The T5 Q&a Thread

[r2odie]

Hi. I have 2-seven bulb (54 watt ho) aquatinic constellation fixtures (14 bulbs total) over 240 gal. looking to get bulbs from reefgeek. what is recommended? I keep sps, lps, clams, etc.
I was thinking:
Fiji Purple, True Actinic 03, Midday Sun, 454 Blue, Red Sun, Super Blue, Actinic Plus (x 2 ea.) Thanks.

 

[scionreefing]

What's a good mix for growth and color? And what bulbs could they be compared to in gieseman bulbs I was told about a month ago but lost it in all the other posts. This is a 6 bulb retrofit.

Raffle grabber

 

[SouthBayPhoto]

Get LET reflectors. In fact I would use 48 inch lamps instead of 60". They light up a 60 inch tank just fine and those reflectors are only 2.5 inches so you can do 6 lamps. The only thing is the last 6" on each end can only have lower light corals in them, big deal....

Thank you sir. I was wondering if 48" lamps were okay or not. Also, thank you for suggesting the LET reflectors. I found them on reefgeek.com and see that I can fit 6 bulbs in 15". :bounce2: That will definitely work! They even have the 6 bulb retrofit kits in 48" or 60" and they are both 15" wide due to the LET reflectors.

But as long as I know it's still cool to run 48" lights, I might do that just because it's cheaper and I have a better selection of light manufacturers.

Again, thank you for taking time out of your day to answer. Much appreciated! :thumbsup:

 

[rtparty]

Apologies up front if this has been discussed and I just missed it... but... Have seen those:

http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/store/index.php?cPath=71_194

and if so... what is the opinion? Configuration wise they look really nice, not to mention price wise...

Spacey

They are worse than Tek fixtures. I got some readings from a local guy that was using all ATI bulbs and a Tek put out more light and you spend less money. The reflectors are bad and they use Workhorse ballasts.

An ATI, Tek, or Aquatic Life is a much better choice. With the ATI and Tek you can choose your bulbs as well. I wouldn't trust the Catalina bulbs.

 

[rtparty]

Does the front to back order of bulbs matter other than which bulbs stand out more? I have 2 blue +, a purple + and aquablue special.

Don't put an Aquablue or Purple in front and don't use the purple in the back.

Blue Plus
Purple
Aquablue
Blue

 

[rtparty]

Hi. I have 2-seven bulb (54 watt ho) aquatinic constellation fixtures (14 bulbs total) over 240 gal. looking to get bulbs from reefgeek. what is recommended? I keep sps, lps, clams, etc.
I was thinking:
Fiji Purple, True Actinic 03, Midday Sun, 454 Blue, Red Sun, Super Blue, Actinic Plus (x 2 ea.) Thanks.

I would do 4 ATI Blue Plus, 2 ATI Purple Plus and 1 KZ New Generation.

You will have to play with the order but keep a purple front of center and just rear of center. Put a blue up front and call it good.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Apologies up front if this has been discussed and I just missed it... but... Have seen those:

http://www.catalinaaquarium.com/store/index.php?cPath=71_194

and if so... what is the opinion? Configuration wise they look really nice, not to mention price wise...

Spacey

How do I put this,,,, You get what you pay for in this hobby, especially when it comes to lighting.

 

[aarond419]

Can someone post a pic of a tank using 2 blue+ 1 purple+ and 1 new gen bulb? This is the setup I am planning on going with but would like to see how it looks. Please and thanks!!

Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk

 

[Dave1NC]

T5 recommendations for a 240 gallon mixed reef. SPS, LPS and Soft Corals. Once side is a 48" 8 bulb Nova Extreme and the other is a 6 bulb Nova Extreme.

What bulb combination would give me the most pop on my pink Birdsnest and Green Slimer.

I currently have in the 6 bulb fixture. ATI 1 purple plus, 4 blue plus and 1 GE. Other fixture has Wave Point bulbs that are nearing replacement. I would also be open to swapping out some of the bulbs in the 6 bulb fixture.

 

[Dave1NC]

looking for some bulb recommendations

looking for some bulb recommendations

sorry for the double post.

 

[TropTrea]

Hmm... right... but then you are really running the same wattage as Halides no?

Spacey

Well with Hides I was running 2- 250 watt XM 10,000K bulbs plus 4 atinic compacts that if I recall correctly were 65 watt each. That came to a total of 756 watts plus what was lost in the transformers. I know they would pop a 10 breaker when ever I'd have both MH's turn on at the same time.

With the 8 T-5 at 54 watts each it means 432 watts and the tank is visualy much brighter as well as the PAR is slightly higher and definatly nore equaly balanced throughout the tank.

So for me it a switch from 756+ Watts to 432 Watts which was a 43% saving on electricity. And personaly I'd never go back to hides unles I had somethng like a 50,000 gallon tank to light up.

