The T5 Q&a Thread

[reefgeek31]

ok grim this is the problem I have 2 400 watt reefluxs bulbs with lumenbright reflectors and it is burning my sps. My tank is 60x24x30 wide. I am thinking of going with the giessman 12 bulb pendant but i really like the powermodule and all the reveiws, but it only comes in 48" in the states. reef geek is saying it will work in your feeling is this true. Or should i stay with the geissman fixture. Last will you recammend a bulb selection for both a 10 bulb set and 12. You thoughts on this will be very helpful.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12950025#post12950025 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snaza
I reckon mine run at double that temp. burns my finger to touch. I'm just using 5inch computer case fans blowing in from the back. the back lamps are a lot cooler than the front lamps. Should i put some fans on the front of the hood too, blowing on the front lamps endcaps? i'll go pick up 7 IC SLR's too.

thanks

I guess you could just to be safe.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Re: is this enough lighting?

Re: is this enough lighting?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12951633#post12951633 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jlemieux123
Hello,
I am finally making the investment and take out my very old 200w VHO + 200w power compacts lighting and I am putting in eight T5 bulbs each 54 watts with individual high grade reflectors. my tank is 18" deep for top of water to top of sand bed. I was wondering if this enough light for spas and stoney coral?

also, I was wondering if i could create a (shimmering look) and I was told by someone that I can accomplish this by adding a strip of white LEDs is this true?

If you use the high power LEDs you might get decent shimmer. You will have plenty of PAR for an 18" tall tank with the 8 lamps as long as you are using the good equipment

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12951691#post12951691 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 46bfinGA
You would skip the Fiji Purple and the Pro color lamps all together? What effect would they make if I slipped them in like this.....

Front

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue
UVL Aquasun
UVL Super Actinic
ATI Pro Color
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
KZ Fiji Purple
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue

The only thing I dont like about the ATI Powermodules is only two lamps are switched seperately then the other 8. It doesn't make much sense to me? Any reason you can thing of why they did not seperate them 4 and 6. With only two coming on first it seems like to don't have much Actinic for Dawn/Dusk lighting.

Your mix would be fine. 2 lamps is enough for dusk dawn. I imagine it just a cost saving deal not having more circuits

 

[EvMiBo]

grim.

would a tx5 from aquactinics be alright for a 90g with sps, lps, and softies?

if so, what bulbs would u use?
thanks

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12953163#post12953163 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefgeek31
ok grim this is the problem I have 2 400 watt reefluxs bulbs with lumenbright reflectors and it is burning my sps. My tank is 60x24x30 wide. I am thinking of going with the giessman 12 bulb pendant but i really like the powermodule and all the reveiws, but it only comes in 48" in the states. reef geek is saying it will work in your feeling is this true. Or should i stay with the geissman fixture. Last will you recammend a bulb selection for both a 10 bulb set and 12. You thoughts on this will be very helpful.

I run a 48" Aquactinics over a 60" tank and it is fine.

For lamps try

Front
Blue Plus
Aquablue
Super Actinic
Aquasun
Blue Plus
Aquasun
Blue Plus
Super Actinic
Aquablue
Blue Plus

Add an Aquasun and a Blue Plus for a 12 lamp fixture. You will likely have to tweak the lamp positions a bit. You want to get the actinics or an actinic and blue plus on the dusk/dawn circuit.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12953812#post12953812 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EvMiBo
grim.

would a tx5 from aquactinics be alright for a 90g with sps, lps, and softies?

if so, what bulbs would u use?
thanks

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12953812#post12953812 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EvMiBo
grim.

would a tx5 from aquactinics be alright for a 90g with sps, lps, and softies?

if so, what bulbs would u use?
thanks

As long as you keep the SPS up on the rocks you could get away with it.

