The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[Michigan Mike]

Looks like I've been called on the carpet LOL

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-03/sj/ 3/4 down see the graph for some reason it does not show the Phoenix bulb in the 150 watt comparison but it does show both the Phoenix and radium bulbs in the 250 DE section, and in the article it states to match the ballast with the bulb. I will see if I can find my other bookmark on this subject because I was trying to find the same answer.
I just purchased a Maristar II and I just ordered some bulbs I will have either 3 o 4 ATI blues plus or 3 with I coral plus or purple plus do sure.
I will order two Aqua Medic M80 ballast i believe, and run either Phoenix or Radium DE bulbs.
My Giesemann Infinity 150 DE with 4 24 watt T-5's have a 150 watt magnetic ballast from Giesemann and I have already purchased a couple of phoenix bulbs and a couple of Elos bulbs for this light, my 40 breeder is not up and running I will try to set it up over my 120 for pictures.

Radium doesn't come in 250w DE, sorry. Wish it did. I like the Phoenix just fine and its cheaper.

Congrats on the light.:bdaysmile:

 

[moondoggy4]

To the big picture, no, you can get equivalent light from either. DE needs the glass shield and SE does not. DE may burn brighter until you add the glass shield and in general it is at that point it evens out. That is not a hard and fast rule, there are some SE bulbs that kick serious butt but in general that is how it is. Running a bulb designed for DE HQI on an electronic ballast limits the bulb and then putting it behind the glass shield limits it further. So if you have a 150 watt electronic ballast and are using a lower PAR bulb, you may not get enough PAR other than very high in the tank. If this is your situation you may want to switch to a lower K bulb that delivers more PAR. That is the main caveat with 150's, bulb and ballast selection have a large effect on the light output.

hth

 

[Michigan Mike]

Ugh, I think what I meant to say was HQI doesn't mean double ended bulb.

I think I'm going to get some new bulbs for the new build. Battle of the blue bulbs? Finally throw the ATI & KZ purple together and compare?

 

[invertinoob]

i have a 6x39w t5ho over a 54 gallon bow front. my first question would be, with all ati bulbs would it be enough to keep high light clams? i want to run one of the two light set ups.

1) blue+ 4x
purple+
coral+

2) blue+ 4x
purple+ 2x

3) blue+ 4x
purple+
ati actinic

im afraid that running a coral plus in one will wash out all of the other colors. and i am also afraid that the actinic in the third one will not allow me enough par to do what i want.
(mixed reef sps dominate)

any suggestions will help. i have plans of adding some blue led strips in the future as well. will this help with raising par? and also help put blue back in the tank if i go with a coral plus?

 

[moondoggy4]

which bubs

which bubs

Phoenix bulbs are supposed to be run on magnetic ballasts? I though radiums were best on the m80?ive been running phoenix bulbs on digital ballasts for years. Learn something new everyday .. Oh well they work lol

I would do like Dapg8qt did and use Phoenix bulbs they are cheap, and really popular. In one of the articles I posted they stated that the elec. ballast can run all bulbs just not to their fullest capacity.

 

[TropTrea]

Thanks. I used to use a 6500K bulb, but found that it encouraged too much zooxanthellate on corals. The corals directly underneath the 6500K bulb looked noticeably brown. I swapped it with an aquablue special. The same corals look just fine shortly after the switch. I am going to avoid 6500k from now on.

This is an issue of what corals you have. The GE 6,500 does have strong Vellow-Orange element that other bulbs are missing. When not balanced with other strong Blue bulbs this creates the warm yellow cast. Now when you look at the color wheel you will find that dark yellow also is very close to brown.

The other thing is getting that right balance of RED. While 60% of corals can utilize some degree of red light for growth about 25% of corls will bleach out if they have an excess of red light. while the GE bulb produces some red it is very minimal and therefore most people add a so called purple bulb which has a high peak in both th blue and purple range. But caution needs to had here with the combo as too much red will also cause the same effect your describing.

 

[TropTrea]

Two questions: i have been running my current four ATI bulbs gor ober a year now, and the corals are very happy but so is the green hair algae. So is it time to replace the bulbs? And should i go with a higher K rating this time for all four?

Currently running
(Front)
AB special
Blue plus
Purple plus
Blue plus

Suggestions?

You are near the end of the life expectancy of the these bulbs. While they are still glowing for you with age the spectrum does shift slightly to a lower K equevience as well as intensity decreases. A lower K rating does produce light that mostalgea love as they are normaly shallow water fuana.

If you like the color balance you have with these bulbs keep the combination. But if want something slightly bluer than replace the Aqua Blue Special with a Coral Plus and the Purple with a a Blue Plus.

I try to rotate my bulbs by changing 50% of them every 6 months.

 

[TropTrea]

Standard 120g tank, SPS corals. I have an 8-bulb 4 foot fixture and looking for some recs for lighting the tank. Thanks

I have basicly the same set up you have running roughly 6 years now. In that time I changed bulbs frequently and get thebest results with the following

Front
1 Blue Plus
2 Purple Plus
3 Blue Plus
4 GE 6500K
5 Blue Plus
3 Purple Plus
7 Blue Plus
8 Blue Plus
Rear

If you want a slightly bluer effect replace
2 with a Blue Plus and 4 with an Aqua Blue Special

 

[TropTrea]

Hello, this may not be appropriate for this thread, but wanted to see if you could provide some guidance before starting a thread.

