The T5 Q&a Thread

[Txcowboy22]

Grim,

I just bought a finnex 6x24 t5 fixture from someone on the boards. He modded it and it has 6 individual reflectors. I was wondering if it will be enough light for sps in my 2x2x1 frag tank? I was wondering how high I should put the eggcrate and how high should I put the fixture above the tank for coverage and growth? THX for all your help! You have helped me a ton.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Would the Tek 8x54watts be too much?

Be fine.

 

[YogiBoo]

Got a quick question... is 6X 80 watt T5 enough to cover a tank 60"x 30x 24height.. tank? with about 60 % sps?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Perhapos it is the combo of 2 10,000K bulbs plus the 6,500K that giave me the algae issies. I have noticed that the combinations you are using are much heavier in the bue end of the spectrum than what my personal eye likes.

Sometimes this is is an issue because you are tryng to balance out three seperate factors.
1. Growth
2. Color
3. Personal eye preference.

Some observations I have noticed is that when you do have a lighting with a higher concentration of blue light the corals seem to radiate there colors much better. It does create more snap to the colors.

Also many corals grow faster with a considerable amount of red lighting. Even in fresh water tanks the more red light the more you had watch everything else to keep algea under control. With most bulbs the lower the Color Temperature is the mre it is shifted to the red end and the higher it is the more it is shifted to the UV or blue end end.

Then the individual personal preference in lighting. Now We originaly had mainly 3,200K ambient lighting in our rooms. With this room lighting the tank always seemed to look too blue for me. Therefore I put in less blue and more lower color temp bulbs. But since we switched to the 6,500K Compacts in our room lighting the tank lost that bluish hue and is actualy starting to look slightly yellow to me.

Hopefully when I switch out one of my 10,000Ks for a bulb with more blue in it this will also give me crisper colors without decreasing coral growth noticably.

Dennis

Red light on it's own actually does a really bad job of growing corals. Dana Riddle did an experiment on that and people were actually thinking it was bad for the corals but what many were missing is he was only using red light, nothing else.

Based on the info I have seen corals most efficiently use light in the blue green spectrum, dont recall the exact area but I believe it was 460 to 520. They also use a very narrow band of red around 620 as memory serves but not as good. Seems to coincide with my results when I was running a 50/50 mix of Actinic Plus and Aquablue lamps way back when I was a wee little reefer, I got friggin crazy growth with that mix.

A lot of this depends on the type of lighting. Blue Halides don't produce much PAR so growth isn't too good with them but really good with the lower K lamps which have more red, and PAR.

From what I have seen and experienced increased algae blooms seem to be trigger in what I assume is an increase in infrared output in lamps as they age. A lighting engineer who is also in the reefing business explained some of this to me a long time ago. Anyway It's could be that the particular 10K lamps you are using have a lot of infrared in them or you could have even gotten a hold of a bad GE lamp that is heavy in infrared output.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Got a quick question... is 6X 80 watt T5 enough to cover a tank 60"x 30x 24height.. tank? with about 60 % sps?

You would be better off with 8 but 6 will work if you are careful where you placve high light corals, they need to be under the lamps.

 

[YogiBoo]

i was thinking about getting the ATI Sunpower over the PM...but how many inches does it have to be off the tank?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

It can sit right on top of the tank if you want. Just don't let it fall in :fun5:

i was thinking about getting the ATI Sunpower over the PM...but how many inches does it have to be off the tank?

 

[YogiBoo]

seriously ..... does the hanging kit for the ATI adjustable?

wat combo should i use for a 15k look?

i was thinking about:

ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
ATI Aquaspecial
ATI Blue +
UVL 75/25
ATI Blue +

will this work? any other options... thanx for the advice

 

[Txcowboy22]

Grim, did u get a chance to read my question?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

seriously ..... does the hanging kit for the ATI adjustable?

wat combo should i use for a 15k look?

i was thinking about:

ATI Blue +
ATI Blue +
ATI Aquaspecial
ATI Blue +
UVL 75/25
ATI Blue +

will this work? any other options... thanx for the advice

Would be fine. The hanging kits are adjustable,

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Grim,

I just bought a finnex 6x24 t5 fixture from someone on the boards. He modded it and it has 6 individual reflectors. I was wondering if it will be enough light for sps in my 2x2x1 frag tank? I was wondering how high I should put the eggcrate and how high should I put the fixture above the tank for coverage and growth? THX for all your help! You have helped me a ton.

As long as they used good reflectors you will have more than enough light. I would keep the fixture about 6 to 10" above to get a good light spread front to back.

As far as the eggcrate I would sit it about half way down in the tank.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Grim, did u get a chance to read my question?

No, too much reading and my eyes are doing this. :fun5:

I love that smiley.

 

[Txcowboy22]

LOL, I have no idea how you do it. There is no way I could keep up on this thread. You are a better man than me.

He used ind. reflectors from finnex, looks pretty good. I only bought it b/c there is about 0 lights available in 6x24'' besides the PM. Is it true that 24'' bulbs are much less intense than 48''?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

LOL, I have no idea how you do it. There is no way I could keep up on this thread. You are a better man than me.

He used ind. reflectors from finnex, looks pretty good. I only bought it b/c there is about 0 lights available in 6x24'' besides the PM. Is it true that 24'' bulbs are much less intense than 48''?

I don't know about much but a little less intense.

 

[blennymower]

What would be a good combination of bulbs to get the max growth and color?

 

[newsalt]

I'm asking for some rcommendations for a T5 bulb to add to my 14 bulb Aquactinics Fixture. When I use 2 rows of ATI Aquablue Special bulbs, I feel the tank look too white or washed out. I was looking for a bulb that is not as white as the ATI Aquablue Special but not as blue as the ATI Blue+. Can anyone recommend something?

 

[intenseimage]

Hi Grim, looking for bulb selections for 2 tanks that I have .... special circumstance, please use as many UVL bulbs as possible as they are readily available to me without having to special order - even the 454 or Indigo Sun.

First tank:

75g with a 48" NEP. Tank is mostly zoos but has a BTA and 2 clams in it. Anem and clams are half way down in the tank. Looking for a color/growth balance - leaning towards the color side.

Second tank:

20L with (2) 30" NE SLR. Tank is acan/micro/chalice specific. Looking for COLOR as growth is taken care of with feeding

 

[Scout12]

Grim,

I have a 75 gallon tank(48x18x21) with four T5 bulbs with individual Icecap reflectors and overdriven by an Icecap 660 ballast. I bought this from someone and am not sure exactly what bulbs I have but looks really white and ready to change all four. So far mostly zoos and rics, and a few sps. Would like to add more sps in the future.

What bulbs and manufacturer would you suggest. Prefer a blueish look.

Do I need to add any more bulbs with these four being overdriven? Not sure that I could fit more than one more and of course would rather not.

Thanks

 

[The Grim Reefer]

What would be a good combination of bulbs to get the max growth and color?

4 ATI Blue Plus, 1 UVL Actinic White and a GE 6500K Daylight.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I'm asking for some rcommendations for a T5 bulb to add to my 14 bulb Aquactinics Fixture. When I use 2 rows of ATI Aquablue Special bulbs, I feel the tank look too white or washed out. I was looking for a bulb that is not as white as the ATI Aquablue Special but not as blue as the ATI Blue+. Can anyone recommend something?

If you don't have any other lamps but blues and Aquablues try the UVL Actinic White, like an Aquablue but with a pink tint. If you do and just want a hint more blue the KZ new generation Coral light is a more blue version of an Aquablue.