The T5 Q&a Thread - split
- Thread starter eagle9252
- Start date
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
Snook65
Premium Member
This thread is a long but interesting read even just skimming the pages 
. My tank has gone through a rough patch over the past few years and basically turned into a fish only as my metal Halide/PC light fixture caught on fire (thankfully we were home and no damage) and my chiller died. Other than trying to keep my few fish happy and fed, I've really made no improvements to my tank in over 3 years. Recently I have started taking the necessary steps to getting my tank back in shape.
After reading much of this thread, as well as countless others, I've decided to replace my old hood mounted MH/PC fixture with an ATI T5 fixture. To be sure I had a way of hanging the ATI's I went to Home Depot and had them bend me two pieces of 3/4" conduit. The guy did a great job bending both pieces to match, and I think I can mount them securely, even with my tank already setup and running. I'm pretty much set on going with a 6 bulb/48" fixture for my 120 gallon 48x24x24 as I've always run a mixed reef tank. I'm trying to determine if I will be sorry not going with a dimmable fixture or the 8 bulb setup. My tank is an older Oceanic with a glass cross bracing across the center top. Will this have a great impact on the lighting? Any opinions on this are appreciated.
. My tank has gone through a rough patch over the past few years and basically turned into a fish only as my metal Halide/PC light fixture caught on fire (thankfully we were home and no damage) and my chiller died. Other than trying to keep my few fish happy and fed, I've really made no improvements to my tank in over 3 years. Recently I have started taking the necessary steps to getting my tank back in shape.After reading much of this thread, as well as countless others, I've decided to replace my old hood mounted MH/PC fixture with an ATI T5 fixture. To be sure I had a way of hanging the ATI's I went to Home Depot and had them bend me two pieces of 3/4" conduit. The guy did a great job bending both pieces to match, and I think I can mount them securely, even with my tank already setup and running. I'm pretty much set on going with a 6 bulb/48" fixture for my 120 gallon 48x24x24 as I've always run a mixed reef tank. I'm trying to determine if I will be sorry not going with a dimmable fixture or the 8 bulb setup. My tank is an older Oceanic with a glass cross bracing across the center top. Will this have a great impact on the lighting? Any opinions on this are appreciated.
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
This thread is a long but interesting read even just skimming the pages
After reading much of this thread, as well as countless others, I've decided to replace my old hood mounted MH/PC fixture with an ATI T5 fixture. To be sure I had a way of hanging the ATI's I went to Home Depot and had them bend me two pieces of 3/4" conduit. The guy did a great job bending both pieces to match, and I think I can mount them securely, even with my tank already setup and running. I'm pretty much set on going with a 6 bulb/48" fixture for my 120 gallon 48x24x24 as I've always run a mixed reef tank. I'm trying to determine if I will be sorry not going with a dimmable fixture or the 8 bulb setup. My tank is an older Oceanic with a glass cross bracing across the center top. Will this have a great impact on the lighting? Any opinions on this are appreciated.
6 bulb will be fine. Dimmable is totally up to you. It isn't necessary but can be a nice perk if you have the cash. The brace isn't enough to worry about.
For combo, that is totally dependent. I'm running a combo I've never run before right now. 3 blue, 1 purple, 1 aquablue and 1 ge6500k. When all lights are on it is a sunny look but I only run the aquablue and ge bulbs for 2 hours. I wanted to mimic midday, high PAR for a couple hours. I then run 3 blue and 1 purple for 10 hours. I love this combo!
If you want a 20k look, 4 blue and 2 purple do a decent job but can be a little purple for some people. 4 blue and 2 coral plus would be a 20k as well with much less pink to it.
I haven't tried this combo but think it could really work, 3 blue and 3 coral plus.
So as you see it's up to you. If you want 10k we can put something together or if you want 14k we can put something together as well.
Sent from my Galaxy S3
Snook65
Premium Member
RT, thanks for the comment. I read where you, was well as others, have listed off bulb combinations 100's of times in this thread. I was just planning on buying a nice mix, with several extras to play around with.
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
A fellow reefer from another site was switching from giesseman bulbs and had a couple daylight/6500k bulbs, a couple actinic plus & whatever else, I forget... and wanted a little more blue this time without a 6500k or any purple bulbs, he doesn't like purple much.
I reco'd 3 blue plus & 3 coral plus in the 6x54w current nova pro & he loved it.
I reco'd 3 blue plus & 3 coral plus in the 6x54w current nova pro & he loved it.
