The T5 Q&a Thread

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xr4kw said:
Bump from a previous post :cool:

Looking for advise...I'm happy but I want to change things up a bit since it's time to purchase again. Maybe something a little less white. 48" 4 bulb retro from reefgeek not overdriven.

Current:

ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Blue Plus


LPS and softies

Thanks...
Click to expand...

Instead of the 6500K daylight use the ATI Aquablue, should give you just what you are looking for.
 
Another setup recommendations question

Another setup recommendations question

I've read as much of the thread as I can spare the time for but haven't seen a situation quite like mine, so here goes.

My setup is a standard 75-gallon tank, and my light unit is an eight-bulb T-5 divided into two banks, four center and four outer (two on either side). My current loading all TRU-brand 54W T-5s, 4xactinic blue, 4x10k daylight, alternated from front to back starting with an actinic. The center 4 bulbs are on a 12-hour photoperiod, outer four bulbs 4-8 hour photoperiod (manual, depends on when someone remembers to turn them on).

Everything doing well with current setup but I'm looking for more "œpop"; after talking with folks at the LFS I'm thinking about the following change: in the center section replacing one actinic with a "œredder" bulb (ATI Pro Color or equivalent) and one 10K with an ATI 14K (75/25).

Most of the corals are small/medium frags. Dividing tank into rough thirds from top to bottom:
- upper tier: yellow-green candy coral, green zoas, green star polyps, orange monti cap, pulsing xenia
- middle tier: green star polyps, asst. zoas, brown-green palys, blue zenia, pink pollicipora (looking more brown in current lighting), red/orange acan, deep red/purple blastomussa (wellsi) (blasto shaded, acan partially so), green & white striped discoma "˜shrooms, orange ricordia "˜shrooms, Christmas Tree worms in unspecified SPS rock, Derasa clam
- lower tier: neon green hammer, green favites, pink-tipped frogspawn, aussie whisker/Duncan, more "˜shrooms (same as middle tier), blue xenia (shaded), toadstool leather.

Does the setup I've described sound like it should work or would you recommend something else? Thanks!
 
Grim -

Do you have any thoughts/personal information on the NEW TEK Elite T5 light? It appears to be actively cooled & priced very competitively. I'm excited about this fixture!
 
Last edited:
Hey Grim I have a question for ya. I'm about to upgrade tanks, and got a great deal I could not refuse on a custom tank. Dim are 45"x30"x24" and I know it is very deep for t5's. How tall of a sand bed would I need? I was wondering if a tek light 8 bulb or constellation would do the job for this tank. It has a canopy that the fixtures will actually fit and sit about 3 inches over. Also how is the new Ice Cap t5/LED's worth the money? If I go with the tek fixture I will add active cooling to it.
 
LCDRDATA said:
I've read as much of the thread as I can spare the time for but haven't seen a situation quite like mine, so here goes.

My setup is a standard 75-gallon tank, and my light unit is an eight-bulb T-5 divided into two banks, four center and four outer (two on either side). My current loading all TRU-brand 54W T-5s, 4xactinic blue, 4x10k daylight, alternated from front to back starting with an actinic. The center 4 bulbs are on a 12-hour photoperiod, outer four bulbs 4-8 hour photoperiod (manual, depends on when someone remembers to turn them on).

Everything doing well with current setup but I'm looking for more "œpop"; after talking with folks at the LFS I'm thinking about the following change: in the center section replacing one actinic with a "œredder" bulb (ATI Pro Color or equivalent) and one 10K with an ATI 14K (75/25).

Most of the corals are small/medium frags. Dividing tank into rough thirds from top to bottom:
- upper tier: yellow-green candy coral, green zoas, green star polyps, orange monti cap, pulsing xenia
- middle tier: green star polyps, asst. zoas, brown-green palys, blue zenia, pink pollicipora (looking more brown in current lighting), red/orange acan, deep red/purple blastomussa (wellsi) (blasto shaded, acan partially so), green & white striped discoma "˜shrooms, orange ricordia "˜shrooms, Christmas Tree worms in unspecified SPS rock, Derasa clam
- lower tier: neon green hammer, green favites, pink-tipped frogspawn, aussie whisker/Duncan, more "˜shrooms (same as middle tier), blue xenia (shaded), toadstool leather.

