The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[TropTrea]

Is it me or are the lumens extremely low on those led tubes.

A 54w ge6500 is 5,000 lumens

Yes a Typicial LED is pushing out 100 Lumens per Watt today with some hitting as high as 120 lumens. The new Crees soon to be released suposedly hit 261 lumens per watt in the research lab. So looking at a 4' fixture running 54 Watts we would expect to be in the 5,400 to 6,480 Lumens range. But they are claiming only 2,000 Lumens. This falls much closer in line with the first generation 1 Watt LED's that I do not think are even produced today. At least not by the big LED producers like CREE and Philips.

Actualy if someon want to produce a Blue Stunner light that is 4 toot long in "white" They can put in 10 XM-L Star chips a 5 Watts each for a total of 50 Watts and get considerably more lumens out of it than a GE 6500K. If they used the XT-E Royal Blue Chips they would have more blue than an ATI Blue Plus. However the spectrum would be much narower with the Royal Blue LED's, than any T-5's

 

[jarrod13]

No The GE and the Aqua Blues will not promote Cyan Algea growth. The peak wavelenght that Cyan Algea likes is 680 nm which is considered deep red. Even the Purple plus with a strong red element to its spectrum does not push cyan algea growth unless it is used in excess. If you were running 3 Purple Plus bulbs in a 6 bulb fixture then there is the possibility.

The GE is strong in the part of the spectrum we normaly consider Yellow to Yellow Green. Whith the addition of the Blue Plus the dominat color is moved more to the bule Green part of the spectrum commonly called Aqua Blue or Cyan like Mike said.

Ok thanks I gotcha. So from what you have described I think I want 4 blue+, 1 GE, and one actinic to make the corals pop more during dawn/dusk. Which actinic bulb would you recommend for this? I know the tank will look very blue greenish but that's ok that's kinda what I want.

 

[terri_ann]

I'm running 4 Blue+, ATI purple and the GE6500. Growth is okay and color too but I'm wondering if I can get faster growth and more florescence in a different bulb combination? My lights are 11-12" above the water surface...

 

[jarrod13]

Terri ann, would you please post a picture of your tank with those lights because I'm considering the same combination

 

[Michigan Mike]

I'm running 4 Blue+, ATI purple and the GE6500. Growth is okay and color too but I'm wondering if I can get faster growth and more florescence in a different bulb combination? My lights are 11-12" above the water surface...

Lower your lights.
If you want more flourescence try a coral plus or blue plus I stead of ge6500.

Stable parameters and high calcium is needed for fast growth in calcifying corals. The bulbs are fine, they are high though for SPS.

 

[Michigan Mike]

4 blue plus 1 ge600 1 KZ purple

[/IMG]

 

[TropTrea]

I'm running 4 Blue+, ATI purple and the GE6500. Growth is okay and color too but I'm wondering if I can get faster growth and more florescence in a different bulb combination? My lights are 11-12" above the water surface...

With just 6 bulbs you will either gain florescense and loose growth ot the opposite.

Some options to gain florescense is to replace the GE with either as Aqua Blue Special, or Coral Plus. Another option would be swap a Blue Plus for an Atinic.

As far as growth I would think your pretty much at optimium unless you actualy added more bulbs. Butr remember lighting is only 1/3 of the picture. Water movement and nourishments are also important to boost growth.

 

[jarrod13]

I'm going with 4 blue+, 1 coral+, and 1 purple+.

My light switches are one for the front three and one for the back three. How would you arrange these bulbs for the best dawn dusk effect?

 

[Michigan Mike]

I'm going with 4 blue+, 1 coral+, and 1 purple+.

My light switches are one for the front three and one for the back three. How would you arrange these bulbs for the best dawn dusk effect?

If you don't rewire it so its different....

B
Blue
Coral
Blue
Blue
Purple
Blue
F

I would just rewire it so its alternating between bulbs.

 

[terri_ann]

Terri ann, would you please post a picture of your tank with those lights because I'm considering the same combination

http://i847.photobucket.com/albums/ab38/tal71/DSC_0076_zps49b687c8.jpg

 

[terri_ann]

:thumbsup:

Lower your lights.
If you want more flourescence try a coral plus or blue plus I stead of ge6500.

Stable parameters and high calcium is needed for fast growth in calcifying corals. The bulbs are fine, they are high though for SPS.

Can't lower the lights unfortunately.:headwallblue: Had to cut out the top of my custom oak canopy to get the lights where they are now. I have stable params and good CA and ALk:lol2: I know the bulbs are fine but was just wondering if I could tweek it more towards what I'd like. My rock is sufficiently high enough for my SPS...they are encrusting and growing:thumbsup:

 

[terri_ann]

With just 6 bulbs you will either gain florescense and loose growth ot the opposite.

Some options to gain florescense is to replace the GE with either as Aqua Blue Special, or Coral Plus. Another option would be swap a Blue Plus for an Atinic.

As far as growth I would think your pretty much at optimium unless you actualy added more bulbs. Butr remember lighting is only 1/3 of the picture. Water movement and nourishments are also important to boost growth.

Thanks Dennis! I will check on the Special and Coral Plus. Maybe I'll order them both I'm running 4 Blue+ and 2 GE's on my 40g so it will be cheaper to experiment there. What color spectrum makes them pop...red, yellow, etc? A MP 60 and 2 -40's on the 135 so there's good flow:bounce2: I consulted with Grim on lighting back in the day... I'm pleased with both the ATI and Tek units :thumbsup:

 

[phenom5]

Curious on opinions on this.
More light? 6 bulbs with a contoured reflector, or 5 bulbs with SLRs? Assuming the ballast are the same.

