Are your T-5 fixtures really growing Acro's???

[deklin]

If you're looking for maximum light output, the ATI powermodule and aquatinics solar flare are great choices for a complete fixture setup. For retrofits installed in a canopy, Icecap overdriven retros are great.

I have an icecap retro setup with 6 bulbs on my 80 gallon (48in) and it works great.

Bulb choice is somewhat dependent on personal prefernce and the look you are going for. A common 6 bulb lineup would be:
-UVL Super Actinic
-ATI Aquablue
-ATI Blueplus
-UVL Aquasun
-ATI Aquablue
-ATI Blueplus

This would produce outstanding PAR and around a 14K look. A 6 bulb ATI, solar flare or icecap setup is overkill for most 75 gallon tanks. You could successfully keep SPS with less. But you won't be dissapointed with one of these options.

[neyugn0w01]

Originally posted by Freds
No offense guys but in my local club there are hundreds of "I great GREAT colors and results doing ***** " posts, but when I actually see these tanks in person they look like total crap. In my local club I even changed my signature to:

"DO NOT take advise from someone who cannot show you a FULL TANK SHOT!"

Does anyone have proof of their great color under T5s? (With an AMERICAN tank?)

Use the search button. It wasn't that long ago when an AMERICAN T5 only tank was tank of the month.

[HBtank]

Man, people are demanding... lol. I'll post a full tank shot since I posted earlier.. I am a newbie at acros though.



Some closer shots, my enc monti's are by far the oldest SPS. SO I guess they are the best to show for color. The stag I showed earlier is the best example I have of acros. Just added a bunch, ask me in a month or two

[hahnmeister]

Originally posted by newmoon
Do you have any pictures to show of both set ups?

Yeah, but I dont have any good growth pics that would be fair. The best I could do is to show color. FWIW, I believe that a MH+T5 combo is the very best of the best, but if I was forced to pick one or the other only, I would have to go T5. Let me rummage through old pics (camera is on the fritz... I hate Nikons) and see what I can find. Its so hard to tell from camera shots though... they can be manipulated intentionally, and even unintentionally just due to saturation and brightness, contrast, etc... but I can tell you that my monti caps are deep and glowing under the T5s, and almost faded in comparison under the halide. The ORA tort looks good under the halide lit tanks (a 14,000K pheonix and an EVC 20,000K), very royal blue and bright... but under the T5s , its tips are darker blue, and the skin underneath is green in patches... very cool. Ill try to find some good pics, but the blue light tends to saturate the Nikon a bit. I can only get good color pics from the D-SLR, and thats with GF at the moment. ... but Ill try to see what I can dig up.

On a side note, SPS aside, one other coral that goes nuts under T5s is zoas. I have never seen zoas spread so fast, look so bright or happy as under T5s. I had a 7 polyp rock of tub's blue zoas that DOUBLEs every month. I have about 150 polyps of this zoa now, and they are starting to take over other rocks. The safecrackers grow even faster. Its crazy.

[Freds]

I have to agree that zoanthids grow like CRAZY under T5s. Mine dont' double ever month but they do grow very fast under T5. A lot of LPS do great under T5 but only a few sps do well under them IME. Montis do great but then again I've kept montis in my sump under CF and regular HD light bulbs so that's not saying much. IME montis will tolerate just about anything and grow just fine. It's REALLY hard to get a monti cap to lose it's color.

The ORA tort is also a hardy acro. For example when I switched my sps reef over to an LPS tank I went T5. I kept the only sps corals that will grow well under T5 (IME) which were some montis and an ORA tort. I do have a yellow prostrata that is so far so good, but it's also a hardy coral. It has browned a bit though.

A friend of mine plumbed two established reefs together and ran one with MH and one with T5. After 2 years the MH was the clear winner for SPS corals. T5 on zoanthids and LPS IMO can't be beat.

[hahnmeister]

I have had much better experiences. Since montis are rather hardy despite bad conditions, I would suggest that you might try looking at other parameters other than the T5s as to why other SPS arent working out for you as well. Phosphates, nitrates, flow... something...