Does the setup I've described sound like it should work or would you recommend something else? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I'd probably replace all the lamps but at any rate,

Replace 2 10Ks, one with another blue such as the ATI Blue Plus and replace another with the 75/25 you mentioned which is a UVL Lamp. That will give you more red plus some additional actinic kick. If those tru brand lamps are actinics they will look violet. If that is the case I would replace at least 2 with blue lamps as well.
 
FranktheTankTx said:
Grim -

Do you have any thoughts/personal information on the NEW TEK Elite T5 light? It appears to be actively cooled & priced very competitively. I'm excited about this fixture!
Click to expand...

Compare it to the ATI Sunpower. I doubt it is going to match the output of the Sunpower but if the price is lower why not. The Tek reflectors aren't as good unless they changed those as part of the redesign.
 
pfoster40 said:
Hey Grim I have a question for ya. I'm about to upgrade tanks, and got a great deal I could not refuse on a custom tank. Dim are 45"x30"x24" and I know it is very deep for t5's. How tall of a sand bed would I need? I was wondering if a tek light 8 bulb or constellation would do the job for this tank. It has a canopy that the fixtures will actually fit and sit about 3 inches over. Also how is the new Ice Cap t5/LED's worth the money? If I go with the tek fixture I will add active cooling to it.
Click to expand...

8 lamps should cover the foot print OK. 7 would be a little iffy in my opinion because the light is so close. You need to be careful about placing a fixture in the canopy. Don't cover the vents on the end of the fixture. The 8 lamp Tek will work. Set yourself up a fan blowing across the top of the fixture from above, maybe 2 of them. You want them over the center so the ballasts get cooled as well. About a 45 degree angle so some air goes under but most strikes the top of the fixture would work well. If there is room blowing in from the back with the fan pointed directly at the rear edge of the fixture is good too.
 
The Grim Reefer said:
Compare it to the ATI Sunpower. I doubt it is going to match the output of the Sunpower but if the price is lower why not. The Tek reflectors aren't as good unless they changed those as part of the redesign.
Click to expand...
I believe they did redesign the reflectors slightly. The only thing I don't like about the Sunpower is it doesn't come in 8 bulb configuration. The new TEK will come in an 8 bulb fixture. And about $400+ less than the PM 8 bulb fixture.
 
very nice. I've been looking into modding my 6 bulb 48" TEK unit to have active cooling, but I may go this route instead. Anyone know a good place I could pick up either a TEK elite or a sunpower? The only place I've found a TEK elite is on reefgeek.com
 
jrp1588 said:
very nice. I've been looking into modding my 6 bulb 48" TEK unit to have active cooling, but I may go this route instead. Anyone know a good place I could pick up either a TEK elite or a sunpower? The only place I've found a TEK elite is on reefgeek.com
Click to expand...
That's the only place I know of & most likely the best price too (especially if you're getting bulbs also).
 
nah, I've already got a brand new set of bulbs, so I'm set on that. hopefully soon I can find a direct comparison of the two units. It looks like the 6 lamp tek only has 1 fan while the sunpower has two. Wonder if the sunpower is indeed $50 better. Some rich person needs to buy both and do some par testing!
 
I think I read that the 4 bulb sunpower has 1 fan. I'd be getting the 6 bulb , which should include 2 fans.
 
The Grim Reefer said:
I'd probably replace all the lamps but at any rate,

Replace 2 10Ks, one with another blue such as the ATI Blue Plus and replace another with the 75/25 you mentioned which is a UVL Lamp. That will give you more red plus some additional actinic kick. If those tru brand lamps are actinics they will look violet. If that is the case I would replace at least 2 with blue lamps as well.
Click to expand...

