The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
6x48 Ice Cap HO T5 retro from reefgeek.
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Blue Plus
The T5 Q&a Thread
- Thread starter JohnL
- Start date
- Status
6x48 Ice Cap HO T5 retro from reefgeek.
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Blue Plus
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
6x48 Ice Cap HO T5 retro from reefgeek.
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
ATI Blue Plus
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Optimum would be the lamps about 4" above the tank but they can be a little higher if need be
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Run the dusk/dawn blues or blue actinic pair 12 hours a day or so. you can run another pair 8~10 and the midday pair 4~6
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Aquablue
GE 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Unless you are doing a lot of SPS it isn't needed. You could do 4 VHO and 2 HO using the HO for the dusk;dawn blue/actinic lamps.
Originally posted by Billionzz
Hi Grim,
Thanks for all of the great information,
My tank dimensions are
24" left to right
21" front to back
20" top to bottom
I want to order an ATI Powermodule but I want to be able to still have zoas and mushrooms.
I have sps corals but I don't want to be limited to only sps. If I order a 4 bulb fixture would that work and allow me to have zoas and mushrooms or would it not be enough light coverage for the tank?
If I go with 6 bulbs will that limit what type of coral I can place in the tank?
Thanks for your help,
Bill
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you can place your high light stuff at the rear so it's under the lamps and the lower light stuff out front on the sand you should be good.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So are you saying that 4 bulbs would be ok, or that 6 bulbs would be ok?
If your saying the 4 bulbs would the tank lighting still look good?
If you were doing it and wanted to have the corals I listed above, would you buy the 4 or 6 bulb fixture?
If 4 bulbs what 4 bulbs would you buy and what order would you put them in?
If 6 bulbs what 6 bulbs would you buy and what order would you put them in?
Thanks for your time,
Bill
Hi Grim,
Thanks for all of the great information,
My tank dimensions are
24" left to right
21" front to back
20" top to bottom
I want to order an ATI Powermodule but I want to be able to still have zoas and mushrooms.
I have sps corals but I don't want to be limited to only sps. If I order a 4 bulb fixture would that work and allow me to have zoas and mushrooms or would it not be enough light coverage for the tank?
If I go with 6 bulbs will that limit what type of coral I can place in the tank?
Thanks for your help,
Bill
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you can place your high light stuff at the rear so it's under the lamps and the lower light stuff out front on the sand you should be good.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So are you saying that 4 bulbs would be ok, or that 6 bulbs would be ok?
If your saying the 4 bulbs would the tank lighting still look good?
If you were doing it and wanted to have the corals I listed above, would you buy the 4 or 6 bulb fixture?
If 4 bulbs what 4 bulbs would you buy and what order would you put them in?
If 6 bulbs what 6 bulbs would you buy and what order would you put them in?
Thanks for your time,
Bill
Grim's saying that 4 bulbs would work ok as long as you put your SPS higher up and your zoas and mushrooms on the bottom. But looks-wise, it's easier to get a pleasing look to the tank with 6 bulbs rather than 4 bulbs since you'll be able to better fine tune the color by picking appropriate bulbs.
Grim's recommended a number of bulbs before for these setups:
4 bulb:
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25 or UVL Super Actinic (the 75/25 for more PAR)
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
6 bulb:
Front:
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
Grim's recommended a number of bulbs before for these setups:
4 bulb:
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25 or UVL Super Actinic (the 75/25 for more PAR)
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
6 bulb:
Front:
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
Hello Master Grimm...i am setting up a 24x24x12 frag tank and i just ordered a 24" 6 bulb t5 light off fleabay...i have been looking for approriate bulb selection in the forums but most people seem to have sps...i am setting this up as a zoa and acan frag tank...the frag rack will be probably 2-3 inches from tank bottom so 9-10 inches from water level...the light comes with 2inch legs....so i guesstimate that the light will be roughly 12-13 inches from the corals...Is this too much, and what will be my best bulb combo for growth of both acans and zoo frags.
thanks for the info.
J
thanks for the info.
J
stratos21ss
Premium Member
Hi Grim,
Running a Fauna Marin Ultra Solaris 6x54 on a standard 120G (48x24x24). Tank is sps dominated (all frags) and a few acan and chalice frags are in the shade here and there..
Front
1
2
3
4
5
6
Three plugs control as follows:
a = 1,3
b = 2,4
c = 5,6
I have three each of the AquaScience T5's on hand (Blue 22k, Special 15k, Duo)
Fixture is 12" above currently. What do you think as far as which bulbs to use and their placement/eventual timing cycle on each plug?
Thanks for any info..
Running a Fauna Marin Ultra Solaris 6x54 on a standard 120G (48x24x24). Tank is sps dominated (all frags) and a few acan and chalice frags are in the shade here and there..
Front
1
2
3
4
5
6
Three plugs control as follows:
a = 1,3
b = 2,4
c = 5,6
I have three each of the AquaScience T5's on hand (Blue 22k, Special 15k, Duo)
Fixture is 12" above currently. What do you think as far as which bulbs to use and their placement/eventual timing cycle on each plug?
Thanks for any info..
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
The wattage of the lamp is dependant on the length. 24" 24 watts, 36" 39 watts 48" 54 watts 60" 80 watts 72" 105 watts
Only way that changes is if you overdrive.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
Do this
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
I am assuming the light doesn't have good reflectors so I don't think the intensity will be too much.
