The T5 Q&a Thread

[irocz2280]

Hey Grim so a while back i asked your opinion for lighting on my mixed reef. you suggested 5 ati blue plus, 2 purple plus and 1 ge starcoat 6500k. The color is great my problem is some of my acros still are not coloring up like they were when i purchased them. could there be another issue that i am overlooking. my calc and alk were low before my last water change could this be an issue. all my other corals are doing great and this one in particular is growing very fast just no purple. When i bought it it was a very nice purple color now it looks like this.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Hey Grim so a while back i asked your opinion for lighting on my mixed reef. you suggested 5 ati blue plus, 2 purple plus and 1 ge starcoat 6500k. The color is great my problem is some of my acros still are not coloring up like they were when i purchased them. could there be another issue that i am overlooking. my calc and alk were low before my last water change could this be an issue. all my other corals are doing great and this one in particular is growing very fast just no purple. When i bought it it was a very nice purple color now it looks like this.

Could be quality or the corals are just reacting to the new spectrum of light.

 

[Lightsluvr]

Grim,

Time to change bulbs on my 350G 96x36x27 SPS/LPS reef tank. Here was the original configuration you recommended: All 54W bulbs:

FRONT ( x2 across)
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75-25
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Actinic White
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75-25
ATI Blue Plus
BACK

Any suggestions considering changes in bulbs, manufacturers, etc. I plan to order from Reef Geek.

Thanks.

LL

 

[rtparty]

Grim,

Time to change bulbs on my 350G 96x36x27 SPS/LPS reef tank. Here was the original configuration you recommended: All 54W bulbs:

FRONT ( x2 across)
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75-25
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Actinic White
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75-25
ATI Blue Plus
BACK

Any suggestions considering changes in bulbs, manufacturers, etc. I plan to order from Reef Geek.

Thanks.

LL

I would dump any UVL bulbs and would use ATI Purple Plus instead of the KZ Fiji Purple.

For 12 bulbs I would go with 8 ATI Blue Plus, 2 ATI Purple Plus and 2 GE 6500k. Maybe even dump one Blue Plus for another Purple Plus. Depends on how white/blue you want it.

 

[Thisseemsfishy]

I have the following on a 55g std:
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Blue Plus

What light strength would you consider the bottom compared to the top

 

[RaKe]

Hello, It's time for me to change out my bulbs for the first time with this fixture and I have been trying to find a light combo on my own but am having a terrible time trying to get something that looks good. I like the 14000K look but cant seem to get the colors to pop and everything looks washed out. So I am asking for some help to get me started.
I have a standard 150g tank with an ATI SunPower 6x80w fixture. My tank is mostly SPS with some LPS (but I believe I have to much PAR for the LPS).
One problem is with position 2 and 5 on the same ballast, I would prefer this to be used as the morning/dawn lighing, but I am willing to try anything at this point. I was running 4 B+, 1 Fuji, and 1 Aqua special. and I reciently just purchased 2 ATI actinics, 3 B+, 2 Aqua specials, and 1 Purple+. I still have all of the old and new bulbs so I can mix and match to get a good combination then if I need to buy replacements I can.

So again, I have 6 - B+, 3 - Aqua Special, 1 FJ, 1 P+, and 2 actinics that I can use in my 6 bulb fixture. Can someone please give me a sugestion of what combination of bulbs to use?

Thanks

 

[The Grim Reefer]

i would dump any uvl bulbs and would use ati purple plus instead of the kz fiji purple.

For 12 bulbs i would go with 8 ati blue plus, 2 ati purple plus and 2 ge 6500k. Maybe even dump one blue plus for another purple plus. Depends on how white/blue you want it.

