The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[warnutts]

Originally Posted by Michigan Mike

They don't spill much light from the ends IMO, I wouldn't worry about it..but if you really have a issue with it I would do some research and see them yourself if possible. I'm using a 24" fixture over a 30" tank and its great, I'm sure a 36" fixture would work on a 48" tank but the 48" fixtures are so nice...especially for SPS tanks...full coverage!

thanks mike how many inches off the water do you think i should hang the fixture? I still want to keep low light corals on the sand bed

[caustin]

Sorry, double post.

[caustin]

Alright, I would appreciate any advice people can give me as I am brand new to saltwater tanks. I picked up a used 37 gallon tank a couple weeks back that came with two 30" coralife t5 units. I That I believe are 31w or 18w per bulb. I think this depends on whether HO bulbs are used and obviously I'd like to start growing corals, currently it has 3 10,000K bulbs and one actnic bulb. I am assuming that this will be enough light to grow most corals, but I want to check. My vision is zoos covering most of the rock with some stony corals intermittent and a couple of soft corals for movement at both the top and the bottom.

From what I have seen I should be looking at two of the actnic bulbs and two of the blue plus. Or one actnic, two blue plus, and one purple bulb. I just want to make sure that this will be able to support good light throughout the entire depth of the tank which is about 20" after my substrate, with the lights sitting about 2" about the top of the tank. I'm also working on a diy led blue strip, but no optics and low power. I'll probably just use them for moonlights, but it may add some blue color as well during the day.

And sorry, I tried to find as much information as possible, but most of the topics I find are for 55,75 or 90 gallon tanks. Not this odd size I have.
I'd also like to thank everybody for the awesome community that I have been lurking that has inspired me to get this new tank.

CN: Two 2x31W 30" T5HO fixtures for 37 gallon tank. 21" deep. What can I grow where? And what's the best 4 bulb combination.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by caustin

Alright, I would appreciate any advice people can give me as I am brand new to saltwater tanks. I picked up a used 37 gallon tank a couple weeks back that came with two 30" coralife t5 units. I That I believe are 31w or 18w per bulb. I think this depends on whether HO bulbs are used and obviously I'd like to start growing corals, currently it has 3 10,000K bulbs and one actnic bulb. I am assuming that this will be enough light to grow most corals, but I want to check. My vision is zoos covering most of the rock with some stony corals intermittent and a couple of soft corals for movement at both the top and the bottom.

From what I have seen I should be looking at two of the actnic bulbs and two of the blue plus. Or one actnic, two blue plus, and one purple bulb. I just want to make sure that this will be able to support good light throughout the entire depth of the tank which is about 20" after my substrate, with the lights sitting about 2" about the top of the tank. I'm also working on a diy led blue strip, but no optics and low power. I'll probably just use them for moonlights, but it may add some blue color as well during the day.

And sorry, I tried to find as much information as possible, but most of the topics I find are for 55,75 or 90 gallon tanks. Not this odd size I have.
I'd also like to thank everybody for the awesome community that I have been lurking that has inspired me to get this new tank.

CN: Two 2x31W 30" T5HO fixtures for 37 gallon tank. 21" deep. What can I grow where? And what's the best 4 bulb combination.

I'm a little confused on your lighting. The standard lenght ofT-5 lighting is 24" bulbs that are 24 watt and 36 inch bulbs that are 39 Watt. Coral life does make a 30" fixture that only takes the Coral Life bulbs that they sell which are 31 Watt. This drasticly limits you to the Coral Life bulbs as I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that produces 31 Watt T-5 Bulbs.

The offereings are very slim for these bulbs, mainly
6,700K Which is farely white and bright but too white for only a 4 bulb fixture in my mind.
10,000K Which is the old stand by Salt water white bulb.
Atinic Which is strong in the 420 nm range and the bluest bulb you will be able to find for your fixture.
ColorMAx Which has a color rating closer to an incadescent bulb and will give you a strong red tint and algea will love.

My suggestion is if that is your stuck with these fixtures then go with 3 Atinics and 1 of the 10,000K bulbs. However in situation you would best off going with just one of the fixtures for only two Atinic Bulbs, Then suplementing them with roughly 40 Watts of Royal blue and True Blue LED's, and 20 Watts of Neutral White LED's.

[caustin]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

I'm a little confused on your lighting. The standard lenght ofT-5 lighting is 24" bulbs that are 24 watt and 36 inch bulbs that are 39 Watt. Coral life does make a 30" fixture that only takes the Coral Life bulbs that they sell which are 31 Watt. This drasticly limits you to the Coral Life bulbs as I'm not aware of any other manufacturer that produces 31 Watt T-5 Bulbs.