The Grim Reefer
Ready for some NOBALL!!!
I'd drop the fixture down so it's about 6" above the tank. I don't know why they came up with that lame pairings for the lamps. Makes it hard to have a good balance with the lights.
Front
Duo
Blue
Special
Blue
Special
Duo
2&4 10~12 hours
1&3 8~10 hours
5&6 6~8 hours
If you are adventurous pull the top off and rewire the thing so the pairing is 1 & 6 2 & 4 3 & 5 and place the lamps like this
Duo
Blue
Special
Blue
Special
Duo
2 & 4 12 hours
1 & 6 8~10 hours
3 & 5 6~8 hours
You would only need to swap the wires from the endcaps for row 3 and row 6 to make that change You just need to shove a safety pin into the hole with the wire in the endcap and wiggle it a bit to release the wires.
Last edited:
stratos21ss
Premium Member
Agreed on the lack of 1,6...might have to try the above...that is a great idea..! Thanks as well for the bulb arranging info I will give it a shot.
TulsaReefer
New member
I posted this (by accident) as a new topic on this forum, but I really wanted to open up this discussion here, since it's pretty important relative to the discussion that goes on here about getting maximum PAR out of a set of T5 tubes.
Well some of my conceptions of PAR for different tubes were shattered last weekend when I went to a conference (CRASE) that Dr. Sanjay Joshi spoke at and he put up a few of his results from his T5 testing. I wasn't able to write down the info (bad pen) and taking a photo on a phone was useless, but one thing stuck out in my mind. His readings of the ATI Blue+ showed higher PAR than the UVL Aquasun. We spoke briefly on this and the theory is that since the Apogee meter reads Blue low, and Red/Yellow higher it may account for the difference in readings over the Licor meter. But it sure makes me wonder if my usage of "white tubes" to get higher PAR is really needed, and now I'm guessing that it's possible to keep the PAR high and use more blue style tubes...
I just reviewed the response curve for a Apogee meter, and it really under measures anything below about 460nm, and since a Blue+ tube output has a big spike at around 430, and then tapers down around 500 and has small spike again at around 550, I'm guessing that any readings we do with an Apogee meter will be significantly off, the peak at around 430 will be about 40% under represented by the Apogee. And the bulk of the output at around 450nm will also be under reported, by a smaller amount, but still a significant value. Take all this into account and I'm guessing that my notion of using something like an Aquasun to bring up PAR is probably wrong, I can more than likely use any of the Blue tubes get the color I want, and not really effect actual PAR readings in the end (actually they may go up by replacing an Aquasun with a Blue+).
So much for my view of the "whiter" tubes providing higher PAR than the more blue varieties... I guess I can rethink the whole thing. Not that it invalidates Apogee readings, just that we need to really take into account the blind spot the meter has in the blue and violet range. Makes me wonder what PAR an Actinic tube can provide when measured by a Licor meter?
Well some of my conceptions of PAR for different tubes were shattered last weekend when I went to a conference (CRASE) that Dr. Sanjay Joshi spoke at and he put up a few of his results from his T5 testing. I wasn't able to write down the info (bad pen) and taking a photo on a phone was useless, but one thing stuck out in my mind. His readings of the ATI Blue+ showed higher PAR than the UVL Aquasun. We spoke briefly on this and the theory is that since the Apogee meter reads Blue low, and Red/Yellow higher it may account for the difference in readings over the Licor meter. But it sure makes me wonder if my usage of "white tubes" to get higher PAR is really needed, and now I'm guessing that it's possible to keep the PAR high and use more blue style tubes...
I just reviewed the response curve for a Apogee meter, and it really under measures anything below about 460nm, and since a Blue+ tube output has a big spike at around 430, and then tapers down around 500 and has small spike again at around 550, I'm guessing that any readings we do with an Apogee meter will be significantly off, the peak at around 430 will be about 40% under represented by the Apogee. And the bulk of the output at around 450nm will also be under reported, by a smaller amount, but still a significant value. Take all this into account and I'm guessing that my notion of using something like an Aquasun to bring up PAR is probably wrong, I can more than likely use any of the Blue tubes get the color I want, and not really effect actual PAR readings in the end (actually they may go up by replacing an Aquasun with a Blue+).
So much for my view of the "whiter" tubes providing higher PAR than the more blue varieties... I guess I can rethink the whole thing. Not that it invalidates Apogee readings, just that we need to really take into account the blind spot the meter has in the blue and violet range. Makes me wonder what PAR an Actinic tube can provide when measured by a Licor meter?
I am setting up a new 90 - going from my old 55. I have T5 retrofit stuff on the way already, going to be 6 tubes eventually. I'd like to start with 2 and work my way up. Currently I have (4) 40W (normal output) flourescent lights on my 55. I keep only low-light stuff now, but would like to have the ability to keep more variety in the new tank.
I can take many of the suggestions in this thread for color mix, so I wont bother asking for a new suggestion here. But I was wondering- where does everyone buy these mixes of bulbs? What is the best source when you consider shipping - since the 48" tubes apparently go as oversize?
Suggestions appreciated.
I can take many of the suggestions in this thread for color mix, so I wont bother asking for a new suggestion here. But I was wondering- where does everyone buy these mixes of bulbs? What is the best source when you consider shipping - since the 48" tubes apparently go as oversize?
Suggestions appreciated.
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