+1

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I have the following on a 55g std:
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Blue Plus

What light strength would you consider the bottom compared to the top

What?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Hello, It's time for me to change out my bulbs for the first time with this fixture and I have been trying to find a light combo on my own but am having a terrible time trying to get something that looks good. I like the 14000K look but cant seem to get the colors to pop and everything looks washed out. So I am asking for some help to get me started.
I have a standard 150g tank with an ATI SunPower 6x80w fixture. My tank is mostly SPS with some LPS (but I believe I have to much PAR for the LPS).
One problem is with position 2 and 5 on the same ballast, I would prefer this to be used as the morning/dawn lighing, but I am willing to try anything at this point. I was running 4 B+, 1 Fuji, and 1 Aqua special. and I reciently just purchased 2 ATI actinics, 3 B+, 2 Aqua specials, and 1 Purple+. I still have all of the old and new bulbs so I can mix and match to get a good combination then if I need to buy replacements I can.

So again, I have 6 - B+, 3 - Aqua Special, 1 FJ, 1 P+, and 2 actinics that I can use in my 6 bulb fixture. Can someone please give me a sugestion of what combination of bulbs to use?

Thanks

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI purple Plus
Blue plus
GE 6500K
Blue Plus
Blue Plus

 

[rtparty]

Hello, It's time for me to change out my bulbs for the first time with this fixture and I have been trying to find a light combo on my own but am having a terrible time trying to get something that looks good. I like the 14000K look but cant seem to get the colors to pop and everything looks washed out. So I am asking for some help to get me started.
I have a standard 150g tank with an ATI SunPower 6x80w fixture. My tank is mostly SPS with some LPS (but I believe I have to much PAR for the LPS).
One problem is with position 2 and 5 on the same ballast, I would prefer this to be used as the morning/dawn lighing, but I am willing to try anything at this point. I was running 4 B+, 1 Fuji, and 1 Aqua special. and I reciently just purchased 2 ATI actinics, 3 B+, 2 Aqua specials, and 1 Purple+. I still have all of the old and new bulbs so I can mix and match to get a good combination then if I need to buy replacements I can.

So again, I have 6 - B+, 3 - Aqua Special, 1 FJ, 1 P+, and 2 actinics that I can use in my 6 bulb fixture. Can someone please give me a sugestion of what combination of bulbs to use?

Thanks

The Aquablue bulbs are the bulbs that wash everything out. There are a couple combos to try.

4 ATI Blue Plus and 2 ATI Purple Plus

4 ATI Blue Plus, 1 GE 6500k and 1 ATI Purple Plus

The problem with mixing in the old bulbs is that they are done for. Their PAR has dropped and their spectrum has shifted. Assuming they are over 9 months old.

Are you running the fans at 9v on the fixture? You will want to do that to achieve better bulb life and better PAR. More cooling will also help the ballasts last longer.

 

[ckovach333]

Hey Grim. I have a 46 gallon bow front tank. I am thinking about running a four light setup with 39w bulbs. Will that be sufficient for most corals? I see everyone else talking about six and eight bulb setups. Either way Im hoping I can get by with four bulbs. I have a solar max HO and was considering purchasing another one because all the other fixtures I have seen are quite expensive.

I just ordered the package from TBS. It hasnt arrived yet though. Im hoping to be able to keep alive what I receive. Could you suggest a good setup for four bulbs and what order would be good from front to back? Thanks, I really appreciate it.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Hey Grim. I have a 46 gallon bow front tank. I am thinking about running a four light setup with 39w bulbs. Will that be sufficient for most corals? I see everyone else talking about six and eight bulb setups. Either way Im hoping I can get by with four bulbs. I have a solar max HO and was considering purchasing another one because all the other fixtures I have seen are quite expensive.

I just ordered the package from TBS. It hasnt arrived yet though. Im hoping to be able to keep alive what I receive. Could you suggest a good setup for four bulbs and what order would be good from front to back? Thanks, I really appreciate it.

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus

 

[Lightsluvr]

+1

As always, I appreciate you guys!

LL

 

[HighlandReef]

I am thinking about pulling the trigger on a ati 8x80w fixture for my 210 but i am not sure what bulbs i should get or what order to put them in?
Let me know and thanks!
Chris

 

[rtparty]

I am thinking about pulling the trigger on a ati 8x80w fixture for my 210 but i am not sure what bulbs i should get or what order to put them in?
Let me know and thanks!
Chris

I would go with the standard 8 bulb combo. 5 ATI Blue Plus, 2 ATI Purple Plus and 1 GE6500k.