I have a 2x150w MH and 4x54w T5 combo fixture. The MH bulbs are an unknown brand and say they are 20k, but appear whiter to me than a 20k should. The T5s are all an unknown brand and just labeled as blue.

I was hoping to get a better idea of what to replace the T5s with to really get my corals to fluoresce. Didn't know if I should add some sort of purple to the mix or a better blue combination.

Thanks for your help in advance!

With the MH bulbs your main concern should be boasting he blue end of the spectrum with your T-5's. You can even consider adding some Atinic bulbs into the T-5 mixture however I would go with all Blue Plus Bulbs.

 

[invertinoob]

i have a 6x39w t5ho over a 54 gallon bow front. my first question would be, with all ati bulbs would it be enough to keep high light clams? i want to run one of the two light set ups.

1) blue+ 4x
purple+
coral+

2) blue+ 4x
purple+ 2x

3) blue+ 4x
purple+
ati actinic

im afraid that running a coral plus in one will wash out all of the other colors. and i am also afraid that the actinic in the third one will not allow me enough par to do what i want.
(mixed reef sps dominate)

any suggestions will help. i have plans of adding some blue led strips in the future as well. will this help with raising par? and also help put blue back in the tank if i go with a coral plus?

does anyone have suggestions

 

[FlyPenFly]

I am using the Zoomed "ultrasun" which is another 6500k bulb but from Germany. Not sure who the original maker is.

I'm currently running

Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
ATI Actinic
Ultra Sun 6500k
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+

Debating switching out another Blue+ for a Coral Plus. I still feel the tank looks too blue.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Unless you really want to keep the actinic I would change that to a ge6500 or aquablue special. But this may be a bit more white than you want.

 

[FlyPenFly]

I replaced one of the my B+ with a Coral+

Looks pretty much perfect to me now. Color temperature is that of a Phoenix 14k bulb.

From what I've read, the Actinic bulb is still a good idea, it has spectrum spikes in violet that the Blue+ bulbs are weak in.

 

[YoungREEFA]

does anyone have suggestions

Option one

Or 4 B+ , ge 6500k, fiji purple.

 

[TropTrea]

does anyone have suggestions

Looking at your bulb selections they are all strong in he blue and purple spectrum.

I would simply run with 1 Coral Plus and 5 Blue Plus. The Coral Plus should give you enough purple.

 

[berbotty]

T5 to supplement Radion gen2

T5 to supplement Radion gen2

Hi - just looking for advice on T5 supplement to my 3 Radion gen 2 on a 6 foot tank. I have ordered a 60 inch t5 retro and would like to know what bulbs to get. The Radions lack some color pop on greens and blues and have no uv. I can use 2 bulbs - which ones would give me the best colors - thx

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi - just looking for advice on T5 supplement to my 3 Radion gen 2 on a 6 foot tank. I have ordered a 60 inch t5 retro and would like to know what bulbs to get. The Radions lack some color pop on greens and blues and have no uv. I can use 2 bulbs - which ones would give me the best colors - thx

I do not think you can get proper UV spectrum from any T5 tube on the market today. Even those LED units which claim to provide UV spectrum in fact provide around 420 nm light spectrum. Proper UV spectrum is in the region of 10 nm up to 400 nm.

If you had a light unit emitting proper UV spectrum, you would need either a UV screen (as in single ended MH bulbs) or a UV sun glass while viewing your tank.

 

[TropTrea]

I do not think you can get proper UV spectrum from any T5 tube on the market today. Even those LED units which claim to provide UV spectrum in fact provide around 420 nm light spectrum. Proper UV spectrum is in the region of 10 nm up to 400 nm.

If you had a light unit emitting proper UV spectrum, you would need either a UV screen (as in single ended MH bulbs) or a UV sun glass while viewing your tank.

This is true but must be taken lightly. How much UV ighting do corals realy need? While it is true that true UV lighting. UV lighting consists of wavelenghts shroter than 380 nm. What we need in the aquarium is light in the range of 420 nm to 440 nm which is considered near UV lighting. If we supplied any quantity opf light below 380nm in th UV range we would need to filter it not only from the corals but also our eyes.

Yes UVA as well as UVB bulbs ae available in both florescent and LED's. However shince they are useless in the Aquarioum world they are not marketed for it. These are usualy made for indirect lighting or medical usage and can be extremly expensive.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

This is true but must be taken lightly. How much UV ighting do corals realy need? While it is true that true UV lighting. UV lighting consists of wavelenghts shroter than 380 nm. What we need in the aquarium is light in the range of 420 nm to 440 nm which is considered near UV lighting. If we supplied any quantity opf light below 380nm in th UV range we would need to filter it not only from the corals but also our eyes.

Yes UVA as well as UVB bulbs ae available in both florescent and LED's. However shince they are useless in the Aquarioum world they are not marketed for it. These are usualy made for indirect lighting or medical usage and can be extremly expensive.

I agree completely. I just wanted to make the point that what is stated as UV in various light units' specification is in fact is not quite correct.

 

[nichthyes]

not so much to do with the bulbs, but I have a problem with my Current USA sundial ballast, in the form of a broken timer. During some tank maintenance one day I accidentally dropped one end of the ballast into the tank water, and that timer took the hit the hardest. It no longer works, and it controls my two blue+ bulbs, so I have had to manually turn those bulbs on and off every day since then. Its mostly from the dial's inability to turn bc of salt inside the dial. I've tried turning it manually to get the salt out but there's still too much in there for it to turn itself.

Anybody know a way to replace/repair these timers?? Its become such a hassle to deal with.