The T5 Q&a Thread

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14078209#post14078209 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 96p993
Alright Im looking for some bulb recommendations for my 90 gallon tank...Im really looking for something between a 14K and 20K look (I like the bluer look) My tank is mainly going to be zoos with some LPS thrown in the mix. I am running a 6 bulb retro...Tank is 36*24*24 rimless.

Thanks

If the 14 to 20K look isnt the best for a heavy zoo population Im an more then open to suggestions

Try

Front
Blue Plus
Uvl Super Actinic
ATI Pro Color
Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
Blue Plus

You should have a kinda violet glow to the tank with those lamps. The Pro Color and 75/25 will add red to the blue as well as brighten it up. My Zoos look very cool with a set up running very close to that.

I dont like a really blue look so I ended up with this
Blue Plus
GE 6500K
Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
Blue Plus
Pro Color
Blue Plus

Ive pulled the fixture far enough forward to block the light from the GE and front Blue Plus and it looks kinda neat but a little too purple so adding a 3rd blue plus and a actinic should be the sweet spot. Even with the GE lamp I had some brown zoos develop red skirts, not stunning but decent enough that I would have kept them if I wasn't using the GE lamp. They glowed under the blue plus and 75/25 lamps

 

[jck9]

will this combo also bring out the reds and pinks in the aquarium as well? i also want to have the dawn/dusk effect. would the blue plus be the dawn/dusk bulbs? thanks
john

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14065732#post14065732 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus

Should get you pretty good looks and growth.

 

[CeeGee]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14078942#post14078942 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
YOU HAVE TO COOL IC 660 DRIVEN T5's.

Best way is a fan mounted on the rear of the canopy at each end so they blow air down the rows of endcaps at each side. You are trying to keep the ends of the lamps cooler.

YOU WILL KILL THE LAMPS FAST NOT USING FANS

If you don't think you can mount them like that post up some pic of different angles of the canopy and we'll come up with something. My personal preference is a hot blond with an ostrich feather fan and a bowl of peeled grapes.

It will probably be later tonight or tommorrow before I can get pics up. The fans will be tricky for sure. This canopy is complete junk and I already had to rig the crap out of it just to get the lights in it.

 

[Fireworm]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14078846#post14078846 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
6 overdriven should be fine on that tank. I would hope you wouldn't need to acclimate but watch your critters just in case and cut back on the light schedule if they looked stressed.

You migh consider at least to start using 4 T5's on the 660 and as long as you have the stuff try two VHO Super Actinics on a 430 or even 1 VHO Actinic and one T5 Blue Plus on the 430 ballast. You can mix lamps on the IC ballasts. I think I'd try the 1 VHO Actinic to start and see what you think

Front
VHO Actinic 430 ballast
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight or Giesemann Midday
ATI Blue Plus on 430 ballast.

Should be close the the overall look you have now, Blue but fairly bright. You might want to start out with the dusk/dawn on like 4 hours, then add in the other 4 lamps for 4 hours and then another 4 hours of dusk/dawn and increase it from there, Add an hour of the 4 lamps (Midday) a week until you are where you want to be with it. I'd say you would want to eventually run them at least 6 hours but no more than 10. I personally keep the dusk/dawn at at least 12 hours a day cause thats what they see in nature.

Thanks, I am sure I will be back with more questions as I get this up and runnning.

 

[ReefEnabler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14079128#post14079128 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Hate to break it to ya champ but when Sanjay did PAR testing on T5's using a spectrometer he found the Blue Plus had more PAR than the Aquasun so if you just want more PAR you'll just have to suffer with another Blue Plus

If you want to run 4 T5's I'd do the Pro Color. That will give you an interesting dusk/dawn with all the T5's running. Just a tad on the purple side of blue I'd say. Should look cool.

thanks! so I think I'll try 3 blueplus and a single procolor then.

probably put the procolor in the front of the tank so that the tank is more blue in the back. I want to exxagerate the natural color attenuation that happens in reefs, an attempt to make the tank look deeper than it actually is. kinda a gradient from daylight to super-blue with distance.