Blue
Purple
Blue
GE
Blue
Purple
Blue
Blue

Might have to change order a little bit. Keep a purple front of center and the ge right around center. Blue in front and back.

 

[wesleyforbes2]

Well guys I finally installed my 6 bulb Powermodule over my 90 gallon, place 11 acro frags in the rock work and the next day most all of them had varying degrees of bleaching! The fixture was 12" above the tank and now I have it at 17-18" above and they seem to hanging in. One was lost completely and now I am hoping that they recover. I guess I should have placed than all on the sand first to acclimate. This light ain't no joke! I know better next time as Sunday my reef club is holding a frag swap.

Sent from Wesley's Moto Atrix 4G using Tapatalk

 

[wharfrat48]

I guess I'll ask too. Time to change out my T5's over my 180 and am looking for suggestions. I read that people are changing out after 7 months??? I have been going 18 months and have not have had any issues? Why the quick (or not so quick) change outs?

I'd like to use one of the 54W ballasts for dawn to dusk---Anyway, my set up is:

Front
80W Overdriven (Icecap 660)
54W Ballast 1
54W Ballast 1
80W Overdriven (Icecap 660)
54W Ballest 2
80W Overdriven (Icecap 660)
54W Ballast 2

Thanks for your help.

 

[TimeConsumer]

I wanted to avoid asking in a post, but the 400+ pages of this thread are hard to sift through. I'm looking for advice on my young 75 gallon mixed reef. There's not much in there right now, but I plan to keep a little bit of everything. Currently I have a 4 bulb fixture with 2x UVL 454's (similar to Blue+) and 2x Giesemann Aquablue Plus 15000k (similar to ATI Aquablue). This is getting good growth, but washes out the colors, particularly my oranges, and fluorescent greens.

I'm looking to add more light by adding a fixture, but I can't decide between adding 2 or 4. Would 8 bulbs be too much for my LPS or my ricordea?

And I would appreciate it if you could give me a breakdown of bulbs to use in both fixtures, something with a blue look that still has good color pop (particularly for my greens, oranges, and pinks/purples), and allows for fast growth considering they're still mostly frag sized.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I guess I'll ask too. Time to change out my T5's over my 180 and am looking for suggestions. I read that people are changing out after 7 months??? I have been going 18 months and have not have had any issues? Why the quick (or not so quick) change outs?

I'd like to use one of the 54W ballasts for dawn to dusk---Anyway, my set up is:

Front
80W Overdriven (Icecap 660)
54W Ballast 1
54W Ballast 1
80W Overdriven (Icecap 660)
54W Ballest 2
80W Overdriven (Icecap 660)
54W Ballast 2

Thanks for your help.

Depends what you are trying to raise and your particular system but generally about a year is as long as the lamps will provide good par and spectrum.

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus


either 54 watt ballast can be used as dusk/dawn.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I wanted to avoid asking in a post, but the 400+ pages of this thread are hard to sift through. I'm looking for advice on my young 75 gallon mixed reef. There's not much in there right now, but I plan to keep a little bit of everything. Currently I have a 4 bulb fixture with 2x UVL 454's (similar to Blue+) and 2x Giesemann Aquablue Plus 15000k (similar to ATI Aquablue). This is getting good growth, but washes out the colors, particularly my oranges, and fluorescent greens.

I'm looking to add more light by adding a fixture, but I can't decide between adding 2 or 4. Would 8 bulbs be too much for my LPS or my ricordea?

And I would appreciate it if you could give me a breakdown of bulbs to use in both fixtures, something with a blue look that still has good color pop (particularly for my greens, oranges, and pinks/purples), and allows for fast growth considering they're still mostly frag sized.

4 ATI Blue Plus, 1 ATI Purple Plus and 1 GE 6500K Daylight. 6 lamps total is all I would use over that tank.