The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[TropTrea]

55 gal mostly sps mixed reef. Aquatic life 4 bulb fixture. Current lineup:

Blue +
Coral +
Blue +
Purple +

I was pretty fired up about this combo at first, but with all 4 bulbs firing I just don't get as much green pop as I want. I'm wondering if my colors may be improved

Between my current setup or the following:

Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
Coral+

Or

Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
Blue+

...which would be best for sps growth, water quality the same. Kinda wanting a change but haven't seen too many pictures of the second two proposed combos. Naturally I'd like to improve my colors but not at the price of growth

When your talking about the greens popping there are two types of green. The florescent greens that would pop from adding more blue lighting. Or the reflective greens that would pop with more light in the green part of the color spectrum. We will assume that your refering to the florescent greens.

Yoiu have a 4 bulb fixture so you do not have a tremendious amount of light where you would want to sacrifice pop for coral growth. So I would not consider using an atinic bulb that would give a bit more florescent pop at the expense of photosenthesis available light.

Going with the single Coral Plus would probably be your best bet. Compared to your original lighting and the absense of the purle plus you will have a tank that looks a bet closer to a truer blue color and not slightly less bright and as well as less red.

If you want to risk loosing coral growth you can try one atinic with the 2 blues and a coral plus.

 

[TropTrea]

This is my plan.....for now LOL. I am going to order 5 blue plus, 2 purple plus, 2 coral plus, and 1 aqua blue special. I will then play with combinations and see what I like the look of most using 8 of the 10 bulbs ordered.

If your not getting a GE 6,500K save the money and only get only one purple plus.

 

[Bpb]

Thanks for the reply. I definitely meant fluorescent greens. My complaint about color is a minor one, just always seeking improvement. With only 4 bulbs it seems silly to have such a strong presence of red spectrum. I know it's important to have some but I think I may have too much. I've got a leftover blue+ bulb I'll put in for a day to get an idea of how it will look. Replacing the purple with a blue + will likely increase my par a bit as well won't it? Unfortunately I don't have a spare coral+ bulb so I can't demo a 2/2 mix to see if I like that as well. Decisions decisions. And to think I've been debating switching to LEDs. Figured I can at least try a different bulb combo or two for 6 months and see how it treats me. It's a lot cheaper and safer to do lol

When your talking about the greens popping there are two types of green. The florescent greens that would pop from adding more blue lighting. Or the reflective greens that would pop with more light in the green part of the color spectrum. We will assume that your refering to the florescent greens.

Yoiu have a 4 bulb fixture so you do not have a tremendious amount of light where you would want to sacrifice pop for coral growth. So I would not consider using an atinic bulb that would give a bit more florescent pop at the expense of photosenthesis available light.

Going with the single Coral Plus would probably be your best bet. Compared to your original lighting and the absense of the purle plus you will have a tank that looks a bet closer to a truer blue color and not slightly less bright and as well as less red.

If you want to risk loosing coral growth you can try one atinic with the 2 blues and a coral plus.

 

[TropTrea]

Thanks for the reply. I definitely meant fluorescent greens. My complaint about color is a minor one, just always seeking improvement. With only 4 bulbs it seems silly to have such a strong presence of red spectrum. I know it's important to have some but I think I may have too much. I've got a leftover blue+ bulb I'll put in for a day to get an idea of how it will look. Replacing the purple with a blue + will likely increase my par a bit as well won't it? Unfortunately I don't have a spare coral+ bulb so I can't demo a 2/2 mix to see if I like that as well. Decisions decisions. And to think I've been debating switching to LEDs. Figured I can at least try a different bulb combo or two for 6 months and see how it treats me. It's a lot cheaper and safer to do lol

Have you considered just adding a single DIY LED strip of roughly 8 to 12 3 watt LED's? Doing so with all Royal Blue or a combination of Royal Blues and Near UV LED's will create unbelievable pop to your corals. Cost wise your talking $50.00 to $70 dependent on your source if 2" X 1" channel Alumnium for the heat sink.

This will also bring up your PAR to be close to a 6 bulb T-5 fixture as well.

As far as the difference between a purple and a blue Plus T-5 bulb the metered PAR reading will be slightly lower. However as the corals can utalize the light there s an increase because they rely mainly on blue light which your increasing. You will be loosing some red light that registers on the PAR meter but does little for coral growth.

 

[Froggy]

If your not getting a GE 6,500K save the money and only get only one purple plus.

So if 2 purple plus works with a GE bulb, why wouldn't it work with an aqua blue special? Wouldn't they be fine and just skew the spectrum toward the blue side?
I have a feeling I will either end up using 5 blue plus, 2 coral plus, and 1 purple plus or 5 blue plus, 1 coral plus, 1 purple plus, and 1 aqua blue special.
I do want to see what 5 blue plus, 2 purple plus, and 1 aqua blue special looks like though. I will end up using the extra bulb in the future anyway no matter which way I end up going so nothing will go to waste.
Thanks,
Joe

 

[h.cordero]

Im planning a frag tank in my sump, it will be 40x25x16. How many t5ho would you go with? And any fixture in specific or DIY ?

