The T5 Q&a Thread

[SWANN]

i guess ill ask

i guess ill ask

Hey guys,

Im new at T-5's and im going to put an order in for 3 x 60'' T-5 retro ice cap kit from reefgeek. I will be useing these instead of the VHO's that I used in the past. Anyways, any suggestions on what bulbs/brand well give the super atinic -purple look!? Gonna want it to wash out the white from the 2 x 10k 400wat MH, ...i'll also have a third 20k MH in the middle. All this over a 180gal.

If someone thinks going with 4 X 48" T5 will be better than the 3X 60" please tell me why? Im leaning toward the 3 X 60" because the MH are in the middle of my canopy, and only one VHO in the past could fit behind the MH/toward the back. Although i may be able to get 2- T5's in the back since there smaller than the t12's

 

[mjstover]

Hey Grim I just got the new Current Sundial T5 24" for my 16 gal. It is mostly SPS with some LPS. What would be the best combo of blubs for nice growth and color. I would lean more twards better color if that matters. I also just wanted to say thanks for all the advice you give out to everyone it is very much appreciated

 

[mjstover]

OH yeah and I forgot to ask. Do you think this will give me better results then a MG SunPod 150 20k XM???

 

[mjstover]

I ment( MH)

 

[snaza]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11805937#post11805937 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
PAR for the most part but you also want the right spectrum. A blue/green lamp providing 400 PAR is going to give you somewhat better growth than a green/yellow lamp with the same amount of PAR, thats the theory anyway. It's best to give them a broad spectrum just to cover your bets.

Thanks, would an ATI blue plus be a blue/green and a 10k bulb be a green/yellow? the reason i ask is i have a 6 bulb setup over my 48x20x20 and one of my aquaz ocean pro 20k blew. should i get another aquaz 20k or an aquaz 10k. the 20k has more PAR but i want to give a broad spectrum so thought 10k. the few SPS (up high) i have will be sitting under this bulb hence the question.

front

Aquaz Blue pro
Aquaz ocean pro
ATI Blue plus
KZ Fiji Purple
Aquaz 10k or 20k
ATI Blue plus

one other question is i see guys with the same 75g tank running 2 x 400w MH in a SPS tank. they obviously get great growth and colours. How could i do something similar with T5 only in my tank. would i need 8 bulbs all over driven? something im thinking about in the future but for the time being is 6 bulbs normal driven enough with my current setup to get any growth out of SPS and to keep the happy up high in the thank?

sorry for all the questions

thanks again

Aaron

 

[zachofalltrades]

Well, a bit of a newb question in the midst of these 10000 pages of technical T5 questions but here goes....

If my display is only a 36" long 30 gallon, and right now I have 3-48" t8 bulbs (2 6500k and 1 460nm actinic) for a grand total of 96 watts, which I'd feel like I'm doing good if 50% of that made it into the tank because they're in a wal-mart fixture. Would a 2-39w T-5 fixture be an improvement? This is the one I have in mind because it's time to replace my bulbs and this would cost pretty close to new bulbs anyways:

Current USA Nova Extreme

I only have a couple of softies right now and will be happy keeping just them for a while. I'd be thrilled if the mushrooms would thrive and start splitting, actually.

 

[snaza]

Hi Grim,

I read this. is it true?

The other thing to understand is that the loss of light with distance from fluorescent lamps (NO, VHO, T5, etc.) is not as rapid as it is with metal halide. This means you don't have to shove corals very close to the tubes to provide them with light. In fact, you may have more light lower in the tank than near the tubes.

thanks

 

[kenyacat]

Grim, can you give me your opinion?

I am a relative newbie. Only had my 29 gallon for a year. Am upgrading to a 55 with the 29 as my sump/refuge.

I have no corals at the moment and will probably start with the corals that are listed as easy. I do have a huge Sebae anemone (which is why I have no room for corals).

I was thinking the 48" Tek Light 4-54w T5 light. That gives me 216 watts. Or should I go with the 6-54w T5 fixture? Using the 3-5 watt rule the four light fixture gives me 216 watts and my total would be 275. 6 lights would give me 324 watts. Which would you suggest?

Also which light bulbs would you suggest?

Thanks

 

[spleen93]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11809611#post11809611 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snaza
Hi Grim,

I read this. is it true?

