Who all has success with T5HO....

[VandyTime]

with alot of sps? I have seen a lot of nice sps tanks on RC with t5 lighting, but wanted a more local opinion. Pics would be nice with tank size and type of lights.Thanks

 

[AdrianBryce]

i think wayne did a side by side comparison of sorts witha atank with T5 and MH on two tanks on the same system and he told me it was virtually the same. maybe he will chime in on this.

 

[DMBillies]

All I have ever used are T5's and I've been keeping mostly SPS for quite some time. Looking at MH vs. T5, I have to admit that I think MH tends to look a little better if for no other reason than the shimmer lines. It also appears (very subjectively) that the cooler colors of the spectrum pop a little bit more (blues, greens) and that T5's tend to have better reds/yellows. My favorite color is blue followed by green...

That said, the type of bulb/ballast combo, the actual brand/type of bulb, and the age of the bulb (the spectrum output of the bulbs certainly does change over time regardless of the bulb type you pick) all have an effect on the apparent color of the light over your tank... so it is quite possible that the differences I've noticed are simply due to different choices.

And... I will say that there is a lot more variability within MH or T5 groups than there really is between them. An amateur who doesn't do his research on other parts of the tank but has the best lighting in the world is not going to magically grow a great reef.

Both bulb types can certainly be set-up in a way that provides WAY too much light for the tank and both can be set-up in a way that doesn't provide enough. If you get good reflectors for T5's, you can grow a beautiful reef... the TOTM's prove that.

 

[zef004]

I had great success with a 8xt5 tek light on a 75 gal. It's all up to you on what color combo you put on. I like the fiji purple and pro color mix. Made all thecolor pop. Just your going to need put sps up high in your tank. Below 10" from the waterline. Here's some pic.

 

[sandalscout]

i think wayne did a side by side comparison of sorts witha atank with T5 and MH on two tanks on the same system and he told me it was virtually the same. maybe he will chime in on this.

I actually asked to Wayne about this recently, as I'm still debating between t5s (which I know and love) and MHs on my next tank, and he stated that he saw more more encrusting on the t5 tank than with the MHs during the same amount of time. I'm not sure of the specifics (wattage, height, color range, etc).

 

[DMBillies]

Just your going to need put sps up high in your tank. Below 10" from the waterline. Here's some pic.

This is worth discussing a bit. According to Sanjay at the last frag swap, light travelling through water losses a negligible amount of PAR in comparison to light travelling through air and the loss of light at the surface of the water is also negligible as long as the light is hitting the surface at a steep enough angle (the light is generally hitting the tank at an almost 90 degree angle because they are right above the water surface). This is why Sanjay does all of his testing in air.

The farther you get from a light source, the more the PAR is dispersed, so it is 100% correct that light loving SPS are going to need to be toward the top of most tanks so that you can keep your lower light corals at the bottom.

Now, one major advantage to T5's, if you have waterproof endcaps, is the ability to put them very close to the surface of the tank without super-heating the water. This cuts down the distance the light has to travel into your tank. If you can lower them by 8" in comparison to a similar MH set-up, you are getting a very high amount of additional PAR that will penetrate 8" farther into the tank. This is a worthwhile thing to do since it could save you a running an additional set of bulbs or could get you to grow SPS on the bottom of a taller tank where you couldn't otherwise.

In the center of my 270 we had 8 overlapping T5's running in the middle of the tank (the tank is 7' and we started with 4x5' T5 retros on each end so they overlapped by 3' in the middle and made an 8 light bank in the middle portion). We made a "cart" that flipped up and down with our light rig on it that put the lights a maximum of 4" above the surface of the water. In the center of the tank I could grow my lower-light SPS (e.g., Evil Mel's Mille) at the bottom of that tank and it is a 30" deep tank. It was bright enough to slightly bleach out a moon coral. Now, raise that same light set-up by 8" where a MH set-up might comfortably sit, and there's no way I could get that stuff to grow without without a very high watt MH or adding at least another set of T5's (which I did not have the space for).

The point I'm making is that light is light. T5's do not emit quite as much light as a point source as MH's do, but they do not emit as much heat either. In both cases, light spreads out and provides less PAR the farther you get from the source. And... as I said in my original post... in both cases you can get plenty of light into a tank to totally scorch out the corals at the top regardless of what you choose.

IMO opinion, considering the savings you can reap with T5's especially by getting them low over your tank and being able to slowly rotate bulbs through your line-up, I don't see the huge benefit to halides. And I'm not just talking a straight-up watt-to-watt comparison. I am adding in the cooling of your tank and your house accordingly. With that said, I'm a graduate student and I could make more money in a year working the grill at McDonald's, so in order for me to take part at all in a hobby like this I need to cut corners. Considering the way the cost of electricity is going up, I've been more than happy with my choices.

 

[waynesworld]

Well I have used T5 and MH and would recommend T5 to almost everyone. I think the benefits out weigh the a few neg. The t5 lakes some shimmer. That is the downside. I have been able to grow everything with both I have tried both in shallow frag tanks and also my 240 deep toward the bottom. The thing about t5 is you can change the combination of bulbs easier to get the color you want you also pay less per bulb and as a total for the whole setup. As I told someone if you pay $100 for one MH bulb and $80 for 4 T5 what is the chance that all 4 will go out vrs the one MH? I know I have had 3-4 bulbs go out on the MH side and only 2 T5. One of the MH the outer case broke and burned the coral that it shined on killing some good coral. I thought that was a freak accident until I talked to someone else. Then we could talk heat and power consumption. But you can research that on your own. I did do that study on a reduced time frame because of taking some things out and there was little difference of the two but the T5 did look like it was encrusting more on the base? not sure why but the upward growth was not measurable by my ruler

 

[VandyTime]

I wonder if a few clear LED's would add the shimmer? Surely someone around here has played with a clear LED bar. ?

 

[sandalscout]

I wonder if a few clear LED's would add the shimmer? Surely someone around here has played with a clear LED bar. ?

I remember reading up one some stuff about this a while back, but basically, it was decided that in order to get shimmer, you had to have more output from the point light (LEDs) than from the fluorescent lights. In order to do this cheaply, you were shifting the light into a spectrum that nuisance algae loved, and affecting color balance big time.

 

[ai-reefer]

This is a 210g tank with only T5's, absolutely amazing

2x54 Watt ATI Aquablue Special
2x54 Watt ATI Blue Plus
4x80 Watt ATI Aquablue Special
4x80 Watt ATI Blue Plus

 

[MVlk]

Everyone has stated a lot of good points already so I'll keep my 2 cents short. I loved my Nova Extreme Pro fixture on my old 125 setup. Great bulb choices available to get whatever color you want. If you do not like the color, you can likely swap one or two cheaper T5 bulbs instead of a more expensive single mh bulb. In the few months I kept SPS before breaking it down, I saw good growth. I had my SPS in the top half of the tank.

 

[sandalscout]

ai-reefer, THANK YOU for posting his bulb combo, I saw the picture in the other thread and was trying to figure out what lighting he was running from his site, but I don't know German!

 

[NeveSSL]

I have T5s and have had great success with them with clams and SPS. I do have to say, though, I prefer the look of MH. I have long defended T5s, and my T5s don't look bad, I just love the way MH looks now that I have one on my nano. At the same time, on big tanks up to about 120 or maybe 180 gallons T5s are great. Beyond that, you almost have to start using MH's due to depth and length limits of T5s... they become inefficient at that point.

Brandon