The T5 Q&a Thread

[lhemphill]

6 isn't necessary but advisable. For a softy setup I would get the tek

Run 2 ATI Actinic Lamps, 2 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Purple Plus and 1 GE 6500K daylight. Once you decide you want to move to LPS and some stonies you can replace the actinics with blue plus lamps and still have enough light. With a 4 lamp fixture you wouldn't have that option.

Right on... Always best to plan on expanding so I am going with the six. Thanks for the advice on the bulbs.

 

[Dana42078]

I get my fixture on the 29th from reefgeek...went with 2 aqua blues ,1 purple, one aqua special.....

Grim front to back what order should i put the bulbs in?

 

[NCMBM]

13" tall overdriving is a real waste. Get standard ballasts, your critters will be a lot happier. In the meantime I would run one ballast using 2 Actinic Plus and 2 Aquablues and see what your critters think.

Can you give me some suggestions on standard T5 ballasts. Are these the same as I can get at Home Depot? Not sure I understand what a standard ballast is and why the icecaps overdrive these bulbs. I will run one ballast today as you suggest and see what happens.
Thanks

 

[RenoR1]

Anyone,

I have looked at a couple dozen posts out of the almost 10,000 on this thread and got over whelmed!

I need to boost my PAR in my tank something fierce. I am slowely converting to SPS and so far the only SPS that isnt happy is the blue staghorn I have.

Grim: I have a 6 bulb T5ho. What is the best combination of bulbs I can go with for maximum growth/ pigment "pop" with a lot of blue? I don't want to go buy a bunch of bulbs I don't like, so I am asking you so I only have to buy once!

current bulb setup is in my sig

 

[rtparty]

Anyone,

I have looked at a couple dozen posts out of the almost 10,000 on this thread and got over whelmed!

I need to boost my PAR in my tank something fierce. I am slowely converting to SPS and so far the only SPS that isnt happy is the blue staghorn I have.

Grim: I have a 6 bulb T5ho. What is the best combination of bulbs I can go with for maximum growth/ pigment "pop" with a lot of blue? I don't want to go buy a bunch of bulbs I don't like, so I am asking you so I only have to buy once!

current bulb setup is in my sig

4 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Aquablue and 1 ATI Purple Plus

What fixture or retro do you have? If you are serious about SPS you may want to upgrade that as bulbs will only do so much.

If you have a cheap setup then I would limit SPS to the top half, up on the rocks.

Also depending on your setup, how are you cooling the bulbs? This will also increase or decrease PAR significantly.

 

[rtparty]

Can you give me some suggestions on standard T5 ballasts. Are these the same as I can get at Home Depot? Not sure I understand what a standard ballast is and why the icecaps overdrive these bulbs. I will run one ballast today as you suggest and see what happens.
Thanks

No they are not the same thing as what you can find at Home Depot.

AccuStart, Triad, Vossloh Schwabe and Advance are all good spec T5 ballasts.

Are you running 60" bulbs? If you are, then overdriving might be the only option you have.

Call Reefgeek and talk to them. They sell ATI ballasts that don't overdrive 80 watt bulbs but you have to buy wiring stuff for them.

 

[RenoR1]

It is 2 light bars, 1 2-bulb and 1 4-bulb. They have fans keeping everything cool. I don't know what the are, but I know it is relatively inexpensive. I do not want to upgrade my lighting anything past the 6 bulb fixture I have because I am going to be doing an LED build on my new tank and don't want to spend much more on equipment on this tank, short of bulbs, etc.

But my bulbs do need to be replaced and the SPS need something in the interim!. Any particular order for those bulbs you listed?

 

[brad65ford]

If you are running 4 lamps I would run 2 Blue Plus, 1 Aquablue and 1 Purple Plus.

Ordered! Thanks for your help.


Brad

 

[nibor75]

Do ATI's have legs are do you always have to mount them to the ceiling?

Found these a few months back. I don't think they are an original ATI part and they are quite spendy, even before shipping from Europe.

I've seen these at only one online store in Europe. They're not on the ATI website but that doesn't mean much, it's a permanent work in progress.

€125-00

 

[NyReefNoob]

It is 2 light bars, 1 2-bulb and 1 4-bulb. They have fans keeping everything cool. I don't know what the are, but I know it is relatively inexpensive. I do not want to upgrade my lighting anything past the 6 bulb fixture I have because I am going to be doing an LED build on my new tank and don't want to spend much more on equipment on this tank, short of bulbs, etc.