The offereings are very slim for these bulbs, mainly
6,700K Which is farely white and bright but too white for only a 4 bulb fixture in my mind.
10,000K Which is the old stand by Salt water white bulb.
Atinic Which is strong in the 420 nm range and the bluest bulb you will be able to find for your fixture.
ColorMAx Which has a color rating closer to an incadescent bulb and will give you a strong red tint and algea will love.

My suggestion is if that is your stuck with these fixtures then go with 3 Atinics and 1 of the 10,000K bulbs. However in situation you would best off going with just one of the fixtures for only two Atinic Bulbs, Then suplementing them with roughly 40 Watts of Royal blue and True Blue LED's, and 20 Watts of Neutral White LED's.

Well, First of all, thank you for your response. And you are right. I have two coralife fixtures which take the 30" bulbs, which from all the boxes I have are coralife bulbs as well. And as a college student I don't have a large amount of money to keep spending. I'd like to limit it to $100 or so with coral. This means that I'd be limited to a DIY method for the LEDs. I can solder and build the mount fairly easy, I'd plan on using an old laptop charger for the power supply at 19.5 V. That should power two rows of 30 bulbs with good illumination. but I'm not entirely sure I understand optics. How necessary are they a tank with a 21" depth? And it seems that I should get a relatively even spread with an LED per inch. Or is this too far off topic for a T5 thread?

[Michigan Mike]

Originally Posted by warnutts

thanks mike how many inches off the water do you think i should hang the fixture? I still want to keep low light corals on the sand bed

What light fixture do you have, is it actively cooled with fans?

[SlavicSavage]

I am looking for some opinions on what bulbs I should choose. Currently I have a 70 "cube" (30x30x~20) with a 250 watt AquaMedic HQI fixture over it running a Pheonix 14k. I plan on putting 4 24" T5s over the tank to suppliment some extra light. I was going to do all 4 bulbs as actinics, 2 purple and 2 blue, but wasnt sure what brands were the best these days or for the 24" bulbs or what people thought would nicely compliment the Pheonix 14k. I will be using a Workhorse 5 to drive the T5s with individual reflectors and will get some fans to cool the endcaps.

I'm excited to have that T5 actinic goodness over my tank again. Last time I ran something other than just halides was probably ~6 years ago. It's crazy this thread is still around considering this is where I came to get bulb recommendations from TheGrimReefer all the way back then.

[Michigan Mike]

Originally Posted by SlavicSavage

I am looking for some opinions on what bulbs I should choose. Currently I have a 70 "cube" (30x30x~20) with a 250 watt AquaMedic HQI fixture over it running a Pheonix 14k. I plan on putting 4 24" T5s over the tank to suppliment some extra light. I was going to do all 4 bulbs as actinics, 2 purple and 2 blue, but wasnt sure what brands were the best these days or for the 24" bulbs or what people thought would nicely compliment the Pheonix 14k. I will be using a Workhorse 5 to drive the T5s with individual reflectors and will get some fans to cool the endcaps.

I'm excited to have that T5 actinic goodness over my tank again. Last time I ran something other than just halides was probably ~6 years ago. It's crazy this thread is still around considering this is where I came to get bulb recommendations from TheGrimReefer all the way back then.

Actinics are 420nm "violet", while 450-460nm is "blue (much more intense) & purple bulbs are quite a bit on the other end of the spectrum although T5HO bulbs have a mix of the usual "violet/blue/yellow/green/red" colors (unlike led) to create the bulb do there are many spectrums in each T5 bulb, sometimes the only difference is a lack of green/yellow spectrum between bulbs that makes a difference .

So a 250w Phoenix (what ballast?) will depend on what you want to do with the T5HO, if you want more blue color for dawn/dusk than 3 blue & 1 purple is hard to beat. I wouldn't use T5HO actinic with halides though, maybe a mix between low kelvin (ge6500,aquablue special,coral pls/KZ new gen) bulbs and blue bulbs or something if I wanted a bit more equal color & higher PAR.

But for strictly blue its hard to beat blue bulbs like ATI/KZ & a purple bulb.

[SlavicSavage]

It's running on the AquaMedic ballast that came with the fixture. It's one of those old silver AquaMedic OceanLight pendants. I am looking mostly for coloration and slightly less severe shadowing since its one bulb over a 30x30 tank. I already have excellent growth with the Pheonix but wish my corals popped a little more. I am used to having a Radium 20k and miss the color of that.

It would also be great to have dawn/dusk effect. I currently run my halide for 12 hours a day and would like to run the T5s for 12 hours and cut the halide on for maybe 7 hours in the middle of that during summer.

