Who in Tampa area uses T 5 only (SPS)
- Thread starter reefrubble
- Start date
mattliu
Member
i have ran halides in the past on acros. now i run t5s for my LPS, mushrooms and what ever else doesn't require expensive powerheads, skimmers, chillers, daily sock changes, frequent water changes, zero phosphates, zero nitrates and truly intense lighting.
i'm a give fan of T5 for my application.
if i decide to grow acros again, there will be halides on there.
just think of it like this. put most walt smith fiji acros under a 400 watt halide and you will see dull colors. 400 still isn't intense and a broad enough spectrum to duplicate the extra red spectrum and even more intense blue spectrum of the shallow water environment.
same applies to the bali maricultured that color up nice under halides. we can barely give them the intensity of a dirty lagoon. plus you notice there's only certain species they commonly culture.
now put those maricultured acros or ORA for that matter under T5 and they become light deprived.
All i'm saying: If people are going to go through all the painstaking effort to care for the genus Acropora, why not give them what they want: intense lighting.
i'm a give fan of T5 for my application.
if i decide to grow acros again, there will be halides on there.
just think of it like this. put most walt smith fiji acros under a 400 watt halide and you will see dull colors. 400 still isn't intense and a broad enough spectrum to duplicate the extra red spectrum and even more intense blue spectrum of the shallow water environment.
same applies to the bali maricultured that color up nice under halides. we can barely give them the intensity of a dirty lagoon. plus you notice there's only certain species they commonly culture.
now put those maricultured acros or ORA for that matter under T5 and they become light deprived.
All i'm saying: If people are going to go through all the painstaking effort to care for the genus Acropora, why not give them what they want: intense lighting.
W Ellis
Premium Member
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-07/totm/index.php
Enough said!
Enough said!
Emster
New member
^ thats an incredible tank and probably my favorite TOTM but I also want to note that those corals were grown under Halides and then switched to T-5's. Iwan's tank was grown under halide too if my memory serves. Halides and t-5's are both great. My opinion is if you want fast growth go with halides if you want best color go with t-5's but its very hard to get it right with the t-5's too much and you fry the corals to little and they don't grow. Don't even try to use the stock t-5 bulbs in some of these fixtures sold they are total junk and will bleach corals. My next tank will have halides, just my opinion.
W Ellis
Premium Member
Yes his tank started off with halides, but just like halides if you want more growth you run a lower kelvin bulb and if you want more color you run a higher kelvin bulb. Even with halides there isnt the perfect bulb to get both. He is only running 3 white bulbs and the rest are blue or purple. There are so many bulb choices for T5 applications you can fine tune to get the color or growth you are looking for.
If you do not overdrive the bulbs you can get about 12 months out of a bulb. If you compare bulb prices T5s are equal or cheaper. Electricity comsumption would be lower on a T5 tank and PAR would be similar.
If you do not overdrive the bulbs you can get about 12 months out of a bulb. If you compare bulb prices T5s are equal or cheaper. Electricity comsumption would be lower on a T5 tank and PAR would be similar.
W Ellis
Premium Member
How many people do the exact same thing with halides?
There is no need for that long of a light cycle. It you were to run halides at the same light cycle you would be replacing bulbs just as often as T5s.
On his tank dimensions most people would run 3x 250w or 2x 400w plus VHOs. Either way you are looking at around 1000w of lighting with a halide setup. Even just running 2x 250w you are still around 800w with VHOs.
I run T-5s only in a couple of areas with SPSs, I like them, although growth is a little bit of a problem....... I have corals growing out of the top of the tank, attaching to the top center brace and in other tanks they are all growing together in to one big tangled mess. I get good color but some corals under the 4 and 5 year old bulbs are starting to loose some of their color. I probalbly should change out some of my original older bulbs.
reefrubble
Premium Member
bgdiving , Got any pics of your D.T. ?
About that tank of the month posted belonging to szymon it really isn't comparable to what ted asked. He is talking about the lighting when in all honesty lighting has very little to do with why his tank looks so good. If you read what he is doing you will see all the extra money you need to spend to make your tank look like that. Aminos and bacteria and carbon source and all the many other things this guy is doing. I do some of this stuff myself from time to time but haven't gotten it down exactly yet. szymon could probably make his tank look like this with a flash light. (exagerated) He just has the ability to make a beautiful tank.
reeferfriendly
New member
halides are alot like brett farve at one time they were great but its time to move on to better things now
reeferfriendly
New member
ya him my tank has looked better but when i started staying at GF house i admit i slacked a little since it was a drive to my tank from her house but its getting back into shape now other then a few aptasia and needing new bulbs its looking alot better again but its a halide tank anyway the T5 tanks are 75 g GF tank and it looks great i will post a few pics this week though she is gonna get her dads camera no promises on the quality neither of us are photographers by a long shot since this thread started i have finished setting up a 120 at her house now for me it is also a T5 tank and is going thru cycle ATM i will post pics of it as well the lights on it are nice color is 2x giesemann power chrome actinic+ , 2x UVL 75/25 , 1x arcadia marine white 9500 and 1x arcadia marine white 14000
reeferfriendly
New member
i talk fine but my typing sucks bad sorry im so slow at it
