Answers in red.
No canopy here, rimless tank (Europe...). Found these, but these cost more than 10% of the price of the fixture itself:
http://www.fastlight.co.uk/acatalog/ATI_Tank_Legs.html
Thanks for the other replies, cleared my doubts.
The T5 Q&a Thread - split
- Thread starter eagle9252
- Start date
No canopy here, rimless tank (Europe...). Found these, but these cost more than 10% of the price of the fixture itself:
http://www.fastlight.co.uk/acatalog/ATI_Tank_Legs.html
Thanks for the other replies, cleared my doubts.
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
I know of those, but didnt mention it for several reasons:
1. ATI recommend a minimum mounting height of about 20cm distance from surface of the water.
2. Two issue arise when the above advice isnt adhered; PAR may be quite high and there is a chance of heat transfer to the water. You also lose the spread of light slightly.
3. I have no idea how strong/sturdy those things are...I wouldnt be happy with my lights sitting on those.
4. Price: just too high IMO.
I used these simple and strong shelf brackets; but it does require drilling.
scoobzilla
New member
was told by a local shop to use this bulb combination for my 120 just looking to get ideas from other people.i haven't gotten to purchase any yet was told to wait till after holidays from wife.
2 t5 solarxtreme 48'' quads front to back all ATI bulbs any thoughts
blue+
aqua +
blue+
coral +
blue+
coral +
blue +
aqua +
2 t5 solarxtreme 48'' quads front to back all ATI bulbs any thoughts
blue+
aqua +
blue+
coral +
blue+
coral +
blue +
aqua +
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
I'd start at 4 blue plus and 4 coral plus. Buy an extra blue to play with.
rtparty
Raise The Reef!
36x18x21? Do you plan to upgrade to a bigger tank?
I'd go with the 6x24w dimmable but either will work just fine.
Huntor0
New member
I placed my order with Reefgeek and am awaiting my new ATI Sunpower 60" 8x80 to put over my current 180g (6x2x2) project. I ordered the following ATI bulb combo.
2x True Actinic
4x Blue Plus
2x Coral Plus
I am really looking forward to moving to T5's on the new tank after the last few years with led's have been disappointing with coral shading on my smaller tank (Ecotech Radion and Reefbreeders Photon32).
2x True Actinic
4x Blue Plus
2x Coral Plus
I am really looking forward to moving to T5's on the new tank after the last few years with led's have been disappointing with coral shading on my smaller tank (Ecotech Radion and Reefbreeders Photon32).
sahin
Ultimate Reefer
Thats a nice tube combo.
I stayed with T5's and only embraced LED's as supplemental; the ATI LED/T5 Powermodule suits my needs very well.
Until the issue of coral shading is sorted, I have no desire to move to 100% LED's.
TropTrea
New member
-
This is very argumentative but in my opinion no. T-5 Bulbs are and all Florescent bulbs are not designed to be dimmable. Individuals found different ways of making them dimmable but most bulbs drasticly loose effeciency when dimmed.
On a 6 bulb fixture I would go with 2 Coral Plus and 4 Blue Plus if you like a blue look. You may want to even get a added blue plus and see if you like running only one Coral Plus.
With only 6 bulbs do NOT run atinics. Atinics may look nice for getting florescense to pop in the dawn to dusk periods but they do little to provinging the light for coral growth.
Are you handy with a hack saw, file and drill? If so you can get some channel and angleed Alumnium from a local metal dealer. Then buid a small light support bracked to fit over the tank.
TropTrea
New member
This would be an extremly white combination. Aqua Blues have a strong white element, and coral plus have a white element. Usually the whitest I recommend in one GE 6500. The Aqua Blues are slightly bluer than the GE but two of them would give you an even whiter tank then one GE.
On my 8 bulb right now I'm running
front
1 Blue Plus
2 Blue Plus
3 Purple Plus
4 GE 6500
5 Purple Plus
6 Blue Plus
7 Blue Plus
8 Blue Plus
rear
If you want to go bluer replacve the GE with a Aqua Blue and one of the Purples with another Blue Plus.
If you want to go superr blue then run 2 coral plus with the rest Blue Plus.
Wow!? Would you then say that I'm rather on the low side with 6x39W light?? I actually thought it might even be too much, especially if put on top of the tank, just a few inches from the water surface?
scoobzilla
New member
how high should I have lights off the tank?and should I have all lights going on and off the same time?bulbs 1 and 3 are on separate timers then 2 and 4 and being I have 2 setups and 4 timers going on should I have bulbs in a certain order for dawn/dusk
TropTrea
New member
Going back I found your running about 51 gallons in your tank. Your lighting fixture is able to put out 234 Watts of light which is roughly 4.5 Watts per gallon. Since it is an ATI fixture it is brighter than most of its competitors but your tank is only 16" deep so you do not need a lot of penetration. With standard bulbs like 4 Blue Plus and 2 Coral Plus the big variables for you are the distance from the corals to the light and the type of corals you have. If your fixture is high above the water 10" or more I would say with a couple of Atinics your on the low side for some corals like Porities. But if your lights are lower like 4" above the surface then you with probably on the bright side for the lower light demanding corals like Blastomussa.