The other thing to understand is that the loss of light with distance from fluorescent lamps (NO, VHO, T5, etc.) is not as rapid as it is with metal halide. This means you don't have to shove corals very close to the tubes to provide them with light. In fact, you may have more light lower in the tank than near the tubes.

thanks

This doesn't make sense to me. There's no way that you can have more light lower in the tank than nearer the light source since drop off is inversely proportional to the distance away from the bulb (or was it the square of the distance?) The only way that you MIGHT have that if you had some weird reflector issues but I would say that for the vast majority of tank setups, you're gonna have lower light farther away from the bubs.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Should do really good.

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Actinic
ATI Pro Color
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue (Or Blue Plus for a more blue look)

Set the actinic and the Blue Plus towards the back as a pair for Dusk/Dawn.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11806807#post11806807 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by timespinner
Hi Grim, I have a 110-gallon 60" L, 24" T, 18" W SPS-dominated tank and am considering T5s. I'm considering a 6x54 icecap slr retrofit overdriven setup. Is this the best setup, and what bulbs and bulb order would you recommend? Thanks!

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Re: i guess ill ask

Re: i guess ill ask

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11807037#post11807037 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SWANN
Hey guys,

Im new at T-5's and im going to put an order in for 3 x 60'' T-5 retro ice cap kit from reefgeek. I will be useing these instead of the VHO's that I used in the past. Anyways, any suggestions on what bulbs/brand well give the super atinic -purple look!? Gonna want it to wash out the white from the 2 x 10k 400wat MH, ...i'll also have a third 20k MH in the middle. All this over a 180gal.

If someone thinks going with 4 X 48" T5 will be better than the 3X 60" please tell me why? Im leaning toward the 3 X 60" because the MH are in the middle of my canopy, and only one VHO in the past could fit behind the MH/toward the back. Although i may be able to get 2- T5's in the back since there smaller than the t12's

The Reflectors for the 60" lamps are the Tek II's which are 3" wide, doubt you are going to fit them in there. I would probably get the 4 or 6x39 watt Ice Cap T5's so you can run 2 lamps end to end to cover the length of the tank. The Ice Cap reflectors are 2 1/2" wide.

If you can do 2 in front 1 behind the halide for the 39 watt lamps I would do

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Actinic
Halide
UVL 75/25

That is going to get you closer to the purple look you want. The 75/25 is white with a slight purple tint to it.

For the 60's

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Actinic
Halide
ATI Blue Plus

Will look nice. adds more blue and will look nice but not nearly as purple as the 39 watt mix.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11807633#post11807633 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mjstover
Hey Grim I just got the new Current Sundial T5 24" for my 16 gal. It is mostly SPS with some LPS. What would be the best combo of blubs for nice growth and color. I would lean more twards better color if that matters. I also just wanted to say thanks for all the advice you give out to everyone it is very much appreciated

I'd do this
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11807908#post11807908 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mjstover
OH yeah and I forgot to ask. Do you think this will give me better results then a MG SunPod 150 20k XM???

Probably. 20K 150's aren't too impressive.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11808710#post11808710 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snaza
Thanks, would an ATI blue plus be a blue/green and a 10k bulb be a green/yellow? the reason i ask is i have a 6 bulb setup over my 48x20x20 and one of my aquaz ocean pro 20k blew. should i get another aquaz 20k or an aquaz 10k. the 20k has more PAR but i want to give a broad spectrum so thought 10k. the few SPS (up high) i have will be sitting under this bulb hence the question.

front

Aquaz Blue pro
Aquaz ocean pro
ATI Blue plus
KZ Fiji Purple
Aquaz 10k or 20k
ATI Blue plus

one other question is i see guys with the same 75g tank running 2 x 400w MH in a SPS tank. they obviously get great growth and colours. How could i do something similar with T5 only in my tank. would i need 8 bulbs all over driven? something im thinking about in the future but for the time being is 6 bulbs normal driven enough with my current setup to get any growth out of SPS and to keep the happy up high in the thank?

sorry for all the questions

thanks again

Aaron

Grab another ocean Pro if you need to stick with AquaZ lamps. They have good PAR and are a balanced white lamp, lotta blue but also green and red. The corals use the deep orange red spectrum well too. You need the Green/yellow to have good color rendering. meaning yellow critters or criters with a yellow component in their colors (lime green, orange etc.) need some yellow in the light that strikes them to give you a reasonable representation of the color.

If you want to kick the growth in the tail just add a couple more lamps and a IC660 ballast and overdrive 4 lamps. Not sure I would overdrive AquaZ lamps simply because I am not sure how they will hold up. Could be fine, I just can't think of anyone I've heard overdriving them.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11809365#post11809365 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by zachofalltrades
Well, a bit of a newb question in the midst of these 10000 pages of technical T5 questions but here goes....