 

[rtparty]

6 bulb sunpower if there is good ventilation. I'd run something like 2 blue plus, 2 actinic and 2 purple plus. Maybe one coral plus and one purple plus if you find 2 purples to be too pink for you.

 

[atp0726]

Sorry I'll disgree with you.

I was one that started with MH's
Then progressed to T-5's and found them to be advantages all the way around.

Then about 2 years ago started playing with LED's. I found LED had both andvantages and disadvantages over T-5's. But I went to all LED's on some of my tanks.

Today I'm combining the two together. Each has there advantages over the other. T-5's do not compare for getting florescent colors to pop. However LED's are to color specific and leave weak spots in the color spectum. So running the combination of the two can give you advantages of both.

what T5 bulbs have you found to be best to supplement LEDs? I am adding 4 T5s to my Radion (2 in the front and 2 in back) I am looking to fill in the spectrum and hopefully increase growth. I am thinking I will only run the T5s 5-6 hrs a day. I am planning on adding all ati bulbs: Front to back- coral+, actinic, Radion, blue plus, coral+.

Does that sound like the correct mix and spectrum for what I am trying to accomplish? Should I change up the order? The Radion is one of the gen 1s with the blue, royal blue, white, green and red LEDs.

 

[h.cordero]

6 bulb sunpower if there is good ventilation. I'd run something like 2 blue plus, 2 actinic and 2 purple plus. Maybe one coral plus and one purple plus if you find 2 purples to be too pink for you.

Someone else recommend me a 6 bulb but I think it's way overkill bc it's just 16 deep, how high would hang the fixture?

 

[TropTrea]

what T5 bulbs have you found to be best to supplement LEDs? I am adding 4 T5s to my Radion (2 in the front and 2 in back) I am looking to fill in the spectrum and hopefully increase growth. I am thinking I will only run the T5s 5-6 hrs a day. I am planning on adding all ati bulbs: Front to back- coral+, actinic, Radion, blue plus, coral+.

Does that sound like the correct mix and spectrum for what I am trying to accomplish? Should I change up the order? The Radion is one of the gen 1s with the blue, royal blue, white, green and red LEDs.

I'm not sure what the color mix of LED's on the Radion fixture comes out to in the end as the ratio of LED's is wat determines that as well as the CT of the whites. . But When I build a fixture I basicly use a 3 Blue to 1 Neutral White color mixture on the LED's. The ATI Blue Plus bulbs do a fantastic job of complementing it and adding to coral growth.

You may want to start with a single Coral Plus front in each group and then decide if if it too white or too blue for yourself.

 

[TropTrea]

Someone else recommend me a 6 bulb but I think it's way overkill bc it's just 16 deep, how high would hang the fixture?

With a 6 bulb fixture the 2 atinics RT advised will bring your PAR down considerably. But unless you like a deep purple tank I would not run two purple plus bulbs but Coral Plus bulbs in there place.

The big difference between me and RT is that RT loves using Atinic bulbs. and I hate using them. They have the shortest life span of all T-5's plus they give off the least amount of visble light. Yes they give you a nice peak of 410nm light to make some florescens pop but how much of that do you really need? The blue plus bulbs also have a peak at the 410 nm range.

 

[rtparty]

With a 6 bulb fixture the 2 atinics RT advised will bring your PAR down considerably. But unless you like a deep purple tank I would not run two purple plus bulbs but Coral Plus bulbs in there place.

The big difference between me and RT is that RT loves using Atinic bulbs. and I hate using them. They have the shortest life span of all T-5's plus they give off the least amount of visble light. Yes they give you a nice peak of 410nm light to make some florescens pop but how much of that do you really need? The blue plus bulbs also have a peak at the 410 nm range.

The ATI Actinics don't have terrible PAR actually. They have amazing PUR though and that can't be said for the Blue Plus any longer. As the Blue Plus have shifted more green, their PUR is dropping. However, I still think that Blue bulbs need to be the main source.

On a frag tank, most people want really good color so that is why I went to 2 actinic. There is no denying that better color comes from the actinic bulbs. They make more colors fluoresce than the Blue bulbs do. 2 purple may be a bit much but I wouldn't run 2 coral plus either unless you want a very icy-cold look to the tank. As I have been messing around with all my bulbs lately, I had to come back to the purple plus to warm the tank up. The Coral Plus is just too cold on its own.

A better reco may be 3 Blue Plus, 1 Actinic, 1 Coral Plus and 1 Purple Plus.

You have to remember that PAR isn't everything even though there has been a major shift to think that way. What does it matter if we have 1000 PAR if only 100 of that is PUR? I would rather have 500 PAR with 300 PUR. (Those numbers are made up of course just for illustration.) An actinic bulb, even as it shifts, has more PUR per PAR (made up term again lol) than any other bulb.

I have never shared this because I have been running the tests just to see what would happen but I just took out an actinic bulb that is 48 months old and used for well over half of that time frame. My total usage was just shy of 25 months. It really lost everything back around 18 months but I wanted to see when it wouldn't light up any longer so I let it run. I never burnt it out but it was pointless by month 24. I do NOT recommend any one to run their bulbs over 12 months but it was a fun little test for me.

