The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[BrianO]

I am trying to decide which fixture to use on my standard 90 gallon. I have both a 6x54 tek and 8x54 tek light. The fixture will hang about 4-5 inches above the water. Do you think the 8x54 will be too much?

I was thinking about using mainly Blue plus, purple plus, and a ge 6500. What kinda of configurations would you suggest for good color and growth?

[sahin]

Originally Posted by cFloor

h0bite- thank you for the reply. I have indeed been looking at that fixture as well. I still need to do more research on it. It is $600 more than the 10 bulb power module, is the price justified? My main goal is to have a cube full of growing and colorful corals. I'm not sure, because I haven't done enough reading on it, if the added LEDs assists in this, or simply gives me more to tinker with. I don't need or even necessarily want all the bells and whistles, but if it actually helps with the growth and coloration of corals, that will be the fixture I will buy.

If you can afford the extra $600, then it is worth. An 8 tube unit with LED is equivalent or more than a 10tube unit. Plus you get the pop of the Royal Blue LED's. You also the White LED's to add a bit of shimmer.

Best of both technologies.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by BrianO

I am trying to decide which fixture to use on my standard 90 gallon. I have both a 6x54 tek and 8x54 tek light. The fixture will hang about 4-5 inches above the water. Do you think the 8x54 will be too much?

I was thinking about using mainly Blue plus, purple plus, and a ge 6500. What kinda of configurations would you suggest for good color and growth?

I would go with the 8 bulb.

Front
1 Blue Plus
2. Blue Plus or Purple Plus
3 Blue Plus
4 GE 6,500K
5 Blue Plus
6 Purple Plus
7 Blue Plus
8 Blue Plus

[rtparty]

I believe the 8 bulb tek fixtures are around 21" wide. A 90 gallon tank is usually 18" front to back. A 6 bulb tek is plenty.

[BrianO]

Originally Posted by rtparty

I believe the 8 bulb tek fixtures are around 21" wide. A 90 gallon tank is usually 18" front to back. A 6 bulb tek is plenty.

The dimensions of the fixture are: 48"L x 19"W x 2.5"H
But a good 2-3 inches on each side is the case.

[rtparty]

That would make the reflectors under 2" each. Is that correct?

[BrianO]

Yeah I have an 8x54 tek on my 150 gallon and ran into the same problem, just gotta modify the canopy abit. lol

I may just leave it with the 6 bulb but like the options of the 8 bulb. However I do not want to bleach anything out. I am just starting out with corals in the 90 gallon.

[acabgd]

6x39W Sunpower unit - should I run fans at 9 or 12V and what is the difference?

[mhucasey]

9v is the best voltage for longevity and PAR output. Per user Kangym's testing, 7.5 volts shortened usable life, 12V cooled the bulbs too much and reduced PAR

[rtparty]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

9v is the best voltage for longevity and PAR output. Per user Kangym's testing, 7.5 volts shortened usable life, 12V cooled the bulbs too much and reduced PAR

This all depends on ambient room temperature. A room with an ambient temp of 68F is much different than a room with a 80F ambient temp.

9v is usually the highest to run them but one summer I lived in an apartment with no AC and it was 100F or higher for days. My apartment was scorching hot and I had to run the fans at 12v. Compare that to my setup in a basement where it was about 64F and I ran the fans at 6v but even 4.5v worked well.

[sahin]

Originally Posted by rtparty

This all depends on ambient room temperature. A room with an ambient temp of 68F is much different than a room with a 80F ambient temp.

9v is usually the highest to run them but one summer I lived in an apartment with no AC and it was 100F or higher for days. My apartment was scorching hot and I had to run the fans at 12v. Compare that to my setup in a basement where it was about 64F and I ran the fans at 6v but even 4.5v worked well.

+1

It all depends on the ambient temp. This is were having a PAR meter really helps...you can adjust the fan speed via the voltage until you get the maximum PAR.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by rtparty

I believe the 8 bulb tek fixtures are around 21" wide. A 90 gallon tank is usually 18" front to back. A 6 bulb tek is plenty.

Actual numbers
TeK 4 Bulb = 12"
Tek 6 Bulb = 16" $315
Tek 8 bulb = 19.5 $380

Sunpower by ATI
6 Bulb = 13.4" $520
8 Bulb = 17.5" $620

Power Module by ATI
4 Bulb =2" $1,785
8 Bulb = 20.4"

Yes your tank is 18" but 3/4" overhang front and back will not give you issues unless your running a full canopy. I If your running a TeK fixture it does not have the same light output as an ATI fixture with the same number of bulbs. So if your running SPS corals that require a lot of Light I would not go with a 6 bulb TeK but either the 8 Bulb TeK or a 6 bulb ATI Fixture minimum.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

9v is the best voltage for longevity and PAR output. Per user Kangym's testing, 7.5 volts shortened usable life, 12V cooled the bulbs too much and reduced PAR

My question on this is how much did the excessive cooling reduce PAR? And how much did it increase the or decrease the bulb life. Most bulbs we tested years ago did not see a shortening in bulb life from excessive cooling but an actual increase in bulb life.