As for the other acros, I have tenuis, secale, aspera, and a few types of milliporas growing under the T5s that just love it. The one thing of note is that I have a pink w/ blue tip millipora that usually needs nothing but the very highest PAR levels under the halides to color up well... in the 400s. In the T5 lit tank, its a neon pink with blue 'scutes' around every polyp, and is growing very thick and branchy, and its only in 250-350 light levels. Odd... its usually the greediest of corals lightwise, but under the T5s, WOW, better than with the halides. Other, non acro SPS seem happy as well. I have 3 types of digi, the german sunset, a bright green, and a german blue tip/purple. These corals are all growing like weeds, and much deeper colored than the same corals under the halides.

[JRod]

Ok, I've looked and looked around, did not see it or missed it.

It appears that most people are T5 only or MH w/ VHO.

It seems that there always has been issue, wheter its Seio/Tunze, DSB/BB, Zeo or not, Deltec/Octopus and now T5 or MH. There are thousands of people in this hobby and I have seen many a tank, and I will always say, to each their own and many things need to be taken into consideration when it comes to a tank. If it works run it, if it does not stop it.

So here I go with my question...why not take the best of both worlds and MH w/ T5.

I am going to change out my bulbs on my 180 in August so I am thinking of removing the 4 X 6' Super Actinics and swapping in some Fiji Purples and either Coral Light or Aqua blues.

Love my XM 250 W 10K but want a 12K look. My growth is good, parameters are in check, no zeo, just basic additives, and looking for some pop in the coral color.

Anyone with experience on the T5/MH option, info greatly appreciated.

Sorry if this sort of side tracks this post.

[raskal311]

I have had outstanding growth under T5. Colors looked a little faded for the first 6-8weeks but after that it really started to take off.

[msn711]

I think there are lots of good examples of t5 lit sps tanks all over this board. But are people still having issues with keeping softies and lps corals under them?

[Musho3210]

Originally posted by msn711
I think there are lots of good examples of t5 lit sps tanks all over this board. But are people still having issues with keeping softies and lps corals under them?

There are lots of things to take into consideration though, reflectors, positioning of light or positioning of coral. Someone above here just stated that zoas go crazy under T5, and zoas arent sps....

[msn711]

Yeah, I saw that. I was just asking in generally, because I seem to remember that when the t5s w/ individual reflectors first became popular around here, people were having issues with their softies and lps corals, particularly under the 54w bulbs. I'm just wondering if those issues have been worked out. Maybe it was all just a matter of placement under the bulbs, but I know that I've never had to work that hard at proper placement under my halides. I guess the impression I got is that they weren't really appropriate for most softies and zoos, and I'm wondering if, now that people have more experience with them, is that more or less true? Somebody said they've had good luck with zoos. But what about shrooms or brains or just other non-sps corals?

[stony_corals]

I think Hahnmeister already said this, but the bottom line is that T5 light many extraordinary sps dominated tanks. There's simply no question that T5 can work well. I'd have to say that I'm running systems with both and I like the degree which I can influence the color of the light. You can't get that range running just MH. If you run both Mh and T5 on the same tank, and utilize a fixture for both, the T5s may not do a lot due to the heat of the MH, T5s operate best at around 95 degrees, well, in an enclosed MH/T5 fixture, they are going to get a lot hotter and hence not work as well....

It doesn't matter if it's European or American, T5s work. Americans happen to be late adopters to technology in this hobby, and the Europeans are leading the way.

[HBtank]

Originally posted by msn711
Yeah, I saw that. I was just asking in generally, because I seem to remember that when the t5s w/ individual reflectors first became popular around here, people were having issues with their softies and lps corals, particularly under the 54w bulbs. I'm just wondering if those issues have been worked out. Maybe it was all just a matter of placement under the bulbs, but I know that I've never had to work that hard at proper placement under my halides. I guess the impression I got is that they weren't really appropriate for most softies and zoos, and I'm wondering if, now that people have more experience with them, is that more or less true? Somebody said they've had good luck with zoos. But what about shrooms or brains or just other non-sps corals?