If my display is only a 36" long 30 gallon, and right now I have 3-48" t8 bulbs (2 6500k and 1 460nm actinic) for a grand total of 96 watts, which I'd feel like I'm doing good if 50% of that made it into the tank because they're in a wal-mart fixture. Would a 2-39w T-5 fixture be an improvement? This is the one I have in mind because it's time to replace my bulbs and this would cost pretty close to new bulbs anyways:

Current USA Nova Extreme

I only have a couple of softies right now and will be happy keeping just them for a while. I'd be thrilled if the mushrooms would thrive and start splitting, actually.

2 would probably be at least as much as you have now. I would go 4 simply because it gives you more options to use different lamps to get a nice look. It would also allow you to raise most softies and even some LPS.

 

[reefcrazy0821]

hey grim im back and im not goin to be doin the 75g aanymore...im goin to start all new and do a 125 sps dominated tank...i am still goin to use t5 lighting but want to know if the tek2 t5 vho 6 bulb retrofit kit would be good enough?bulb combo will be
front
blue plus
aqua blue
tru actinic
pro color
ge 6500k
blue plus
this is what reekgeek recomended to me just wanted your opinion...thanks

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11809611#post11809611 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snaza
Hi Grim,

I read this. is it true?

The other thing to understand is that the loss of light with distance from fluorescent lamps (NO, VHO, T5, etc.) is not as rapid as it is with metal halide. This means you don't have to shove corals very close to the tubes to provide them with light. In fact, you may have more light lower in the tank than near the tubes.

thanks

Yeas and no. While the light from a linear source, and use of a array of multiple lamps doesn't fall off as rapidly as it does from a point source like a halide, the halides start off a whole lot brighter so it really depends on the system you are talking about.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11810589#post11810589 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kenyacat
Grim, can you give me your opinion?

I am a relative newbie. Only had my 29 gallon for a year. Am upgrading to a 55 with the 29 as my sump/refuge.

I have no corals at the moment and will probably start with the corals that are listed as easy. I do have a huge Sebae anemone (which is why I have no room for corals).

I was thinking the 48" Tek Light 4-54w T5 light. That gives me 216 watts. Or should I go with the 6-54w T5 fixture? Using the 3-5 watt rule the four light fixture gives me 216 watts and my total would be 275. 6 lights would give me 324 watts. Which would you suggest?

Also which light bulbs would you suggest?

Thanks

4 would be fine but 6 would allow you to upgrade from the 55 someday and probably be better for the Sebea. If you do 4 grab one of the Azoo fan arrays fosters and smith sells and clamp it to the back frame of the tank blowing across the fixture.

For lamps

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Aquablue

for 6
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
ATI Aquablue

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11811444#post11811444 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by spleen93
This doesn't make sense to me. There's no way that you can have more light lower in the tank than nearer the light source since drop off is inversely proportional to the distance away from the bulb (or was it the square of the distance?) The only way that you MIGHT have that if you had some weird reflector issues but I would say that for the vast majority of tank setups, you're gonna have lower light farther away from the bubs.

If you were to read PAR 2" away from the lamps you are only having light from a small area of a single lamp striking the sensor. As you move away from the source (lamp) not only will light from a greater area of the lamp start striking the sensor but also from the other lamps so it wouldn't be surprising to see an increase. But even with the fixture sitting a few inches from the water once your get far enough below the water to start placing corals aint no way you are going to see light increase once you start moving lower in the tank.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11811648#post11811648 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefcrazy0821
hey grim im back and im not goin to be doin the 75g aanymore...im goin to start all new and do a 125 sps dominated tank...i am still goin to use t5 lighting but want to know if the tek2 t5 vho 6 bulb retrofit kit would be good enough?bulb combo will be
front
blue plus
aqua blue
tru actinic
pro color
ge 6500k
blue plus
this is what reekgeek recomended to me just wanted your opinion...thanks

You can't fit 6 lamps over a 125 using the Tek II reflectors.

What you should do for SPS is get the HO Ice Cap 39 wat retros, 12 of them. The HO system uses standard T5 ballast. Run the lamps end to end to cover the length of the tank.

The lamp combo you listed would be fine although I am not sure there is really any great benefit to running a actinic over a SPS tank. I might sneak in a UVL 75/25 lamp instead. It is a 75% actinic daylight combo that looks slightly purple but mostly white and has decent PAR. Either way should be fine, Greg knows his stuff about the lamp combos.