If I do 3 blue 1 purple what brand & bulbs should I go with to hopefully get more pop without making the tank look overwhelmingly blue? IE like a Radium 20k.

[Michigan Mike]

Originally Posted by SlavicSavage

It's running on the AquaMedic ballast that came with the fixture. It's one of those old silver AquaMedic OceanLight pendants. I am looking mostly for coloration and slightly less severe shadowing since its one bulb over a 30x30 tank. I already have excellent growth with the Pheonix but wish my corals popped a little more. I am used to having a Radium 20k and miss the color of that.

It would also be great to have dawn/dusk effect. I currently run my halide for 12 hours a day and would like to run the T5s for 12 hours and cut the halide on for maybe 7 hours in the middle of that during summer.

If I do 3 blue 1 purple what brand & bulbs should I go with to hopefully get more pop without making the tank look overwhelmingly blue? IE like a Radium 20k.

Good M-80 ballast I think. Great for Radiums & Phoenix.

Well having a dawn/dusk of 3 ATI BLUE PLUS & 1 ATI PURPLE PLUS is my favorite 4 bulb combo, you can use KZ bulbs also. I use the KZ FIJI PURPLE (its kinda expensive). The KZ SUPER BLUE is supposed to be a little deeper blue than the ATI blue pls bulbs. So any combo of these 2 brands are a safe bet.

As for making it look more like a radium ? I don't think you can have both, but adding some white bulbs like the ge6500, Aquablue special, coral plus or KZ new gen with a couple blue bulbs may whiten it up a little. But I'm not sure exactly what would be needed.
I don't think anything will look like a radium honestly.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by Michigan Mike

But for strictly blue its hard to beat blue bulbs like ATI/KZ & a purple bulb.

I will disagree about that for strictly blue. As far as T-5 go yes the ATI and KZ Bule bulbs produce the most blue compared to other T-5's. But these bulbs also produce a considerable amount to Cyan and "Violet" The lighting that strictly add Blue are the 460nm to 470nm LED's. Even the 454 Royal Blue LED's are producing a mix of Violet and Blue rather than strictly blue.

However I would realy have to study the heat issues if were to try mixing MH's with LED's. MH's do produce a lot of heat and excessive heat is the worst enemy of LED's when properly used. I'm not saying it cannot be done but it would to be strongly considered.

[Michigan Mike]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

I will disagree about that for strictly blue. As far as T-5 go yes the ATI and KZ Bule bulbs produce the most blue compared to other T-5's. But these bulbs also produce a considerable amount to Cyan and "Violet" The lighting that strictly add Blue are the 460nm to 470nm LED's. Even the 454 Royal Blue LED's are producing a mix of Violet and Blue rather than strictly blue.

However I would realy have to study the heat issues if were to try mixing MH's with LED's. MH's do produce a lot of heat and excessive heat is the worst enemy of LED's when properly used. I'm not saying it cannot be done but it would to be strongly considered.

This is a T5 thread still right?

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by Michigan Mike

This is a T5 thread still right?

I echo your question and hope that the answer is yes.

[dsmooth]

Originally Posted by dsmooth

I have a 36" TEK LIGHT T-5 that is ready for a bulb change. I am looking to keep mostly SPS, and I have a Clam. What do you think of the following bulb combo, 4-ATI Blue Plus, 1-ATI Aquablue Special and 1-ATI Purple Plus. I am looking for a crisp bluish look, thx

Thx what would be the best order to put them in?

[sweeper7]

I am having a massive cyano green slime break out and red cyano and wondering how long I should run my lights?

I have a 40 B with a 4x36w T5 using 2 Blue+, 1 Purple +, and 1 Coral +. I think I run the 2 Blues from 11:45am - 9:30 PM and the other two from 12:30PM to 9 PM.

Is that too logn?

Also, I had 2 Anthias fish taht looked a bit dull in color and the other day I was at the fish store and he had 2 that were SUPPPER ORange, the original color that I fell in love with and asked what he ran and he said 1 of his lights is a Pink + or something. Was it my fishes coloration or the lighting that didn't make mine look super bright orange like most Anthias?

[Mr_N1ce]

9 hours shouldn't be too long. The cyano is most likely related to flow and/or nutrition.
With pink something it could be the giesemann aqua pink,that's a pink one which is suppose to be similar,if not better to the purple plus. Since your bulb combination is quite blue,maybe the solution could also be a whiter bulb instead of the coral plus?

[Michigan Mike]

Originally Posted by dsmooth

Thx what would be the best order to put them in?

Sorry about that, its not on purpose.

How does the 6 bulb TEK order go again? The outside 4 bulbs are on a switch, and middle 2 ?

