Trying to decide between Reef Geek's 4x54 watts powered by an Icecap 660 (overdirven) or their standard 4x54 watts standard driven retro kit for actinic supplementation. Currently running 2x150 watt 10k HQI PFO pendants and 4x110 watt VHO super actinic R's on a 4Lx24Hx30D Tank. Mostly SPS and zoa's. The rep at Reef Geek recomended 3 ATI blue plus with one ATI actinic to get the look I want. Currently the tank looks to white even with 4 VHO actinics due to the light being reflected back to the ceiling. I'm not getting the colors I want from the corals with my current set-up. Also I have a 6" sand bed, and most of my SPS are only 12-15" from the surface of the water. Would the standard kit do the job or do I need to overdrive with the 660 icecap?
Which T5 Kit to get....HELP
- Thread starter dobber99
- Start date
With dual 150 watt halides you shouldnt need to overdrive 4 T5's to color up the halides unless, maybe, you are using higher par halides like 6500K's or a 10000K with a strong yellow tint and you want to really, really blue up the halides. If you are using halides that give off a white/blue or pure white or even a slight yellow tint, then 4 T5's at regular HO wattage (not overdriven) should be fine to achieve a noticeable blue tint.
I ran an Outer Orbit dual 150 watt HQI + 4 T5 and was able to blue up the stock 10000K which has a yellow and easily blue up an AB 10000K which was pretty much neutral white. With T5's under good individual reflectors the T5's would have more of an influence than the T5's in the Outer Orbit.
So, if you are trying to get a super blue look with a white/yellowish halides, you may need to overdrive. But if you are just looking for a noticeable blue, you shouldnt have to overdrive. Also, dual 150 watt halides and 4 T5's at 54 watts should be plenty of light without needing to overdrive.
BTW ... the Blue T5's (like ATI Blue +) go a lot further than the actinic T5's toward bluing the halides.
You may also want to consider keeping two of the VHO actinics and then adding two T5's and running them all on your Icecap 660 ballast. You can mix and match like that. Most people prefer the VHO super actinic to the T5 actinic. You would have the best of both worlds. You could run two ATI Blue + T5's along with two VHO super actinics. You could always switch the last two VHO actinics for T5's and overdrive all 4 T5's if you were not happy with the amount of color. If you werent getting enough blue color with two overdriven T5's plus two VHO actinics, you would probably need the 4 T5's to be overdriven anyway.
BTW, are you using the UVL Super Actinics with the internal reflectors? You mention lighting up the ceiling with the actinics. The UVL Super Actinics with 180 degree internal reflector still may light up the walls a little bit but they shouldnt light up the ceiling.
I ran an Outer Orbit dual 150 watt HQI + 4 T5 and was able to blue up the stock 10000K which has a yellow and easily blue up an AB 10000K which was pretty much neutral white. With T5's under good individual reflectors the T5's would have more of an influence than the T5's in the Outer Orbit.
So, if you are trying to get a super blue look with a white/yellowish halides, you may need to overdrive. But if you are just looking for a noticeable blue, you shouldnt have to overdrive. Also, dual 150 watt halides and 4 T5's at 54 watts should be plenty of light without needing to overdrive.
BTW ... the Blue T5's (like ATI Blue +) go a lot further than the actinic T5's toward bluing the halides.
You may also want to consider keeping two of the VHO actinics and then adding two T5's and running them all on your Icecap 660 ballast. You can mix and match like that. Most people prefer the VHO super actinic to the T5 actinic. You would have the best of both worlds. You could run two ATI Blue + T5's along with two VHO super actinics. You could always switch the last two VHO actinics for T5's and overdrive all 4 T5's if you were not happy with the amount of color. If you werent getting enough blue color with two overdriven T5's plus two VHO actinics, you would probably need the 4 T5's to be overdriven anyway.
BTW, are you using the UVL Super Actinics with the internal reflectors? You mention lighting up the ceiling with the actinics. The UVL Super Actinics with 180 degree internal reflector still may light up the walls a little bit but they shouldnt light up the ceiling.
I'm using URI's with internal reflector. I like your suggestion using T5 with VHO, but I want to take advantage of the reflector. I have not used T5 before, but I have used power compacts. Are power compact actinics similar to T5's. You mentioned "some people did not like the T5 actinics". Should I go with 4 blue plus bulbs instead of 3 blue + and 1 actinic? My current lights do not color up my sps the way I would like. I have some old 14K hqi which color up the sps nicely, but I loose a lot of PAR. I want the par, color and efficiency. If that's possible
It's not that T5 actinic is bad, it's that VHO actinic is better by the opinions of many who have used both. Never impressed by PC actinic so I would consider T5 actinic superior to it.
The T5 actinic with a T5 reflector will get more actinic into the tank than VHO. It's just that many feel that VHO actinic is a better color. My rack is set up to run either VHO actinic or T5 actinic ... both on the icecap ballast. After running both, I went with the overdriven T5 actinic. The amount of light getting into the tank was easily superior with the T5 actinic so I chose the T5 output over the better color of the VHO. And personally, I think that overdriven T5 actinic is pretty good.
If you overdrive 4 T5's along with the two halides, even 14K halides, you will likely have enough light. But you may not want all those blue T5's if you run a bluer halide.
Blue + have signifigantly higher par than actinic. The highest output actinic T5 is the UVL (URI). Personally, I would want to have atleast one actinic in the mix but you dont have to. Seeing how you want some blue and the par, I would probably run 4 overdriven blue (with an actinic thrown in if you want) T5's and 10K halides. You should be able to blue the 10K it up plenty and the par will be higher with the 10K halides than with a bluer bulb.
The T5 actinic with a T5 reflector will get more actinic into the tank than VHO. It's just that many feel that VHO actinic is a better color. My rack is set up to run either VHO actinic or T5 actinic ... both on the icecap ballast. After running both, I went with the overdriven T5 actinic. The amount of light getting into the tank was easily superior with the T5 actinic so I chose the T5 output over the better color of the VHO. And personally, I think that overdriven T5 actinic is pretty good.
If you overdrive 4 T5's along with the two halides, even 14K halides, you will likely have enough light. But you may not want all those blue T5's if you run a bluer halide.
Blue + have signifigantly higher par than actinic. The highest output actinic T5 is the UVL (URI). Personally, I would want to have atleast one actinic in the mix but you dont have to. Seeing how you want some blue and the par, I would probably run 4 overdriven blue (with an actinic thrown in if you want) T5's and 10K halides. You should be able to blue the 10K it up plenty and the par will be higher with the 10K halides than with a bluer bulb.
Yes, the Giesemann Actinic plus but it doesnt have the par of the ATI. Still good bulbs.
DIY reef also has the ATI bulbs as do numerous other sellers. But I understand that doesnt help if you are buying the package from Reef Geek. I think that UVL may have a blue bulb now as well but I'm not sure. They had just the 3, Aqua Sun, Super Actinic and Actinic White but I thought they added a blue. If the did I dont know the particulars.
DIY reef also has the ATI bulbs as do numerous other sellers. But I understand that doesnt help if you are buying the package from Reef Geek. I think that UVL may have a blue bulb now as well but I'm not sure. They had just the 3, Aqua Sun, Super Actinic and Actinic White but I thought they added a blue. If the did I dont know the particulars.
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