 

[ssimon15]

mr. grimm reefer

mr. grimm reefer

Hi, I was thinking of getting a 30"sundial 4 x 24 t5 fixture for my 56 g tank 30x18 x25 , and later add a 70 or 150 watt viper mh to shine on the few sps's up high in the tank, do you think that i will have strong enough lighting for softies and mushrooms on the bottom and lps in the middle and a few hardy sps's near top . Thanks in advance Stuart

 

[Larry Waughon]

Grim, I decided to set up a FOWLR in my 180 (6x2x2). What would be the minimal light I could have the fish look good? This would go in a canopy. What equipment and bulbs do I need?
Thanks

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Re: mr. grimm reefer

Re: mr. grimm reefer

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12954023#post12954023 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ssimon15
Hi, I was thinking of getting a 30"sundial 4 x 24 t5 fixture for my 56 g tank 30x18 x25 , and later add a 70 or 150 watt viper mh to shine on the few sps's up high in the tank, do you think that i will have strong enough lighting for softies and mushrooms on the bottom and lps in the middle and a few hardy sps's near top . Thanks in advance Stuart

Yeah, as long as you can get the halide over the SPS.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12954688#post12954688 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Larry Waughon
Grim, I decided to set up a FOWLR in my 180 (6x2x2). What would be the minimal light I could have the fish look good? This would go in a canopy. What equipment and bulbs do I need?
Thanks

I'd get a 3 x 80 watt T5 retro from reefgeek. I'd just center all three, you will just notice the ends of the tank will be a little dimmer than the areas unter the lamps (60")

For lamps I'd do

Front

ATI Aquablue
Giesemann Midday
ATI Aquablue

You should grab a spare lamp because if one burns out the ballast will shut down. I would get a blue plus in case you want a more blue look. The above mix will be very 10K so it might or might not be what you want BUT it should bring out the color in the fish very nice.

 

[TXReefer21]

Tryingn to see if after reading all this i got it right for my tank (LPS and SOFTIES) my tank is a flat back hex so my front 2 bulbs are 36" the rest are 48" will i get i nice blue look and decent color and growth out of my corals. Only bulbs i have avail to me are geisman. Im going for a 20K look.


front to back

true actinic
blue+
blue+
midday
true actinic
blue+

THanks,
Nathan

 

[Larry Waughon]

I am going to put 3 -80 w t-5's in my 180 gal canopy I have ordered. It is a aga modern series canopy I plan to screw lights to top that lifts up. I just looked at a pic and realized that there is a board that divides the canopy. How can I mount the light? The lights will hit board when cover closes. Thanks here is a link if I have not describe canopy well.

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/modern-series-stands-canopies.htm#

 

[reddaemon]

Hi Grim,

Amazing thread, thanks for all your time. I have 2 questions if you could please help out

1. I have a retro with 6 x tek reflectors. i've read that IC SLR and aquactinics are they best. how much extra output would they give me? I've read people said 30% extra, is that true? if my tank puts out 400 par at the water level would that mean the aquactinics reflectors would put out roughly 500par? or thats not how the extra 30% works.

2. i currently have a mix of 3 blue+, 2 aqua blue and 1 fiji. i have good range of wavelengths, (nm), i think. what my question is; what wavelength do SPS like most for color and growth? or corals dont care as it is more to do with the amount of par? If i had all blue + bulbs equalling 500 par or all aqua blues equalling 500 par which would be best, in theory?

hope you understand my stupid questions

i know that was more than 2 questions, i'm just trying to understand how it all works.

thanks a lot for your time

 

[reefgeek31]

First of thank you for your time and sharing your great knowledge in this area? Are the bulbs you named all made by ATI, if not could you please let be know the brand. One last question do you feel that a powermodule 10 bulb set up will be enuff par for a tank that is 24 " deep? I am a major Sps fan so i would like to be able to keep them pretty low in the tank. Once again thank you for your time.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12955018#post12955018 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TXReefer21
Tryingn to see if after reading all this i got it right for my tank (LPS and SOFTIES) my tank is a flat back hex so my front 2 bulbs are 36" the rest are 48" will i get i nice blue look and decent color and growth out of my corals. Only bulbs i have avail to me are geisman. Im going for a 20K look.