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
tspfish
New member
Just want to check an see if anyone is running T5's over a peninsula aquarium? I have a 6 bulb fixture and two blue + on both outsides and a GE 6500 and Purple + in the middle. I don't think that the color is the same on each side of the tank. Has anyone ran into this issue or have any suggestions on new bulb preferences?
Thanks,
Thanks,
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
Do something like 3 blue plus and 3 coral plus. That will be a more even spread.
Sent from my Galaxy S3
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Or raise the fixture up higher. But this isn't always acceptable. Or the 2 center bulbs should be the same.
TropTrea
New member
Actualy my set up is
Front
Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
GE 65000
Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
Blue Plus
Back
since I swaped out three new Blue Plus bulbs two weeks ago it looks slightly too green for me. I'm thinking ATI might have changed there Plue Plus Bulbs since the last time I bought some.
I might go back to running a Purple Plus and a Blue Plus for my Dawn to Dusk to kill some of green tint.
TropTrea
New member
You need a balance the front three and back three need to mirror each other. Two GE 6500 I think would be too much white so I would go with something like
Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Aqua Blue Special
Aqua Blue Special
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
If you want to go even bluer
Blue Plus
Coral Plus
Blue Plus
Blue Plus
Coral Plus
Blue Plus
toofrigginswt
New member
Okay you're right. After a few days of if, I'm already trying to change it up. Hahaha. I realize that I really don't like the purple plus bulbs. I just ordered two more coral plus bulbs. I'm going to try and run 7 blue plus and 3 coral plus next. I should get them in this Friday.
Here's how my tank looks right now with 8 blue plus, a coral plus, and a ge 6500k
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Okay you're right. After a few days of if, I'm already trying to change it up. Hahaha. I realize that I really don't like the purple plus bulbs. I just ordered two more coral plus bulbs. I'm going to try and run 7 blue plus and 3 coral plus next. I should get them in this Friday.
Here's how my tank looks right now with 8 blue plus, a coral plus, and a ge 6500k
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Tagging along to see how you make out playing with your bulbs.
I have a ATI 10 x 84w fixture with: 6-Blue+, 2-Coral+ and 2-Purple+. And as you stated I am really not that happy with it. My green sps's are not coloring u to my liking and my Red milli's look kinda fake looking, not very natural.
I may try to take Ryan's advice and play with some Actinics in place of (1) Coral+ and (1) Purple+ and see how the sps's color up with that combo. And put the Actinics on the Dawn/Dusk (3 & 8) setup.
Let us know how you make out..........
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
At least your dawn/dusk will look better with actinics.
How high is your fixture over your tank, how old are the bulbs? What is your ALK, phosphates etc.parameters?
Millis seem to be temperamental about parameters and will change color quickly.
When I think of natural I think of a couple ge6500 bulbs in the mix.
How high is your fixture over your tank, how old are the bulbs? What is your ALK, phosphates etc.parameters?
Millis seem to be temperamental about parameters and will change color quickly.
When I think of natural I think of a couple ge6500 bulbs in the mix.
My fixture is 8" off the water. My parameters are always very tight at: Alk at 9.5, Cal at 430 and Mag at 1350. My pH is at 8.15-8.30. My Phos read 0.00 with the Hanna checker thsi weekend. I do bi-weekly water changes.
I'm thinking my water is too clean and/or ULNS. I've been told that before by some TOTM gurus that have come by and visited my system. They have claimed that is why my colors are so pale?
I have keep sps's successfully for over 5+ years now, but my colors have always seemed a bit off ever so slightly. I thought switching from (3) 250w Radiums with VHO supplementation vs. my newly installed (3 months now) the colors would improve? Maybe the 10-bulb ATI PM is too much light? I don't know and that's why I reaching out for suggestions.
I know Ryan was playing with installing Actinics and experiencing a nice colors with his tank, so that has me thinking of popping out one purple+ and one coral+ and installing two actinics.
Anyway....just thinking and tinkering.
Michigan Mike
Freedom costs a buckofive
Interesting. You seem to have a ULNS tank and your ALK may be a bit too high for a tank like that. Maybe let it get a little nitrate & phosphate?
A 29" high tank? It may be too much but unlikely, I thought you ran 10x54, didn't read your sig and you said 10x84 , lol... But its hard to say, got pics you could share? It sounds like a beautiful tank.
You can play with raising the fixture and adding actinics. I know the 54w & 80w fixtures are beasts!