 

[kyley]

Hey Guys, Just thought I'd share my thoughts on lights so far. I had 3 Aquablue Special, 2 Blue Plus, and one Purple Plus. With advice from here, I switched to 4 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus, and tried a few different bulbs as the sixth bulb. Here are my thoughts on what those did for the tank's look:
1. ATI Aquablue Special. Looks great, although with 4 Blue Plus and the Purple Plus as the other bulbs, I can see how some may consider it "too blue" and it's a darker look for the tank overall. Corals *really pop* under this combo though.
2. KZ Coral Light New Gen. Same. I can't really tell the difference between this and the Aquablue Special. Going forward, I'd pick the Aquablue Special simply because it's cheaper (and then I'd be all ATI = easier to get all from the same place). If there's a long-term difference in coral coloration between the two, then that would certainly sway me, but that would be hard to determine. Unfortunately I can't find light spectrum graphs for KZ bulbs.
3. GE 6500k. I really like the look of this too. If the above bulbs are too blue / dark for you, this one bulb will really brighten the tank up a bit and provides a bit more full light spectrum (perhaps beneficial for the corals?) but as others have mentioned, it may cause more algae growth? It does take a little bit of "pop" away from the corals though.
Between these three, I'm going to use the KZ New Gen for now and would probably replace it with the Aquablue Special.
4. I briefly tried using two Purple Plus bulbs. I liked the look and pop of this too, but I won't stick with it because I don't think it provides enough variation in the light spectrum for the corals (maybe that's faulty reasoning?).
5. KZ Coral Light (not New Gen). gonpostal mentioned this bulb and I haven't tried it yet, but may soon. I think it may be a great middle ground between the GE and the New Gen as it's a 10k bulb.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience. Thoughts? It took awhile to get used to this much bluer look, but after awhile, I'm really starting to like it! Take care,
--Kyle

 

[TropTrea]

T5 recommendations for a 240 gallon mixed reef. SPS, LPS and Soft Corals. Once side is a 48" 8 bulb Nova Extreme and the other is a 6 bulb Nova Extreme.

What bulb combination would give me the most pop on my pink Birdsnest and Green Slimer.

I currently have in the 6 bulb fixture. ATI 1 purple plus, 4 blue plus and 1 GE. Other fixture has Wave Point bulbs that are nearing replacement. I would also be open to swapping out some of the bulbs in the 6 bulb fixture.

Hope I'm not getting to technicial here but here it is any way.
The pink Birdsnest coral gets its color from a combination of two proteins Discosoma Red-type and Kaede-type florescent protein.

DSRed emits peaks at 592nm, 594nm, 600nm, and 602nm. with the maximium wave lenght absorbtion between 558nm and 526 nm. with the Acropora species a majortiy of the light needed to excite the Discosoma 558 and 560 nm. which in return emits 593 nm and 597 nm. So in plain english this coral needs light in the 558 to 560 nm range which is yellow orange to the naked eye in order to display light at 593 to 597 nm or red.

Looking at other proteins within corals we find simular reactions with exciting frequencies and different emission frequencies. General speaking the exciting frequencies are between 440nm and 560nm with a majority of then in the blue to cyan range to the naked eye.

For Bulbs that have strong peaks in these ranges ATI's Aqua Blue Special, or the Giesemann Aqua Blue Plus appears almost ideal to me when combined with a true Atinic bulb to bring in even the shorter wave lenghts. for additional bulbs I would add Blue Plus bulbs.

Now looking bulbs we find several with decient peaks in this range.

 

[Jimbob]

Most of those blue lamps have actinic in them. IMO the Aquatic life lamps look to have a little more Green in the output which aint bad but it could be I am just spoiled with the LED's. I think using two of those with two current 460's is a good idea. When you get them see if you can see any difference and post back. As for the white lamps use an Aquatic Life 10K and their purple lamp. I have seen these and they work very well together with 4 blues.

Grim, et al. My new lamps were delivered this morning. I did a complete disassembly of the 20" NEP and gave it a thorough cleaning to get all of the dust build up from 2+ years of use out of it. I then re-lamped it using the combination of bulbs I had conjured up in my mind + Grim's recommendation of the Aquatic Life Purple Lamp (combination of 460/620nm spectrum).

All I can really say is "WOW." I was pretty close to having a color combination and look to the tank that I liked before, but the new lamp mix is amazing and spot on with what I was envisioning in my head. It may not be as nice as some of the combinations users can get in the 24" and 48" sizes but it is amazing... here is what I went with.

FRONT to BACK:

Aquatic Life 420/460 Actinic (on dusk/dawn timer for 10 hrs)
TruLumen 460 Actinic Blue (on day timer for 8 hours)
Aquatic Life Ardent White 10,000K (on day timer for 8 hours)
Aquatic Life Purple (on day timer for 8 hours)
Aquatic Life 420/460 Actinic (on dusk/dawn timer for 10 hrs)
TruLumen 460 Actinic Blue (on day timer for 8 hours)

For any of the 20" Nova Extreme Pro (NEP) users out there, this is a great looking combination of lamps.