front to back

true actinic
blue+
blue+
midday
true actinic
blue+

THanks,
Nathan

Perfect! Actually better than 20K because you have good actinic, 20K's don't really have a lot.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12956814#post12956814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Larry Waughon
I am going to put 3 -80 w t-5's in my 180 gal canopy I have ordered. It is a aga modern series canopy I plan to screw lights to top that lifts up. I just looked at a pic and realized that there is a board that divides the canopy. How can I mount the light? The lights will hit board when cover closes. Thanks here is a link if I have not describe canopy well.

http://www.aqueonproducts.com/products/modern-series-stands-canopies.htm#

I can see two possible solutions.

1) Cut out the center brace. You could contact them and see if they think it would cause any serious issue. It looks by the picture to have a pretty good frame so that might work. You might even be able to make a new brace that would mount lower down in the canopy so the lights would be above it if it really needs that brace.

Or (this is going to get involved)

2) Mount each lamp to a 3" fence slat that is cut to about 70" give or take. Now mount a slat running front to back at each side of the canopy and hang them so they are about the thickness of the slats the lamps are mounted to below the bottom of the center brace. Space those front to back slats so the slats the lamps are mounted to will over hang an inch or so on each end.

Now you sit each of the slats the lamps are mounted to over those those front to back slats. Once you get them in you can run a screw through the end of each of the lamp slats where they overhang those froont to back slats on each end. You basically end up with a pin at the end of each side of the lamp slats just to the outside of front to back slats so they can't fall into the tank if they get pushed too far to one side or another.

What you would end up with is three lamps you can move front to back inside the canopy. If you mount the ballast to the rear brace of the canopy in the middle you should be able to leave enough slack in the wiring harnes that you can move each lamp to the front or back of the tank. That should allow you to access the tank easily. I would leave enough slack that you could push two lamps to the back and pull one to the front. That should leave enough space to put about anything in the tank unless you were going to add large pieces of rock or something. At that point you should pull the canopy anyway.

I sure as hell hope that made sense

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12957272#post12957272 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reddaemon
Hi Grim,

Amazing thread, thanks for all your time. I have 2 questions if you could please help out

1. I have a retro with 6 x tek reflectors. i've read that IC SLR and aquactinics are they best. how much extra output would they give me? I've read people said 30% extra, is that true? if my tank puts out 400 par at the water level would that mean the aquactinics reflectors would put out roughly 500par? or thats not how the extra 30% works.

2. i currently have a mix of 3 blue+, 2 aqua blue and 1 fiji. i have good range of wavelengths, (nm), i think. what my question is; what wavelength do SPS like most for color and growth? or corals dont care as it is more to do with the amount of par? If i had all blue + bulbs equalling 500 par or all aqua blues equalling 500 par which would be best, in theory?

hope you understand my stupid questions

i know that was more than 2 questions, i'm just trying to understand how it all works.

thanks a lot for your time

I found the Ice Cap reflectors had about 20% more output at 18" or so away from the lamps so a PAR of 200 with the Tek becomes 240 with the Ice Cap. Of course I only did that test comparing single reflectors so with 4 that gain could very well be 30%.

SPS being a shollow water coral will likely grow a little better with light in the 6500K range but basically PAR is PAR so I am not sure how noticable that gain would really be. The Iwasaki 6500K is supposed to be the king of the lamps as far as SPS growth BUT none of the higher K rated lamps had close to as much PAR as the Iwasaki for a long time so it's hard to say how big a role the particular spectrum really plays.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12957504#post12957504 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by reefgeek31
First of thank you for your time and sharing your great knowledge in this area? Are the bulbs you named all made by ATI, if not could you please let be know the brand. One last question do you feel that a powermodule 10 bulb set up will be enuff par for a tank that is 24 " deep? I am a major Sps fan so i would like to be able to keep them pretty low in the tank. Once again thank you for your time.

The Powermodule will be fine. Just keep it mounted as close to the water as possible.

The Aquasun and Super Atinic lamps are UVLs, the rest were ATI.