim, I have a DIY 36" setup of five T5's, powered by IceCap 660 ballasts (2 bulbs on one ballast, 3 on the other).

You recommended to me not long ago to go with four ATI Blue+ and one Purple+. The color was really nice but my ballasts kept blowing the Purple+ so I swapped in a white bulb, then finally a true actinic.

I honestly like the combo of only one ballast powering two Blue+ and one Actinic. I decided to focus on low/med light corals like favia, chalices, acans, etc and I think the four Blue+ is too much par.

Do you think three Actinic and two Blue+ is enough par? Do you think my tank would be too washed out with that much blue?

I'm surprised you got an actinic to last being overdriven. T5 bulbs and icecap ballasts don't get along all that well. Have you thought about selling the ballasts and just using standard HO ballasts? You will have better luck IMO.
 
I just changed out my 6000K bulb to Coral Plus.. So I'm basically running:

5 Blue+
2 Purple+
1 Coral+
...

Based on the info below, am I around 15-16K?

According to the ATI website, an 8 bulb combo for:

16K - 20K - Bluish white with a noticable blue and red under-tone
- 5 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Coral Plus
- 1 ATI Purple Plus

12K - 16K - Cool white with a noticable blue and red under-tone
- 4 ATI Blue Plus
- 3 ATI Coral Plus
- 1 ATI Purple Plus

10K - 14K - Crisp white with just a hint of blue
- 4 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Aquablue Special
- 2 ATI Purple Plus


I currently run the follow:
- 5 ATI Blue Plus
- 2 ATI Purple Plus
- 1 Gieseman Midday (6000K)

Where do you think my color temperature fits? Sounds like around 14000K?
 
Frequency of Tube Replacement

Frequency of Tube Replacement

All,

I have been running my ATI tubes for the past nine months. My ATI sunpower unit's fans run at 9 volts.

I have recently lowered my light unit down to 3" above the water surface after noticing brown colouration on my SPS corals. At this height, I measure 625 mmol (in the centre) at 4" below water surface and between 150 mmol and 250 mmol on the sand bed (at 18" depth).

My question is that is there any point in changing my tubes for the sake of it? It seems as if I can still get a few more months worth of life out of my tubes. I am intending to use them as long as I measure sensible PAR. Is there a drawback in my strategy?

Happy new year. :wave:
 
All,

I have been running my ATI tubes for the past nine months. My ATI sunpower unit's fans run at 9 volts.

I have recently lowered my light unit down to 3" above the water surface after noticing brown colouration on my SPS corals. At this height, I measure 625 mmol (in the centre) at 4" below water surface and between 150 mmol and 250 mmol on the sand bed (at 18" depth).

My question is that is there any point in changing my tubes for the sake of it? It seems as if I can still get a few more months worth of life out of my tubes. I am intending to use them as long as I measure sensible PAR. Is there a drawback in my strategy?

Happy new year. :wave:
Nope, that's a good strategy. When using new bulbs you can rise the fixture and measure your PAR around the tank & under the fixture and when the 9 month mark rolls around drop the fixture a little and keep the PAR levels close to what you started with.
Around the 10 month mark is when SPS keepers like yourself notice the colors in their corals get worse. You can drop the fixture and get more PAR but to help your corals get the color back your going to need new bulbs soon.
 
All,

I have been running my ATI tubes for the past nine months. My ATI sunpower unit's fans run at 9 volts.

I have recently lowered my light unit down to 3" above the water surface after noticing brown colouration on my SPS corals. At this height, I measure 625 mmol (in the centre) at 4" below water surface and between 150 mmol and 250 mmol on the sand bed (at 18" depth).

My question is that is there any point in changing my tubes for the sake of it? It seems as if I can still get a few more months worth of life out of my tubes. I am intending to use them as long as I measure sensible PAR. Is there a drawback in my strategy?

Happy new year. :wave:

How are water parameters? Corals shouldn't be browning too bad under that PAR. Blue bulbs tend to go first so replacing a couple of them wouldn't hurt.

Also what is the ambient temp around your tank? 9v could be too high of a setting and overcooling the bulbs.
 
How are water parameters? Corals shouldn't be browning too bad under that PAR. Blue bulbs tend to go first so replacing a couple of them wouldn't hurt.

Also what is the ambient temp around your tank? 9v could be too high of a setting and overcooling the bulbs.

Water parameters are within acceptable limits. I did not phrase very well. What I meant was that colours lost their vibrancy. I have already bought a new set of tubes. It is just a matter of when to replace them, hence my original post.

The ambient temperature of the room in which my tank is kept is around 18C. It could be higher, but I leave one of the windows slightly ajar to avoid condensation problems. Should I drop the voltage to 7V?

:beer:
 
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Anyone uses Narva Lamps? Whats your experience with them?

I do not personally use them, but there is a large contingent in the UK who use them instead of ATI blue +. They seem very content with Narva blue. Their selling price in the UK (especially for 54W+ version is significantly cheaper than the price of ATI blue+). There is a long thread in one of the forums here on non-branded bulbs. if you want, I can pm you the URL address.
 
Also what is the ambient temp around your tank? 9v could be too high of a setting and overcooling the bulbs.

Hi Ryan,

You bring up a good point about fan setting and ATI doesn't do a good job explaining what setting it should be.

To that end, I have a 6 x 24w ATI PM on my 60-gl LPS Cube and a 10 x 80w ATI PM on my 180-gl SPS tank. What setting should each of these features be at? The 60-gl cube does not have a canopy and the 180-gl does have a canopy. Both rooms are at 68 degrees in winter and have central air in the summer seasons.

Thanks in advance for any help.........
 
Anyone uses Narva Lamps? Whats your experience with them?

I've personally never run them but people like them. It's just a matter of finding them.

Water parameters are within acceptable limits. I did not phrase very well. What I meant was that colours lost their vibrancy. I have already bought a new set of tubes. It is just a matter of when to replace them, hence my original post.

The ambient temperature of the room in which my tank is kept is around 18C. It could be higher, but I leave one of the windows slightly ajar to avoid condensation problems. Should I drop the voltage to 7V?

:beer:

You could replace a couple bulbs a month. Start with the blues.

If you have your PAR meter, set the fans to 7.5v and measure after an hour. If the PAR is better than your last reading, leave the fans there. If it is worse, go back to 9v.
 
Hi Ryan,

You bring up a good point about fan setting and ATI doesn't do a good job explaining what setting it should be.

To that end, I have a 6 x 24w ATI PM on my 60-gl LPS Cube and a 10 x 80w ATI PM on my 180-gl SPS tank. What setting should each of these features be at? The 60-gl cube does not have a canopy and the 180-gl does have a canopy. Both rooms are at 68 degrees in winter and have central air in the summer seasons.

Thanks in advance for any help.........

I found that 7.5v worked best for me when my room is below 70F. A crude way to check is to measure the air coming out of the fixture. If my memory serves me right it should be around 108F. That is a rough guess though and shouldn't replace a PAR meter.

Your fixture in a canopy should probably stay around 9v. You need all the air movement you can get.
 
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