As I look at lighting it is a matter of making the needs for corals first, secondly the visual effect that is pleasing to the beholder, and then it is to be the most effective. Yes you can get away with 4 bulbs on some tanks running the lights 16 hours per day and get fair growth but with 6 bulbs running 10 hours a day you might be able to get fantasic growth, and a thiord party might run 8 bulbs on the same tank for 7 hours a day and get even better results on some corals, and burn other corals that the others can keep without a problem.
However if your trying to get the most coral growth out of your fixture Atinics are the way to go. Yes they produce a fantastic color effect when they are on alone in a dark room. But for the needed light the corals require for growth the blue plus are a much better choice and they do produce the 420 nm atinci light as part of there spectrum.
TropTrea
New member
As someone said ATI usualy recommends about 8" over the water surface. Any hogher you start lighting the room as well as the tank. However in my case I'm using a canpy and have the lights hidden in the canopy so they are roughly 3" above the edge of the tank and 4 1/2 inches above the water line.
I do not have a water heating issue with this. I do have heaters in my sump and I'm feeding the tank warm water. The water is skimmed off the top of tank so it is the warmest considering the flow in the tank limiting temp differences. If there is warmth from the lights heating the water the heaters simply cycle on less.
Now in some situations if the room temperature is high enough you could have a heating issue. The room temperature never exceeds 78 degrees on even the hottest days for me. But if your in room that is not arir conditioned and can reach temperatures consderably higher then some people even have to add chillers even though they are not running MH's.
TropTrea
New member
The normal situation would be to have two bulbs running from dawn to dusk for roughly 12 hours. I like to run these so they are going off around my normal bed time. If you have atinics these would be on that cycle otherwise the standard combination would be either 2 Blue Plus Bulbs, or 1 Blue Plus and 1 Purple Plus. This depends on your personal color coice in the=at time period.
The remaining bulbs are then your mid day lighting running an equal time after the others kicked in and before the others kick out. The cycle that you run these can varry from 4 hours per day to as much as 10 hours a day. The difference being how moch light you have for your tank volumn, and what specific corals your keeping. If everything is ideal you run these about 7 hours per day.
scoobzilla
New member
right now lights are about 4in from surface tank temp is steady at 78 all year round central air in summer.running stock deep blue bulbs 2 atinic 2 10 k atinic 7am to 10 pm ,10k 10 am to 7 pm.ran both set ups for a few weeks to much alage on tank only running 1 now.should I leave times or lower with new bulbs. starting out with 1 set up first if no alage will set up 2nd .I am starting out with easy corals first, baby steps new at this.thanks for the help
TropTrea
New member
Your combo of bullbs is what I will start with.
First your 7:00 AM to 10PM Cycle is 15 hours which is bit on the long side for So I would cut that cycle down to 10:00 AM to 10 PM. With your present Bulb combination I would only put the 2 Atinics on during this cycle.
Then I would run a completly seperate cycle with the other 4 bulbs initialy about 6 hours long from 2:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Keep an eye on your Algea as your running 2 10,000K bulbs that are rich in rad ligh and algea loves red light. If Nitrates, Nitrites and Phosphates are near Zero and your algea is growing you can cut the time slightly if they are not you increase the time slightly.
When possible pick up two more Blue Bulbs and replace one of the Atinics and one of the 10,000K bulbs with them. With less Red and more Blue you should have no problem increasing your cycle time slowly on the 4 bulb combo and reducin it slightly on the 2 bulb combo. But remember ideal would be roughly 12 hours for two bulbs and 8 hours for the other 4 bulbs.
Step 3 would be to replace the other Atinic bulb with another Blue Plus. You could also replace the other 10K with an Aqua Blue Plus or Coral Plus depending on how you like the color.
Note only change a max of one bulb per week to avoid shocking the corals. And simularly only increase light one hour at a time per week if you have to increase the light timing.
No it will not look as bright as what you had with the 2 10,000K but the light that the corals can utilize will be increased. And the light the algea loves willbe decreased.
First of all thanks for all the info. My 6x39 fixture should arrive early next week. I'm switching from DIY leds which amounted to almost the same total wattage that ATI will produce.
How do I go about acclimating the corals with the new fixture? Do I start at 1-2 hours / day, then increase for 1 hour per week, or what do you suggest?
TropTrea
New member
I'm not sure about your DIY LED's. But general speaking the same wattage of LED's and T-5 means you had twice the light as you will have with the T-5's. So I would start with the same light timing you had with the LED's and you should not have to worry about burning your corals.
On a side note most people that had LED's never end up happy switching back to all T-5's. They usualy uses a combination of the two after a while. Both lighting systems have there advantages and disadvantages.
I wasn't running my leds on full power obviously, otherwise I would have bleached or completely killed my coral. Let's say I ran them at 50-60℅. This was more of a question regarding evtl. difference in light and to prevent possible shock by corals from suddenly switching to a different light source.
As for leds vs. T5 - I don't like too many shadows and I prefer a uniform lighting provided by T5. I'm also a big fan of being able to switch bulbs and getting different coloration which you can't do that easily with leds. I've seen some amazing tanks with T5 and thought to give it a try. i'm keeping my leds so that if there is a need or a chance to use them, I certainly will.
And once again thanks for all the replies.
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