The bulb lost considerable output and was barely visible but I know it didn't shift red and cause problems. Just a fun little experiment that kept me intrigued.

 

[FlyPenFly]

This is really making me reconsider my over reliance on Blue Plus. It seems like the max excitation for a lot of these corals seem to be in the sweet spot for Coral Plus.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/11/corals

 

[rtparty]

This is really making me reconsider my over reliance on Blue Plus. It seems like the max excitation for a lot of these corals seem to be in the sweet spot for Coral Plus.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/11/corals

Very likely that I read it wrong but they never state what lighting they use. They simply talked about pigments in the corals and the colors they showed. They never stated what light was being used or anything.

 

[TropTrea]

This is really making me reconsider my over reliance on Blue Plus. It seems like the max excitation for a lot of these corals seem to be in the sweet spot for Coral Plus.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/11/corals

Actualy if you trued to break down the florescense to the different bulbs it is hard to get a true range. Yes the coral plus covers more different florescent pigments. However the intesity of the light is much lower on each of these particular pigments. Then you pick up the background and reflective colors more with the coral plus so the florescense stands out less.

A couple years ago there was a chart showing several hundred of the most popular florescent pignments that are found in home aquariums. 98% of thm were in the range from 380nm to 620nm, 95% of them were between 410nm and 530nm, 90 % bering between 420 nm and 500 nm, with 80% being between 430 nm and 485nm.

If you broke this down to florescent tubes the Blue Plus does cover more than 85% of the different pigments including many that floresce red. The Atinic bulbs however drop to covering less than 65% of the pigments.

Now if you look at the coral plus you do extend the range of pigments but your lighting them at a much loser intensity. Remember the total energy emited from the bulb is extremlysimular to a blue plus. But some of that enrgy is emotted in the red spectrum that is nearly useless for creating florescense. Then you have the issue that any light not used activate the florescense lights up the reflective colors and starts washing out the florescense you already have.

An experiment I did a couple years is lighted up a tank with just one type of LED at a time. I used LEd's at 410nm, 430nm, 454nm, 470 nm, 505nm and 520 nm. The same corals florescsed different colors under each of these LED's. If I were to rate each of these with the amount of florescense I got n return I would rate them as the 455 being tops, followed by the 470, then the 430 , 410 and finaly the 505. Hammer coral showed the most difference between these LED's. under the 410 it glowed a bright yellow, and under the 470 it glowed a greenish Blue. With the LED's between there glowing at other colors in the spectrm. If look most striling thogh with the 470 or 455.

This is aother reason why I often say that the lighting needs to be tuned to your eye and the corals you want to keep.

 

[FlyPenFly]

One other thing to take into account is emissions. I do notice a big diff when I don't use a Purple Plus in terms of just colors I see in some of my chalices and RBTA.

Another interesting change I've noticed is that I have side firing ATI actinics and none in my overhead light. The side of one of my SPS has this amazing speckled turquoise pigmentation that is completely lacking up top and on the opposite side that doesn't have it being hit by actinics. I think this is a direct example of actinics exciting certain pigmentation into coming out that my overhead light (3C+,4B+, P+) can't bring out.

 

[rtparty]

One other thing to take into account is emissions. I do notice a big diff when I don't use a Purple Plus in terms of just colors I see in some of my chalices and RBTA.

Another interesting change I've noticed is that I have side firing ATI actinics and none in my overhead light. The side of one of my SPS has this amazing speckled turquoise pigmentation that is completely lacking up top and on the opposite side that doesn't have it being hit by actinics. I think this is a direct example of actinics exciting certain pigmentation into coming out that my overhead light (3C+,4B+, P+) can't bring out.

This is why I like at least one actinic in a setup as long as you have a good fixture and enough bulbs. I am not as concerned with PAR any longer. I am more about loading up the in blue light and then sprinkling in just enough red and green to make everything look good.

 

[wcharon]

Thanks Rparty...

If i want to try the ATI Actinic should i replace it for the Blue + and can i use the B+ and the Actinic for Dawn/Dusk in chanell 2 and 4 ???

You're bunching you're bulbs together. You need to separate the daylight bulbs out.

Blue
Purple
Blue
Coral
Blue
Blue

Or even

Blue
Coral
Blue
Blue
Coral
Blue

 

[rtparty]

Thanks Rparty...

If i want to try the ATI Actinic should i replace it for the Blue + and can i use the B+ and the Actinic for Dawn/Dusk in chanell 2 and 4 ???

Yep. That's the way to go.

Blue
Actinic
Purple
Blue
Coral
Blue

Something like that should work great.

 

[wcharon]

Thanks. will give it a try.

I made an error, my dawn and dusk is 2 and 5 so i should exchange the Blue with the Coral positions right???

Finally, what Actinic you recommend because saw that ATI carries various actinic bulbs?

Thanks once again...

Yep. That's the way to go.

Blue
Actinic
Purple
Blue
Coral
Blue

Something like that should work great.