I know a PAR meter would be the best way to determine this...but I don't have one. I don't even have a tank at the moment...

 

[TropTrea]

Ok thanks I gotcha. So from what you have described I think I want 4 blue+, 1 GE, and one actinic to make the corals pop more during dawn/dusk. Which actinic bulb would you recommend for this? I know the tank will look very blue greenish but that's ok that's kinda what I want.

I have a personal favorite of the ATI bublbs but going with a pute Atinic most of the better bulbs are extremly comparable.

 

[TropTrea]

Curious on opinions on this.
More light? 6 bulbs with a contoured reflector, or 5 bulbs with SLRs? Assuming the ballast are the same.

I know a PAR meter would be the best way to determine this...but I don't have one. I don't even have a tank at the moment...

Personaly I'm not found of the PAR meters. You can take a bulb loke the Aqua Blue Special and the GE 6,500K and get a Higher PAR reading out of the 6,500K but the corals would grow faster with the Aqua Blue Special.

The thing is PAR meters record all light between 380 nm and 700 nm however corals can only absorb certain frequenciers within that range.

As far as the reflectors go please add a little additional info like how large the tank is? How hogh above the surface will the lights be? What corals will you keeping?

 

[TropTrea]

Thanks Dennis! I will check on the Special and Coral Plus. Maybe I'll order them both I'm running 4 Blue+ and 2 GE's on my 40g so it will be cheaper to experiment there. What color spectrum makes them pop...red, yellow, etc? A MP 60 and 2 -40's on the 135 so there's good flow:bounce2: I consulted with Grim on lighting back in the day... I'm pleased with both the ATI and Tek units :thumbsup:

Yes you should have more than enough flow when the pumps are at there minimium you have 25 gph of flow and if all at max around 100 gph flow.

For popping volers this will cary by the coral and the color from coral comes from either reflective color or florescent color.

Most Florescent colors are activeted by light in the 440nm 480 nm range probably abouyt 60%. This is were the Blue bulbs come in. If you look at the remaining 40% more than half of them would be covered with lighting between 420nm and 510 nm. This is why some people add amn Atinic bulb . as the 510 range is still covered with many of the blue bulbs.

Reflective colors are basicly what you see is what you get. If you go with a full spectrum bulb like the GE it covers 95% of the reflective colors. Add a purple plus and you have about 99% of it covered.

 

[phenom5]

As far as the reflectors go please add a little additional info like how large the tank is? How high above the surface will the lights be? What corals will you keeping?

Tank is my 75g, 48x18x21. Will be primarily SPS with a nem for good measure. Current fixture is a Nova Extreme Pro 6x54. I was thinking about pulling the contoured reflector, and replacing that with SLRs, but in order to do it, I would need to drop it down to 5x54. Debating if it would be worth the hassle.

I'm still months away from even starting this, I just broke the tank down a couple of days ago to get ready to move, then wait for the new house to close/ be built...then move again. I was hoping to go with a completely different light set up altogether, but I money is getting tighter and tighter as I think about all the $$$ to set the tank back up, and all the $$$ to move into a new house.

 

[TropTrea]

Tank is my 75g, 48x18x21. Will be primarily SPS with a nem for good measure. Current fixture is a Nova Extreme Pro 6x54. I was thinking about pulling the contoured reflector, and replacing that with SLRs, but in order to do it, I would need to drop it down to 5x54. Debating if it would be worth the hassle. .

For a 75 Gallon 5 bulbs even with the best reflectors is going to be on the edge of not enough light. I started off with a current 8 bulb old design and after 3 years reworked mine for a 120 gallon tank. The Light fixture is very tight but is a far improvement from the original. At the time I had full access to sheet metal tools and built my won reflectors. The design was simular to ATI's reflectors but the fit was much tighter.

not knowing the amount of space you have a thought might be if you run the 5 T-5's and spike the light up with an additional strip or two of Royal Blue LED's. Considering 30 Watts of LED lighting pumps out a little more light than 54 Watts of T-5's. This would also give you a little more flexability in bulb choices for your T-5's.

I'm still months away from even starting this, I just broke the tank down a couple of days ago to get ready to move, then wait for the new house to close/ be built...then move again. I was hoping to go with a completely different light set up altogether, but I money is getting tighter and tighter as I think about all the $$$ to set the tank back up, and all the $$$ to move into a new house.

Yes we had built new houses twice, and rebuilt houses on two ocassions. I can see where your your comming from both time wise and $$$$ wise. As you get going things seldom fall on schedule and you start thinking about some options that raise the price.

 

[taowa]

About to buy ATI fixture for 8 bulbs, please recommend those bulbs for SPS? My country has only ATI and Giesemann.

 

[TropTrea]

About to buy ATI fixture for 8 bulbs, please recommend those bulbs for SPS? My country has only ATI and Giesemann.

Front
1 ATi Blue Plus
1 ATI Purple Plus
1 ATI Blue Plus
1 ATI Aqua Blue Special
1 ATI Blue Plus
1 ATI Coral Plus
1 ATI Blue Plus
1 ATI Blue Plus
Rear

Note the Geismein Bulbs can be susbstiuted to a limited extent but will slighly change the spectrum sonce not are a perfect match.

The Lagoon blue in place of the Aqua Blue Special
The Atinic Plus in place of the Blue Plus (but do not change more than two)
The Pink in place of the Coral plus or Purle Plus