[dsmooth]

Originally Posted by Michigan Mike

Sorry about that, its not on purpose.

How does the 6 bulb TEK order go again? The outside 4 bulbs are on a switch, and middle 2 ?

Its the opposite 2 outside on a switch , and than the 4 in the middle, thx

[Michigan Mike]

Originally Posted by dsmooth

Its the opposite 2 outside on a switch , and than the 4 in the middle, thx

I was afraid of that....

Back
Blue plus-dawn/dusk
Blue plus
Aquablue
Blue plus
Purple
Blue plus-dawn/dusk.
Front.

[jdraider75]

whats the difference between the dimmable sunpower fixture and just the sun power besides dimming and timer display and price tag lookn to buy 48 in. 8 bulb for a 120 gal. sps tank 48x24x24.

[Dapg8gt]

Originally Posted by jdraider75

whats the difference between the dimmable sunpower fixture and just the sun power besides dimming and timer display and price tag lookn to buy 48 in. 8 bulb for a 120 gal. sps tank 48x24x24.

I think you just about got it all LOl.. If you want to have a realistic sunrise/set its cool and for acclimating new corals you can dim it down temporarily and place them where you want them. At least that's what I got from a vendor as I asked a similar question. Seems they have the same reflector but he wasn't 100% on that go figure .

I have a 6 bulb sunpower and would like to get the Dimmable 8 bulb as the last piece to my puzzle in prob about a year. I like it a lot. Do I need it? NO... Do I want it? Sure do... Will I get it? YUP..

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by caustin

Well, First of all, thank you for your response. And you are right. I have two coralife fixtures which take the 30" bulbs, which from all the boxes I have are coralife bulbs as well. And as a college student I don't have a large amount of money to keep spending. I'd like to limit it to $100 or so with coral. This means that I'd be limited to a DIY method for the LEDs. I can solder and build the mount fairly easy, I'd plan on using an old laptop charger for the power supply at 19.5 V. That should power two rows of 30 bulbs with good illumination. but I'm not entirely sure I understand optics. How necessary are they a tank with a 21" depth? And it seems that I should get a relatively even spread with an LED per inch. Or is this too far off topic for a T5 thread?

Yes this is off topic. But I'll answer anyway.

1. LEDs realy require a current supply rather than a vlotage supply with a voltage supply if one shortens out the rest will blow up.

2. As far as optics go I do not use them if there is 24" or less between the substrate and the LED's. But I would for anything taller than 24". By 24" though I mean from the LED to the Substrate. So even on a 16" tall tank with no substrate and the LED's 12" above the tank then I would use optics.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by sweeper7

I am having a massive cyano green slime break out and red cyano and wondering how long I should run my lights?

I have a 40 B with a 4x36w T5 using 2 Blue+, 1 Purple +, and 1 Coral +. I think I run the 2 Blues from 11:45am - 9:30 PM and the other two from 12:30PM to 9 PM.

Is that too logn?

Also, I had 2 Anthias fish taht looked a bit dull in color and the other day I was at the fish store and he had 2 that were SUPPPER ORange, the original color that I fell in love with and asked what he ran and he said 1 of his lights is a Pink + or something. Was it my fishes coloration or the lighting that didn't make mine look super bright orange like most Anthias?

With a 4 bulb set up running a purple plus plus a coral plus will add a lot of red light in proportion to the other colors in your tank. The Cyno red algea is often considered part of the cycling of the tank but it florishes on either high phosphate levels and/or excessive light especialy around 680nm. The 680nm range is the longer lenght of the red spectrum. So I would swap out either the purple plus or the coral plus for another blue.

As far as the orange goes it is a combination or red and green light that makes the reflective orage glow. This is usualy in the 560 to 600nm range. If you want to bring out those reflective colors and still keep the strong blue tint use an Aqua Blue Special with a Purple Plus and 2 Blue Plus bulbs.

[nsr500rossi]

Hi, I am looking for some suggestions for my ati dimmable sunpower 6x24w

Tank is 24x18x 15 high so pretty shallow

Currently I have 4xnarva blue, 1x kz pink and 1xaquamedic 15000k reef white

Bulbs are now 12 months old so seriously in need of changing

I am getting reasonable growth with my spa although colour is a little lacking

I am thinking that I have to many blue plus which is not helping colour or growth , although I like the look

By the way this photo was taken in the evening just on blues

Also I have the lamp about 8 inches above the water level, my acropora prostrata is 3 inches below the water level , it has good growth but is lacking color and looks pale, could this be the lamps to close to the water

Cheers

Mike

[nsr500rossi]

Correction on my last post, ati is 5 inches above water line Nd acropora prostrata is 2 inches bellow the water