But my bulbs do need to be replaced and the SPS need something in the interim!. Any particular order for those bulbs you listed?

lighting is only part of the equation for keeping sps, and stags are very hardy sps, i would look more into water quality then lighting being the issue

 

[tommydee]

Fixture

Fixture

Ready to dive in from FOWLR to easy reef. Just thinking a BTA, and maybe some LPS. I have 30 gallon tank, 30". Considering 36" 4 bulb Nova extreme...seems the leg mounts will work, but I have the overhang. I would go with the 24", since most of my LR is in the middle of tank, but not sure how to mount in a simple, clean way. Not sure 30" is good idea, since there are limited bulbs. Trying to keep this simple. Budget is ~$250

Any thoughts? 24, 36, or find a 30" used? MH out of question, since I live in PR this will drive chiller. Grim, your take?

 

[brad65ford]

I get my fixture on the 29th from reefgeek...went with 2 aqua blues ,1 purple, one aqua special.....

Grim front to back what order should i put the bulbs in?

From what I've been told and what I'm going to run.

Back
ATI Blue Plus
ATI AquaBlue Special
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
Front

 

[NCMBM]

No they are not the same thing as what you can find at Home Depot.

AccuStart, Triad, Vossloh Schwabe and Advance are all good spec T5 ballasts.

Are you running 60" bulbs? If you are, then overdriving might be the only option you have.

Call Reefgeek and talk to them. They sell ATI ballasts that don't overdrive 80 watt bulbs but you have to buy wiring stuff for them.

Thanks! Running one set of 4 bulbs has apparently made the frags happy, much more polyp extension on all. I can change up the fixture to only run 4 bulbs and use the other 4 over additional holding tanks. These are 48" bulbs.

Do I need a fan on them to keep them cool. The fixture is just an aluminum frame with the reflectors attached to it. No canopy and the reflectors are open on the back to air. I could easily put a fan over the back and cool it if needed. I would prefer to continue using the icecaps and not spend additional money on a sump/grow out tank.

 

[prodman]

I am debating t5s on my tank and wondered how many I would need to light a tank that is 30" front back and 17" of water to the sand? Thanks

 

[rtparty]

Thanks! Running one set of 4 bulbs has apparently made the frags happy, much more polyp extension on all. I can change up the fixture to only run 4 bulbs and use the other 4 over additional holding tanks. These are 48" bulbs.

Do I need a fan on them to keep them cool. The fixture is just an aluminum frame with the reflectors attached to it. No canopy and the reflectors are open on the back to air. I could easily put a fan over the back and cool it if needed. I would prefer to continue using the icecaps and not spend additional money on a sump/grow out tank.

YES, you need to have some fans cooling the setup. You will burn the bulbs up within months if yo are not cooling them properly.

Cool the label end of the lamps. That is where the cold spot it at.

 

[rtparty]

I am debating t5s on my tank and wondered how many I would need to light a tank that is 30" front back and 17" of water to the sand? Thanks

You could get away with an 8 bulb ATI fixture. Any other fixture(s) I would want at least 10 bulbs.

 

[NCMBM]

YES, you need to have some fans cooling the setup. You will burn the bulbs up within months if yo are not cooling them properly.

Cool the label end of the lamps. That is where the cold spot it at.

Sorry for all the questions. Should I put the fan below the bulbs or above? It would be easiest to cool from above. I could cool the entire length of the reflector from above.

I think the one set of 4 bulbs may be enough for this tank as only a small portion of it is used for frag grow out, the rest holds equipment and quarantined fish for my customers. Tank is divided by removable screens I use as needed. I keep a large desarden sailfin tang in there al the time and he can be pretty aggressive towards newcomers so I often must separate him from the others.
How high above the water should the fixture be with only 4 bulbs and 13" of water?

 

[rtparty]

Sorry for all the questions. Should I put the fan below the bulbs or above? It would be easiest to cool from above. I could cool the entire length of the reflector from above.

I think the one set of 4 bulbs may be enough for this tank as only a small portion of it is used for frag grow out, the rest holds equipment and quarantined fish for my customers. Tank is divided by removable screens I use as needed. I keep a large desarden sailfin tang in there al the time and he can be pretty aggressive towards newcomers so I often must separate him from the others.
How high above the water should the fixture be with only 4 bulbs and 13" of water?

You need to cool the label end of the bulb. However you do that, is up to you. Cool the cold spot of the bulb, not the reflectors.

I would keep the bulbs around 8-10" off the surface, maybe a little more.

 

[RenoR1]

lighting is only part of the equation for keeping sps, and stags are very hardy sps, i would look more into water quality then lighting being the issue

Thx, but water quality is not the issue here for my tank. It's bulbs.

 

[prodman]

You could get away with an 8 bulb ATI fixture. Any other fixture(s) I would want at least 10 bulbs.

So eight would work fine if I had a Power Module.