 

[cmsurfr22]

this thread needs to go into the guiness book of world records for the longest thread ever. i've read so many pages and i haven't come across the exact solution i'm looking for. i'm sure i've missed it though. so i apologize if this is a repeat question.

i have a 72"L x 24"W x 29"H AGA 210 with an AGA canopy that has a hinge 17 1/2" from the back and 5 3/4" of lamp mounting real estate on the hinged part. i think i'm going to go with 8 - 60" T5's

1. which reflectors do you recommend and where do i get them?
2. how should i mount the bulbs? staggered or inline right down the middle?
3. which fans do you recommend?
4. how many fans do you recommend for this lighting? 2 blowing back to front over the endcaps? any more or is this enough? if more where do i put those?
5. do you think i'll be able to keep clams on the bottom of my tank?

 

[jck9]

i need some suggestions on bulbs. i want a nice crisp blue looking tank with good flourescence but also want the reds and pinks to pop. i only will have 4 bulbs. grim suggested
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
i think it may be too blue and wash out the reds and not have much of a dusk/dawn effect. i was thinking
ati blue plus
ati pro color
ati aquablue
ati blue plus
its not much different but think the procolor might help the reds and pinks
do the blue plus bulbs make good dusk/dawn bulbs? when you say aqua blue do you mean aqua blue plus 11000k or aqua blue special 12000k
what do you think. all suggestions are appreciated. i will only be keeping lps and a couple softies (zoas and s hrooms)

 

[Icefire]

Currently got 4x 54w with 30" reflectors and 3x 39w without reflector, runnin on Workhorse ballast.

Current bulb:

3x blue plus 3 aquablue+ 1 super actinic

I have a 30" high tank (110G)

Would I be best to go with 6x 54w with reflector?

I would say coral grow is low, I lost all sps, almost all LPS because my bulb were covered by a thin saltspray layer.
Cleaned all of it and some LPS are growing back, anemone look good now.

 

[Todd March]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14075525#post14075525 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MIIKE
I just want to say thanks for all the help so far.

I do need a little more help from the light wizards , while searching many online suppliers I have noticed that there aren't many of them that carry the ATI or KZ brand of T-5 bulbs, however just about all of them carry the Giesemann brand.

I have a list of ATI & KZ bulbs listed below this is the type/color of bulb I want to go with from front to back, could you all please help out and tell me which Giesemann bulbs I could use to get an exact color match to the ATI bulbs.

FRONT
ATI - Blue Plus
KZ- Fiji Purple
ATI - Aqua Blue Special
ATI - Blue Plus
ATI - Aqua Blue Special
ATI - Blue Plus

Sorry for so many odd ball questions, I would like to make one large supply order for all of my tank supplies and the Giesemann bulbs give me many suppliers to choose from.

Thanks

Giesemann's blue bulb is called the Actinic+. It's a little tiny bit dimmer than the Blue+, but looks the same...

Giesemann's Aquablue Special contender is the Aquablue Plus. Grim might be able to tell you how it measures up to the AB Special (I have never seen one), but going by the spectral graphs, it looks pretty darn close to the AB Special...

I like your bulb selection a lot. Similar to what I am running, and great for colors. I would try to place the Fiji more toward the center, however, so it's spread can be wide and far (unless you plan to keep a lot of purple, pink and red corals near the front of your tank).