I get the feeling from your comments that TRU brand bulbs are not highly thought of- is this correct?

The other part of my planning - which I probably should have mentioned up front - is to "rotate" my bulbs. It's my understanding that T-5s should be replaced every 12-18 months, and also that you can potentially shock your tank badly by replacing a whole group of bulbs at once. My strategy to avoid that was to replace half the bulbs at any one time. As I got this unit for Christmas last year, I replaced the four center bulbs (12-hours/day) in June, so I now have six-month-old bulbs in the center and year-old bulbs on the outside. My plan was to put the new bulbs I asked about in the center section, move the four bulbs currently in the center to the outside (4-8 hours/day), and get rid of the four bulbs currently in the outside positions. Does this rotation scheme make sense, or should I do this some other way?

Regardless, would you recommend putting two each blue plus and 75/25 in the center section (which in six months becomes four each)? Or would I be better off with some other combination, such as one of each and then an ATI Aquablue, ATI or UVL 50/50 actinic/white or pure actinic, or a (higher quality than TRU?) 10K or 6700K? Or is there another kind of bulb not yet mentioned that should go into the mix? Thanks!
 
jrp1588 said:
nah, I've already got a brand new set of bulbs, so I'm set on that. hopefully soon I can find a direct comparison of the two units. It looks like the 6 lamp tek only has 1 fan while the sunpower has two. Wonder if the sunpower is indeed $50 better. Some rich person needs to buy both and do some par testing!
Click to expand...

No, some rich person needs to buy both and send them to me :bounce3:

I don't believe the tek price includes the splash shield while the ATI does so keep that in mind.
 
LCDRDATA said:
I get the feeling from your comments that TRU brand bulbs are not highly thought of- is this correct?

The other part of my planning - which I probably should have mentioned up front - is to "rotate" my bulbs. It's my understanding that T-5s should be replaced every 12-18 months, and also that you can potentially shock your tank badly by replacing a whole group of bulbs at once. My strategy to avoid that was to replace half the bulbs at any one time. As I got this unit for Christmas last year, I replaced the four center bulbs (12-hours/day) in June, so I now have six-month-old bulbs in the center and year-old bulbs on the outside. My plan was to put the new bulbs I asked about in the center section, move the four bulbs currently in the center to the outside (4-8 hours/day), and get rid of the four bulbs currently in the outside positions. Does this rotation scheme make sense, or should I do this some other way?

Regardless, would you recommend putting two each blue plus and 75/25 in the center section (which in six months becomes four each)? Or would I be better off with some other combination, such as one of each and then an ATI Aquablue, ATI or UVL 50/50 actinic/white or pure actinic, or a (higher quality than TRU?) 10K or 6700K? Or is there another kind of bulb not yet mentioned that should go into the mix? Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you are doing 4 lamps and will be replacing 2 actinic and 2 10K's I would get 2 ATI Blue Plus, 1 UVL Actinic White and a GE 6500K Daylight. If I remember right the 4 outside lamps are on one circuit. Those should be your dusk/dawn lamps because the lack of concentrated light isn't going to produce the PAR those 4 together in the middle will.

Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Actinic White
Your 4 6 month old lamps
ATI Blue Plus
Tru Actinic

If you don't like the dusk/dawn with the Actinic White swap it out for another tru actinic.

I don't know about the Tru lamps other than I have seen them on sale for 10 bux. You can build a decent lamp for that price. I really need to buy some of these cheap lamps/fixtures and have some fun but running 2 houses right now is a bit costly and I just can't justify it, until the other house sells.
 
The 3' 6 bulb and 4' 4 bulb Tek Elite will have 1 fan, while the 4' 6 bulb and the 4' 8 bulb fixture will have 2 fans.

All Tek Elite's will include the splash shield. The reflector is high specular Miro Silver (98% reflective).

Pretty excited to see these finally come out ....
 
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