I'll report back periodically as to how the corals respond in both growth and coloration.

 

[Jimbob]

Most of those blue lamps have actinic in them...

While both the Aquatic Life 420/460 and the TrueLumen 460 may have some actinic in them, after playing around with both lamps today in a A-B-A swap/comparison, the Aquatic Life lamps clearly have more actinic in them. Or, perhaps a better way to put it is that the Aquatic Life lamps have more of the actinic spectrum in them that is similar to the old-school UV Lighting "Super Actinic" T12 VHO lamps. I really like the Aquatic Life 420/460 lamps.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

T5 recommendations for a 240 gallon mixed reef. SPS, LPS and Soft Corals. Once side is a 48" 8 bulb Nova Extreme and the other is a 6 bulb Nova Extreme.

What bulb combination would give me the most pop on my pink Birdsnest and Green Slimer.

I currently have in the 6 bulb fixture. ATI 1 purple plus, 4 blue plus and 1 GE. Other fixture has Wave Point bulbs that are nearing replacement. I would also be open to swapping out some of the bulbs in the 6 bulb fixture.

4 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus and 1 GE 6500K, for the 8 lamp fixture I'd add a Blue Plus and second Purple Plus

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Hey Guys, Just thought I'd share my thoughts on lights so far. I had 3 Aquablue Special, 2 Blue Plus, and one Purple Plus. With advice from here, I switched to 4 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus, and tried a few different bulbs as the sixth bulb. Here are my thoughts on what those did for the tank's look:
1. ATI Aquablue Special. Looks great, although with 4 Blue Plus and the Purple Plus as the other bulbs, I can see how some may consider it "too blue" and it's a darker look for the tank overall. Corals *really pop* under this combo though.
2. KZ Coral Light New Gen. Same. I can't really tell the difference between this and the Aquablue Special. Going forward, I'd pick the Aquablue Special simply because it's cheaper (and then I'd be all ATI = easier to get all from the same place). If there's a long-term difference in coral coloration between the two, then that would certainly sway me, but that would be hard to determine. Unfortunately I can't find light spectrum graphs for KZ bulbs.
3. GE 6500k. I really like the look of this too. If the above bulbs are too blue / dark for you, this one bulb will really brighten the tank up a bit and provides a bit more full light spectrum (perhaps beneficial for the corals?) but as others have mentioned, it may cause more algae growth? It does take a little bit of "pop" away from the corals though.
Between these three, I'm going to use the KZ New Gen for now and would probably replace it with the Aquablue Special.
4. I briefly tried using two Purple Plus bulbs. I liked the look and pop of this too, but I won't stick with it because I don't think it provides enough variation in the light spectrum for the corals (maybe that's faulty reasoning?).
5. KZ Coral Light (not New Gen). gonpostal mentioned this bulb and I haven't tried it yet, but may soon. I think it may be a great middle ground between the GE and the New Gen as it's a 10k bulb.

Anyway, just wanted to share my experience. Thoughts? It took awhile to get used to this much bluer look, but after awhile, I'm really starting to like it! Take care,
--Kyle

White lamps

GE 6500K = Ivory colored, slightly yellowish

Aquablues = Ice White, looks like an ice cube, white with a bluish tint

10Ks, Koral Light, Aquascience 15K "special", Current 10K, Aquatic Life 10K, KZ Koral Light = Chalk white, a Pure neutral white for the most part.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

While both the Aquatic Life 420/460 and the TrueLumen 460 may have some actinic in them, after playing around with both lamps today in a A-B-A swap/comparison, the Aquatic Life lamps clearly have more actinic in them. Or, perhaps a better way to put it is that the Aquatic Life lamps have more of the actinic spectrum in them that is similar to the old-school UV Lighting "Super Actinic" T12 VHO lamps. I really like the Aquatic Life 420/460 lamps.

How old are the True Lumen lamps?

I might have to break out a Blue Plus and see how they stack up against the Aquatic blue.

 

[Jimbob]

How old are the True Lumen lamps?

I might have to break out a Blue Plus and see how they stack up against the Aquatic blue.

The A-B-A comparison I did today was using two brand new TrueLumen lamps compared to one new Aquatic Life 420/460 and one 2-month old Aquatic Life 420/460.

 

[BurN]

OK looking for a quick answer without much headache. I have the RSM250 and 1 of the 10k bulbs went out. I bought the tank used so I don't even know how long they were in there. Time for replacement, it calls for 6x39w t5's. I just picked up a sps package from aquavista99 and I really want them to shine. I appreciate the help and recommendations.