I'm using 1 ATI Actinic in my 4 bulb fixture, love the color of my super unnatural plutonium powered tank. Haha
Something about Radiums & VHO actinics, they spoil you.
A 29" high tank? It may be too much but unlikely, I thought you ran 10x54, didn't read your sig and you said 10x84 , lol... But its hard to say, got pics you could share? It sounds like a beautiful tank.
You can play with raising the fixture and adding actinics. I know the 54w & 80w fixtures are beasts!
I'm using 1 ATI Actinic in my 4 bulb fixture, love the color of my super unnatural plutonium powered tank. Haha
Something about Radiums & VHO actinics, they spoil you.
TropTrea
New member
toofrigginswt & tegee
A little word of caution on the coral plus as well as the atinics.
The Coral Plus does have a strong red component. It is not as powerfull in the red spectrum as the purple plus. I would think that if you simply wanted to decrease the red an Aqua Blue or another Blue Plus in place of a purple plus would do the trick.
On the Atinic while there is no red in theses bulbs the fact that they are producing a majority of light in the 420 to 430 nm range causes them to look to the human eye considerably more violet than actualy blue. Even a 454 nm light will look purple compared to a 460 nm light source next to each other.
As far as the red Milli I have a red Milli cap that under just the blue plus bulbs will floresce like mad. Yes it does not look naturel but when the other lights are on the reflective colors around it make it look much more natural. Actualy the florescent red turns to more of a deep pink color when the GE 6,500 is on.
As far as the green SPs are concerned there is a big difference between the various pigments in the corals. Some need light just a few nm's shorter to get them to floresce and others need light up to 40 nm shorter. The ATI Blue plus should cover that spectrum and an atinic will lower your overall visible light more than change this ion the blues. Where the Attinic does help is florescense that are in the blue range.
I know my Frog Spawn will floresce different between different light sources. With only 430 nm light it appeas a blue blue green color, with 454 nm light it appears a greenish color, and with 460 nm light it appears a yellow green. With using the broader spectrum Blue Plus that covers most of this range it appears a greenish color with some hue difference as it moves in the current.
A little word of caution on the coral plus as well as the atinics.
The Coral Plus does have a strong red component. It is not as powerfull in the red spectrum as the purple plus. I would think that if you simply wanted to decrease the red an Aqua Blue or another Blue Plus in place of a purple plus would do the trick.
On the Atinic while there is no red in theses bulbs the fact that they are producing a majority of light in the 420 to 430 nm range causes them to look to the human eye considerably more violet than actualy blue. Even a 454 nm light will look purple compared to a 460 nm light source next to each other.
As far as the red Milli I have a red Milli cap that under just the blue plus bulbs will floresce like mad. Yes it does not look naturel but when the other lights are on the reflective colors around it make it look much more natural. Actualy the florescent red turns to more of a deep pink color when the GE 6,500 is on.
As far as the green SPs are concerned there is a big difference between the various pigments in the corals. Some need light just a few nm's shorter to get them to floresce and others need light up to 40 nm shorter. The ATI Blue plus should cover that spectrum and an atinic will lower your overall visible light more than change this ion the blues. Where the Attinic does help is florescense that are in the blue range.
I know my Frog Spawn will floresce different between different light sources. With only 430 nm light it appeas a blue blue green color, with 454 nm light it appears a greenish color, and with 460 nm light it appears a yellow green. With using the broader spectrum Blue Plus that covers most of this range it appears a greenish color with some hue difference as it moves in the current.
Sorry for the crappy pics, but here is a before and after. On January 2nd of this year I tore the entire display down and did a completely new aquascape. I had 29-various sps's and I only rescaped with 18-sps's when finished. I wanted a more open aquascape and I also wanted to allow each sps to get to full maturity without growing into each other. I am a sucker for sps's and it pained me to give up some sps's, but in two year I am hopeful to have a more natural full sps display.
Ok, ok, ok, back to the lighting topics. Prior I was running Radiums with VHO's. But now I switched to an ATI PM. I am not necessarily trying to get the Radium grow, but I am definitely into getting those T5 sps colors that you see in Europe, etc.
So that's my dilemma......
BTW: I know I need to ditch the canopy with an ATI fixture that spans the length of the tank. Just trying to find options to hang the fixture.
toofrigginswt
New member
I installed an actinic into my tank and it gives a really bluish/cyan color. Is it because I have a powermodule and the bulb is overdriven so it lights up brighter? I'm not getting that deep blue that I use to get with power compact actinics.
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