WHat T5's to get?

A

andywe

New member
Ok something not election related and fun..:D

I am ripping out the 2 96w PC actinincs from my 6' Aqualight elite and replacing them with 4 39w T5 HO's....I am gonna get my SPS growing right!

The fixture has 3x250 Reeflux 20K MH. Those will remain and the T5's are supplemental light.

I really love the Geismann actinic plus...so the question is this:

Do I get 4 Actinic plus, or am I going to be better off with 2 actinic plus and 2 aquablue plus? Also, if split, then do I run the Actinics in the front set of the fixture or back set?
 
Andy Im leaning towards 2actinic plus & 2 aquablue plus. How do you think this would look aquablue,actinic,actinic,aquablue--- or do it the same way but switch the bulbs around. Andy, Id also consider switching 1 set of the actinic for a fiji purple.

Speaking of T5s Im needing 8 39w T5s myself.
 
I would throw in one of the fiji purples to help bring out the purples and red colors in your tank. I love that bulb. Also the bulbs matter but stability with parameters is the biggest issue to make the SPS take off.
 
As no expert at all, I would say that I don't think swapping PC's for T5's would make much difference. As Rhett said, stability and parameters are the biggest issue. Brandon has a nano at work that has SPS growing like weeds with no actinic at all, just one MH. I think your MH will be the most important factor after water quality.
 
I would go with 2 actinic plus and 2 aquablue plus cause you already have 3 20k which is pretty blue as is... You dont want it to be TOO blue and also lose some growth. Put those suckers up front to make all the colors look great.

Post pics when you get it running.
 
II neglected to state that it is 2 bulbsside by side behind the mh, and 2 side by side in front. It's a 6' light so have to use two 3 foot bulbs to cover the tank evenly.

I may add a third set of the fiji if room allows as my ballasts will run 3 39w per :-)
 
I run 2x250 10k and 4 T5's. fiji,aqua blue +,super actinic r,and 03 actinic. I get a great 14k look but 10k grow.. love it.
 
Nice zach!!

Definately more than I amspending on this, and I want a 120v solution to utilize existing wiring. I am retrofitting a fixture so have a few constraints. It's an awesome fixture though so this only increases it's value.
 
andywe said:
Nice zach!!

Definately more than I amspending on this, and I want a 120v solution to utilize existing wiring. I am retrofitting a fixture so have a few constraints. It's an awesome fixture though so this only increases it's value.
Click to expand...

Thanks - Brandon made me ship it to the office :lol:

You do have a nice fixture. PC's are pretty much crap though and too expensive anyhow, T5's are definitely the way to go if you don't want to get the LED's. The T5's will definitely pimp that fixture.

I'm going the canopy route with Lumen Max 3 pendants, and starting with one of those LED's to see how the colors are, perhaps 2 if I really like it or feel 2 would be appropriate.
 
MH+T5 is my fav combo, all the shimmer and intensity you want with the flexability of tinkering with color. If you are not worried about intensity (as I imagine you are not with 3 MH Bulbs already, you could go with 4 actinics. I think the big draw to the aqua blue plus (awesome lamp) is the blue color and the excellent par out of a blue lamp. Since you have all the intensity you need and a 20k color might as well go all actinic. If you switched to 14ks or 10ks on your MH then I would definatly use a "blue" actinic like the Blue plus to balance color.
 
Andy this is how I decided to go. You may like this as well.
* *
*

2 KZ Fiji Purple High Output
T5 Lamps by Korallen Zucht

4 ATI Blue Plus + T5 HO

2 KZ Coral Light Super Blue
460nm High Output T5
Lamps by Korallen Zucht



*
 
Personally, I cannot emphasize how much the ATI Blue Plus bulbs ROCK! I love those bulbs!

I'd like to try a Fiji purple, too, but just haven't yet. When I got my fixtures, those had just come out.

And Andy, you CANNOT go wrong with the LEDs! Those ReefBrite LED fixtures look as good, if not better than ATI BluePlus bulbs and have twice the par. ;)

Brandon
 
Brandon,

I agree LED are a great thing, however there has been alotof inconsistency in ouput,power consumption, and stability (nodes going bad) that I want to wait a little while longer before spending the several thousand it would take on my 180 to convert it.

I already have plenty of light with my MHZ, and the T5 allows me to try different combinations to see what I like as I do plan on building a bigger tank in the near future.
 
Sorry, Andy, I meant to put for actinic supplementation, LEDs are nice. :)

Personally, my goal for my next tank is a 120g with 2x250w Phoenix 14k's and LED supplementation (although I'm not sure if I'll be doing DIY or aftermarket just yet).

As far as for an entire 180g, I cannot imagine DIYing a solution for that and the only aftermarket solution I would trust would be AquaIllumination, but those things are $700 per 2ft of tank. WAY too much. :)

Brandon
 
Oh LOL ok...I thought you meant the whole tank....

I am planning for my jbj24 with the hood to replace the PC lights with 2 panoramic 50/50's and a stunner actinic blue..be about 250-300 bucks...but I need to desing the power source first. I am seeing if there is a dimmabel 24vdc power supply that inouts 0-10vdc dimming control to run it on an ALC. I know there is one out there...I jsut haven't had time to engineer it yet.
 
What are panoramic 50/50's? Are these the new 20" T5HOs?

One beautiful thing about DIY'ing LEDs is that you can get LED drivers that accept 0-10vdc off of the ALC, which is my plan for my office tank. :) I may even play around with an orange LED for sunset/sunrise... :lol: Just for the fun of it, though.

Brandon
 
Panoramic's are the Ecoexotics LED strips. Chris had them at the swap. the have the Panoramic module and the stunner accent modules. Pricing was attractive and output was very good. Check them out.
 
Oh, ok, gotcha.

If you're looking for a dimmable LED driver, check out the Meanwell drivers and the BuckPuck drivers. They both have models that have 0-10v inputs.

You may be better off doing DIY, if you're up to it. I'm not sure what the ecoexotics use, but the Cree 3w LEDs are where its at. ;)

Brandon
 
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