 

[spleen93]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14080571#post14080571 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jck9
i need some suggestions on bulbs. i want a nice crisp blue looking tank with good flourescence but also want the reds and pinks to pop. i only will have 4 bulbs. grim suggested
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
i think it may be too blue and wash out the reds and not have much of a dusk/dawn effect. i was thinking
ati blue plus
ati pro color
ati aquablue
ati blue plus
its not much different but think the procolor might help the reds and pinks
do the blue plus bulbs make good dusk/dawn bulbs? when you say aqua blue do you mean aqua blue plus 11000k or aqua blue special 12000k
what do you think. all suggestions are appreciated. i will only be keeping lps and a couple softies (zoas and s hrooms)

The procolor may be too red for a mix with 4 bulbs. It may look too yellow/reddish to you though as always, there's a personal preference. Grim's recommendation sounds like a good balance to add some red (from the UVL 75/25) balanced with the blue. Blue plus make great dusk/dawn bulbs though the best effect is achieved with a mix of actinic and blue plus. The blue plus we're talking about it is the ATI Blue Plus bulb, so neither of those bulbs that you mentioned. The Giesemann Actinic Plus would be the equivalent (as Todd just mentioned). For the Aquablue, the ATI Aquablue Special (which is the typical bulb that we're talking about for the aquablue) or the Giesemann Aquablue Plus would be equivalent.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14079524#post14079524 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jck9
will this combo also bring out the reds and pinks in the aquarium as well? i also want to have the dawn/dusk effect. would the blue plus be the dawn/dusk bulbs? thanks
john

The UVL does a pretty good job of bringing out the pink and purple. It has just a hint of a purple tint to it. The Blue Pluses will be the dusk/dawn.

 

[deeemaa]

hello everyone! have a question for the experts here! i recently obtained a 90g tank 48wx24tx18d. i plan on keeping some sps and clams in the future. would a 8x54 setup be sufficient? even with keeping montis, sps and clams...etc midlevel and up? thanks!

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14080554#post14080554 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cmsurfr22
this thread needs to go into the guiness book of world records for the longest thread ever. i've read so many pages and i haven't come across the exact solution i'm looking for. i'm sure i've missed it though. so i apologize if this is a repeat question.

i have a 72"L x 24"W x 29"H AGA 210 with an AGA canopy that has a hinge 17 1/2" from the back and 5 3/4" of lamp mounting real estate on the hinged part. i think i'm going to go with 8 - 60" T5's

1. which reflectors do you recommend and where do i get them?
2. how should i mount the bulbs? staggered or inline right down the middle?
3. which fans do you recommend?
4. how many fans do you recommend for this lighting? 2 blowing back to front over the endcaps? any more or is this enough? if more where do i put those?
5. do you think i'll be able to keep clams on the bottom of my tank?

Reefgeek brand from reefgeek.com. You may have to call about them. Don't think they are on the website yet.

2 Depends. If you mount them right down the centers the upper edge at each side will be slightly darker but I think that looks cool. You just have to not place high light corals in the last 6 or 7 inches at each side. If you stagger them you can place moderate light stuff the last 10 inches or so on each side.

3 I really don't. Can't go wrong with the Ice Caps, probably the 4" version for 8 lamps. As long as they aren't low speed about any fans will work, 3 or 4 inches.

4 2 Fans. One at each end placed so in blows in in from the back so the main air stream runs down the row of endcaps on each side. You want to cool the lamp ends. Pointing a fan directly at the center part of a lamp will over cool it and cut down the perfrmance

5. Yes, Just stick with good lamps (ATI Giesemann GE Daylights etc,) and replace them by 12 months and you should be good.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14080571#post14080571 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jck9
i need some suggestions on bulbs. i want a nice crisp blue looking tank with good flourescence but also want the reds and pinks to pop. i only will have 4 bulbs. grim suggested
ATI Blue Plus
UVL 75/25
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus
i think it may be too blue and wash out the reds and not have much of a dusk/dawn effect. i was thinking
ati blue plus
ati pro color
ati aquablue
ati blue plus
its not much different but think the procolor might help the reds and pinks
do the blue plus bulbs make good dusk/dawn bulbs? when you say aqua blue do you mean aqua blue plus 11000k or aqua blue special 12000k
what do you think. all suggestions are appreciated. i will only be keeping lps and a couple softies (zoas and s hrooms)

Aquablue 11000K whatever they call it. 75/25 adds a little red. Pro Color adds a LOT of red.

Perhaps others can chime in and offer an opinion on running a Pro Color with 4 other lamps.

