The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[JamesHolt]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

The blue bulbs put out more usable light for the corals and anemone than the white ones do, so yes, adding more blue will be fine.

OK Thanks , I will go get three more of the blue, gonna leave one ABS over the anemone and do all blue.. I can use the rest over my sump

[DaveRaz]

I've never used T5 so imagine my sunrise once I turned on the new ATI fixture. Glad I went this route.

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by DaveRaz

I've never used T5 so imagine my sunrise once I turned on the new ATI fixture. Glad I went this route.

That's awesome

[serbusfish]

Im currently running 4x 54w T5 bulbs but they are odd length tubes (42") and I am limited to what branded bulbs I can use. I want to go with ATI tubes so im planning to get a new fixture that will mount onto the tank but the standard length 54w bulbs will be too long. So I was wondering if 4x 39w T5's be acceptable for use on a 75 gallon tank (20" deep)? I soft corals and LPS, with a Montipora Cap the only SPS so far.

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by serbusfish

Im currently running 4x 54w T5 bulbs but they are odd length tubes (42") and I am limited to what branded bulbs I can use. I want to go with ATI tubes so im planning to get a new fixture that will mount onto the tank but the standard length 54w bulbs will be too long. So I was wondering if 4x 39w T5's be acceptable for use on a 75 gallon tank (20" deep)? I soft corals and LPS, with a Montipora Cap the only SPS so far.

What are the dimensions of the tank?

[serbusfish]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

What are the dimensions of the tank?

47.5" Length
19.2" Width
19" Depth

Bulbs are mounted around 2 inches from the water surface.

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by serbusfish

47.5" Length
19.2" Width
19" Depth

Bulbs are mounted around 2 inches from the water surface.

Well the 48" sun power dimensions are:
Dimensions (LxWxH): 47.0" x 9.4" x 2.1"
So it might Squeeze in there. The problem is the 2" off the water. That is too close in my experience. The lowest I have gone for any amount of time was about 4-5 inches off the water. Is this in a canopy?

The 3ft fixture would be a bit short In my opinion, especially that close to the water. I have 3ft fixtures over a 4ft tank but they are 8" of the water and the ends of the tank are dimmer by design.

[lushuk]

Do you guys think that if my Ati tube are run at 50% they would last twice as long?

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by lushuk

Do you guys think that if my Ati tube are run at 50% they would last twice as long?

I have never heard that running the tubes at lower percents will extend their lifetime. In fact, Ive heard the opposite

[serbusfish]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

Well the 48" sun power dimensions are:
Dimensions (LxWxH): 47.0" x 9.4" x 2.1"
So it might Squeeze in there. The problem is the 2" off the water. That is too close in my experience. The lowest I have gone for any amount of time was about 4-5 inches off the water. Is this in a canopy?

The 3ft fixture would be a bit short In my opinion, especially that close to the water. I have 3ft fixtures over a 4ft tank but they are 8" of the water and the ends of the tank are dimmer by design.

It is a Juwel branded tank and light unit. The light units are designed to sit on the aquarium edges. Not my pic but this demonstrates my setup:



I have 2 of the light units, which gives me 54w x 4 T5's. However I cant use ATI bulbs as the Juwel bulbs are odd lengths so I want to switch to an alternate light unit. Arcadia make something called an I bar which is a direct replacement for mine, but fit standard length bulbs. See:



So, I need to know if 4x 39w will work for my needs as that is the biggest I bar I can fit with my dimensions.

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by serbusfish

It is a Juwel branded tank and light unit. The light units are designed to sit on the aquarium edges. Not my pic but this demonstrates my setup:



I have 2 of the light units, which gives me 54w x 4 T5's. However I cant use ATI bulbs as the Juwel bulbs are odd lengths so I want to switch to an alternate light unit. Arcadia make something called an I bar which is a direct replacement for mine, but fit standard length bulbs. See:



So, I need to know if 4x 39w will work for my needs as that is the biggest I bar I can fit with my dimensions.

You will have lower light on the ends, but overall ATI bulbs will probably give you greater light output, so I guess it will be fine.

[serbusfish]

Originally Posted by mhucasey

You will have lower light on the ends, but overall ATI bulbs will probably give you greater light output, so I guess it will be fine.