Personally unless your pushing the minimum lighting requirements I would opt for longer bulb life over even a 5% loss in PAR. What we are talking about here is a balance point between bulb life and PAR output. When your increase either your decreasing the other. This balance can be controled by the manufacturers design with the ballast or with adjusting the cooling.

RTParty may I ask how you kept your tank going with room temperatures of 100 degrees? Did you have a super chiller?

[rtparty]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

My question on this is how much did the excessive cooling reduce PAR? And how much did it increase the or decrease the bulb life. Most bulbs we tested years ago did not see a shortening in bulb life from excessive cooling but an actual increase in bulb life.

Personally unless your pushing the minimum lighting requirements I would opt for longer bulb life over even a 5% loss in PAR. What we are talking about here is a balance point between bulb life and PAR output. When your increase either your decreasing the other. This balance can be controled by the manufacturers design with the ballast or with adjusting the cooling.

RTParty may I ask how you kept your tank going with room temperatures of 100 degrees? Did you have a super chiller?

The room wasn't 100F. Outside it was. We were on the bottom floor of a complex and it was half underground. The apartment was in the 80s and I had to use a giant fan blowing on the tank and a lot of evaporation. At night I would hook up a window ac unit and get it to cool the room down for the night. I never used a chiller and the tank stayed around 78-82 for the entire time.

As to the excessive cooling question, there was a member on here that saw well over a 50% drop in PAR and his bulbs were dying left and right. We tried to figure out the issue for months and thought it was a bad ballast. His tank was in the garage and temps were low. After talking to ATI, we found that over cooling was the issue and when he dropped his fan speed the issues went away. Can't remember his name right now unfortunately.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by rtparty

As to the excessive cooling question, there was a member on here that saw well over a 50% drop in PAR and his bulbs were dying left and right. We tried to figure out the issue for months and thought it was a bad ballast. His tank was in the garage and temps were low. After talking to ATI, we found that over cooling was the issue and when he dropped his fan speed the issues went away. Can't remember his name right now unfortunately.

This is very interesting. When we tested bulbs we would run them under cold conditions to simulate outdoor fixtures in cold climates. Yes at -10 C there was a drop off of output that could reach 50% of normal output, however it was only momentary and within a five minutes of the bulb warming up it was in the 90% range. At 25C on normal operation testing there was also an initial low point but it was usually between 5% and 15% loss dependent on the particular bulb and only lasted or about 2 minutes.

Now you have me thinking? If the ATI bulbs are designed to be run hot for more output. It would explain the shorter life span if they get too hot as well as the longer warm up cycle from a cold start. Would also be interesting testing each individual bulbs on to see if the differences between them? We may be changing some bulbs before they start deteriorating and others not soon enough?

[SilverOne]

Hello,

I posted on the last page about what bulbs would be good for my fixture. Its been awhile since I used t5 after playing around with LED.

I put my aquantinics constellation 14 bulb fixture back on my tank. I see some newer bulbs out there..

For 14 bulbs/7 rows on a 125g... what do you recommend?

Thanks again!

[rtparty]

4 blue plus and 3 coral plus

[jedimaster1138]

Happy to say I've read most of this thread.

120g mixed reef, acropora galore, clams, etc. 8x80w Sunpower.

Current bulb arrangement is as follows:

Front
BuildMyLED Custom Strip (see below)
ATI Blue+
ATI Purple+
ATI Blue+ [dawn dusk]
GE6500k
ATI Blue+
ATI Blue+ [dawn dusk]
ATI Purple+
ATI Blue+
Back

The BML strip is a 2-1 ratio of 450 nm blue and 405 nm violet. When just the strip is running everything glows that nice actinic-y glow, especially greens.

My question pertains to bulb order and the GE6500k. I'm loving what it's doing to my SPS, specifically acropora. They've all colored up with lots of PE and growth has taken off dramatically. Oregon tort is a nice deep blue with purple edges and is showing signs of growth, which is saying a lot for an acro that grows so slow.

That all being said, I'm not totally in love with the color from my LPS, zoanthids and palys etc that live low and in the front of the tank. While the SPS look great with all the bulbs burning, that other stuff looks best during the dawn/dusk period (2 Blue+) I realize I'm probably asking for the best of many worlds here, but I'm wondering if the order / arrangement of bulbs, especially what's nearest the GE6500k would help shut me up some My rock work is such that the acropora are mostly under bulbs 4-5-6, probably more the latter 2. Up front are all the LPS and z/p etc. Picture below to illustrate (badly, sorry) The rock work with the acro are mostly obscured behind the overflow in this profile shot, but trust me they are there. Heh I wanted to show a profile shot to illustrate the arrangement of corals/rocks in relation to the individual bulbs.

I had seen a bulb layout in this thread with the ATI Purple+ immediately on either side of the GE6500k. I don't do that, at least not in adjacent slots. (IIRC this was one of TropTea's layouts?) Would that help any in my situation/specific desire? Secondly, would I perhaps we better off front loading the fixture with Blue+ and even moving the GE back a slot so that it's more over the acro and less over the sandbed stuff? I realize all the bulbs are going to mix thanks to the effectiveness of the ATI reflectors, but would this matter? Also would it matter having a Purple+ directly in front of the GE - would this help "neutralize" the GE's tendency to make red zoas, bleeding apples etc look less red and more brownish...or at least less vibrant red?