Blue Plus fluoresce corals nice. They are a great dusk/dawn lamp.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14081118#post14081118 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Icefire
Currently got 4x 54w with 30" reflectors and 3x 39w without reflector, runnin on Workhorse ballast.

Current bulb:

3x blue plus 3 aquablue+ 1 super actinic

I have a 30" high tank (110G)

Would I be best to go with 6x 54w with reflector?

I would say coral grow is low, I lost all sps, almost all LPS because my bulb were covered by a thin saltspray layer.
Cleaned all of it and some LPS are growing back, anemone look good now.

Yes all your lamps should have reflectors. If you cant raise them high enough to keep the spray off them you might try adjusting your waterflow so if isn't stirring the surface up so bad. Usually if the lamps are at least 4" above the water you dont get much salt spray. If all else fails just wipe down the lamps and reflectors every few days with RO water.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14082030#post14082030 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by deeemaa
hello everyone! have a question for the experts here! i recently obtained a 90g tank 48wx24tx18d. i plan on keeping some sps and clams in the future. would a 8x54 setup be sufficient? even with keeping montis, sps and clams...etc midlevel and up? thanks!

Get a good 6 or 7 lamp fixture

Aquactinics Constellation

ATI Power Module

ATI Sunpower (Coming soon)

A tek fixture would work but you wouldn't want to try Maxima or Crocea clams in the bottom of the tank with it.

 

[deeemaa]

would the newer nova extreme with newer model that has the single reflectors be a good budget choice?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14082081#post14082081 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Get a good 6 or 7 lamp fixture

Aquactinics Constellation

ATI Power Module

ATI Sunpower (Coming soon)

A tek fixture would work but you wouldn't want to try Maxima or Crocea clams in the bottom of the tank with it.

 

[sonapl]

Hi all, I have read quite of few of these posts and there are so many options I thought it would be more beneficial (to me) if I could just ask your opinion on what bulbs I should use. Currently I have a 4 bulb nova fixure, but I have just gotten a new 6 bulb Tek light with the front & rear slots on one switch and the 4 middle ones on another switch.

From the bulbs I have could you give your opinion on what configuration would give me a slight blue look, good growth and make the colors pop.


I have the following bulbs:
ATI - Blue Plus
Gies - Aqua Blue
Gies - Aqua Blue
Gies - Pure Actinic
Gies - Pure Actinic
UVL - Aqua Sun
UVL - Aqua Sun
UVL - Aqua Sun
UVL - Actinic White
UVL - Super Actinic
Current - 10K
Current - 10K

Thanks in advance... LP

 

[tim10]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Which tubes

Re: Re: Re: Re: Which tubes

Hi Grim thanks for the advice i have ordered the tubes this morning, one thing, i have ordered the ati atinic in place of the super atinic, as i could not find a suppiler here in the Uk. Will this be ok?
So i have ordered :all 54w

Front
AtiBlue plus
Ati Atinic
Halide 14K 2x 150w
Ati Pro colour
Ati Blue plus

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14078997#post14078997 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
The Aquablue is really thrown in to brighten up the look when just running T5's. Dusk/dawn looks best with a Blue Plus and Actinic. You could use a Blue Plus instead of the Aquablue if you don't mind the more subdued look. It will be cool too. I'd definatly definatly do the pro Color in the mix. That adds some red in that will not only make things look a lot nicer with just the T5's running, it will help with the halides too. You actually could use the UVL 75/25 instead. Its a white looking 75% Actinic/25% daylight lamp that adds slightly less red. If you have any pink corals in the tank running a lot of blue spectrum without adding some red makes the pink look grey.

Front
Blue Plus
Super Actinic
Halide
Pro Color or 75/25 or even Fiji Purple
Blue Plus

 

[The Grim Reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14082093#post14082093 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by deeemaa
would the newer nova extreme with newer model that has the single reflectors be a good budget choice?

No, There is a difference between bent aluminum and real reflectors. The Nova Pro is better than the old version but still is a large step behind the Tek.