My mixed has almost everything, check out the shot above. Only coral I have had issues with is Yumas, and that is due to intensity alone, not T5's or MH differences. They jsut need shade. My euphylias, zoos, florida rics, blastos, mycedium, pectinia, pagodas, brains, candy cane etc.. love it.

[msn711]

Nice tank, HBtank. Thanks. Somehow, I missed that shot.

[krzyphsygy]

All post and opinions are appreciated, but I have yet to see a tank that started with T-5's and is still currently running them that is GROWING THICK BRANCHED ACRO'S.

Monticulosa
Variolosa
Seriata
Spicifera

These are hardcore to moderate lighting Acro's. Please post some pics, your opinions are of course welcome. Post post it to prove it!! Yea, I have seen the italian tanks. I just think there are other ammenities at work in those tanks!

[HBtank]

Here is a couple threads with pictures in it, and links abound. I posted a couple T5 only tanks I saw in them that I liked and inspired me too.

Yes, there are not that many nice SPS T5 tanks to point to yet. But they are out there...

But there are not as many T5 tanks, period.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hlight=t5+acro

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...&pagenumber=37

Some pics in them:

[hahnmeister]

http://www.miniriff.de/Szczyra/szczyra.html





http://archiv.korallenriff.de/Lichttest/06_t5_test.html

[Kennyboy1984]

Does T5 produce any of the shimmering effects like metal halides do?

[p4ck37p1mp]

Holy 19 bulbs batman! Sick tank.

[Freds]

HBTank that is NICE! You should try adding in some KZ bulbs or something else to pick up the reds / yellows. (I'm not a fan of the blue-ish tanks, but who cares what I like, it's your tank)

Hahn, ugh those are European tanks. I don't know what it is about over there that lets that happen but I never see pics like that coming from American tanks. Most of the US T5 tanks get good growth under T5s (I even had some growth tips using 108 watts on a 90) but the colors suffer IME. I don't think PAR is the be all end all of sps keeping. I think light is good at making up deficiencies in flow, food etc. but it's not just PAR. I've seen people step down from 400 to 250 to 175 and get better color! I've also seen the reverse. I've also seen T5 tanks that provide tons more PAR than their MH counterparts without the same color. Perhaps it's the UV that is missing in T5. Perhaps sps only create their reflective pigments in the presence of UV.

[RichConley]

Originally posted by Freds
HBTank that is NICE! You should try adding in some KZ bulbs or something else to pick up the reds / yellows. (I'm not a fan of the blue-ish tanks, but who cares what I like, it's your tank)

Hahn, ugh those are European tanks. I don't know what it is about over there that lets that happen but I never see pics like that coming from American tanks. Most of the US T5 tanks get good growth under T5s (I even had some growth tips using 108 watts on a 90) but the colors suffer IME. I don't think PAR is the be all end all of sps keeping. I think light is good at making up deficiencies in flow, food etc. but it's not just PAR. I've seen people step down from 400 to 250 to 175 and get better color! I've also seen the reverse. I've also seen T5 tanks that provide tons more PAR than their MH counterparts without the same color. Perhaps it's the UV that is missing in T5. Perhaps sps only create their reflective pigments in the presence of UV.

Fred, I really think its bulb choice. They've been using them for a while, and have figured out some good, complete bulb combinations. We havent.

[p4ck37p1mp]

We have a sticky thread for halide related information, perhaps a T5 thread is in order. I know I've been on the fence between T5 and MH for over a year as to which will replace my PC lighting. There just isn't enough information and good evidence in the form of photos regarding T5 and actual performance over tanks that people can look at and compare. It would be great to see more before and after photos.

[RobbyG]

This must be what the Reef Tanks look like in Heaven

Originally posted by hahnmeister

[sirjohn]

Well, I'd say those pics just about destroy the suggestion that T-5 only tanks "look like crap".

[HBtank]

^^

I found that statement silly anyways.

If a tank literally "looks like crap", I doubt it has much to do with the lights and more with the keeper.