I've even been tossing around just going with 1 Purple+ and adding an actinic in the front most position, or 1 purple+ and 1 coral+ (i have a bunch of spares of everything) Possibly something like

Front
BML
Actinic
Blue+
Blue+
Purple+
GE6500k
Blue+
Blue+
Blue+
Front


TIA...sorry for all the "maybe this and that" just curious what the experts here have to say.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by rtparty

That would make the reflectors under 2" each. Is that correct?

Well if you take 19" and divide that between 8 bulbs you get 2.375" for each reflector.

[rtparty]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

Well if you take 19" and divide that between 8 bulbs you get 2.375" for each reflector.

Correct. But he also said there is 2-3" on each side that is just fixture.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by jedimaster1138

My question pertains to bulb order and the GE6500k. I'm loving what it's doing to my SPS, specifically acropora. They've all colored up with lots of PE and growth has taken off dramatically. Oregon tort is a nice deep blue with purple edges and is showing signs of growth, which is saying a lot for an acro that grows so slow.

That all being said, I'm not totally in love with the color from my LPS, zoanthids and palys etc that live low and in the front of the tank. While the SPS look great with all the bulbs burning, that other stuff looks best during the dawn/dusk period (2 Blue+) I realize I'm probably asking for the best of many worlds here, but I'm wondering if the order / arrangement of bulbs, especially what's nearest the GE6500k would help shut me up some My rock work is such that the acropora are mostly under bulbs 4-5-6, probably more the latter 2. Up front are all the LPS and z/p etc. Picture below to illustrate (badly, sorry) The rock work with the acro are mostly obscured behind the overflow in this profile shot, but trust me they are there. Heh I wanted to show a profile shot to illustrate the arrangement of corals/rocks in relation to the individual bulbs.

What your coming up with is the classic question of how do I bring up the reflective colors as well as the florescent colors. Can You get a balance.

Unfortunately what is happening is that the florescent colors are glowing just as brightly as they were just your LED strip. However the the eye does not perceive this as the reflective colors in the back ground start increasing the brightness of the background.

Every tank is different between the ratio of corals giving florescent colors and those giving reflective colors. Every individual has there preference to which they prefer the most. Unfortunately it is a mater of blending the two together as close to your liking as possible.

In your case you might see an improvement putting the back three bulbs as a purple, GE, purple. However this might also create some unusual shadows for you that you may or may not like.

Another possibility would be switching to a bulb that gives less full spectrum light such as the Aqua Blue, Or several Coral Plus Bulbs.

[jedimaster1138]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

What your coming up with is the classic question of how do I bring up the reflective colors as well as the florescent colors. Can You get a balance.

Unfortunately what is happening is that the florescent colors are glowing just as brightly as they were just your LED strip. However the the eye does not perceive this as the reflective colors in the back ground start increasing the brightness of the background.

Every tank is different between the ratio of corals giving florescent colors and those giving reflective colors. Every individual has there preference to which they prefer the most. Unfortunately it is a mater of blending the two together as close to your liking as possible.

In your case you might see an improvement putting the back three bulbs as a purple, GE, purple. However this might also create some unusual shadows for you that you may or may not like.

Another possibility would be switching to a bulb that gives less full spectrum light such as the Aqua Blue, Or several Coral Plus Bulbs.

Thanks Dennis for the detail. I think I see what you're driving at.

I'm going to give a shot to the following lay out:

LEDS
B+
B+
B+
Purple+
GE6500k
B+
Purple+
B+

Heck, that might even benefit the SPS high on the rock by bringing the GE6500k more over their heads directly.

Do you think there would be any obvious benefit (or detriment to growth) to pulling either of the Purple+ in favor of a Coral+ or Blue+ (which would give me 6). If so, which one?

Thanks again.

[h0bite]

I just received my ATI Powermodule(only T5) from Marine Depot.
What bulb is better to use for sunrise? My number 3 and 8 will start an hour before the other 8. I was thinking 2 ATI actinic, but they are almost useless for corals. So, I don't want to put useless bulbs.
Thanks

[rogergolf66]

Originally Posted by h0bite

I just received my ATI Powermodule(only T5) from Marine Depot.
What bulb is better to use for sunrise? My number 3 and 8 will start an hour before the other 8. I was thinking 2 ATI actinic, but they are almost useless for corals. So, I don't want to put useless bulbs.
Thanks

If u don't want attinic use 2 blue plus or a blue plus and a purple plus

[mhucasey]

For h0bite:
I'm a little different than many others here in that I love the look of a tank that is farther to the blue spectrum than many others run but I don't like the look of blue bulbs only, even for dawn and dusk. I have found that for the two bulbs my favorite combination by far is a blue plus in the #3 position and a KZ New Generation(14K) in the back(#6 for me, #8 for you).

Two bulbs only don't provide much more than viewing light for you, there isn't enough par to do anything for the corals. Thats ok, you only want to run all 10 Bulbs for 6-8 hours max to get the best color and growth.