It was the wattage I was worried about, id be going from 216w to 156w, that's pretty significant IMO. I know for some corals such as the Elegance coral which I currently have it is recommended to have around 3 watts per gallon, and at the moment I am just about hitting that target.

Another alternative is to keep 2 of my current bulbs and just run 2x ATI bulbs along side them, which would give me 186w total.

[mhucasey]

It is hard for me to say without firsthand experience, but all the tests I've seen show the ATI bulbs put out more light per watt than any other brand and keep that output longer term.

[DaveRaz]

Thanks Matt. And thanks for the guidance.

[Salt Creeper]

I have a 10 bulb t5 fixture over a 28" tall tank and I'm looking to get a moderate blue color with maximum sps growth. I plan on doing this bulb configuration..

6x b+
2x c+
2x ati true actinic

Any suggestions?

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by Salt Creeper

I have a 10 bulb t5 fixture over a 28" tall tank and I'm looking to get a moderate blue color with maximum sps growth. I plan on doing this bulb configuration..

6x b+
2x c+
2x ati true actinic

Any suggestions?

That will be more than moderately Blue, it will be ice blue for sure. This is a test I did with 4 Blue Plus and 2 coral plus on my tank a while back:



You should have fantastic coral growth with that combo however.

If you want it more balanced I'd go I'd take away a couple blue bulbs and replace with a AquaBlue Special and a Purple Bulb(Fiji Purple, Super Purple, Purple Plus)

[Salt Creeper]

That's exactly the look I'm shooting for!! Thanks for the picture - that's pretty close to what my configuration will look like. I have a couple actinics in there so maybe even a little more blue/violet. I'll swing by the Lfs and grab a couple aqua blues if it's too blue for me. I'm also wondering if the true actinics are worth a damn or if I should just replace them with purple or c+. I've heard people say that the wavelength is extremely useful to sps while I've heard others say they are a waste of a t5 socket. Color isn't quite as important as coral growth to me.

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by Salt Creeper

That's exactly the look I'm shooting for!! Thanks for the picture - that's pretty close to what my configuration will look like. I have a couple actinics in there so maybe even a little more blue/violet. I'll swing by the Lfs and grab a couple aqua blues if it's too blue for me. I'm also wondering if the true actinics are worth a damn or if I should just replace them with purple or c+. I've heard people say that the wavelength is extremely useful to sps while I've heard others say they are a waste of a t5 socket. Color isn't quite as important as coral growth to me.

If yu have the space for them, the 420NM wavelengths are very useful for SPS, so they would be a good addition.

[swk]

Fwiw - I used to use 4 b+ and 2 c+ over my 75 gal. Growth was good but corals were a bit 2 dimensional. When it was time to swap some bulbs I bought a bunch of gman to play with in addition to my usual 6 ati bulbs. After a bunch of screwing around I ended up with

Blue+
Actinic blue
Super purple
Blue+
Aqua blue azure
Actinic blue

This combination looks great and, just anecdotally my alk demand did increase with the addition of a purple bulb. It could be totally unrelated, but that was my experience

[mhucasey]

Originally Posted by swk

Fwiw - I used to use 4 b+ and 2 c+ over my 75 gal. Growth was good but corals were a bit 2 dimensional. When it was time to swap some bulbs I bought a bunch of gman to play with in addition to my usual 6 ati bulbs. After a bunch of screwing around I ended up with

Blue+
Actinic blue
Super purple
Blue+
Aqua blue azure
Actinic blue

This combination looks great and, just anecdotally my alk demand did increase with the addition of a purple bulb. It could be totally unrelated, but that was my experience

I agree that there is just too much blue in that mix and you will lose all the color nuance. My personal preference is for 1 Purple bulb for approximately every 3 blue bulbs. I also feel like just blue and purple bulbs only gives a very rich but not very "real" color, and it looks dim to me. Therefore, I add a few white bulbs in there to bring up overall brightness and add back more yellow and green.

My current 8 bulb combo over tank #1 is 2 Fiji Purple, 1 ABS, 5 Blue plus. A little more blue but this is the LPS centric tank with a few SPS.

The current combo over tank #2(2 6-bulb fixtures) is 2 FP, 2 ABS, Aquablue Azure & KZ New Gen, and 6 Blue Plus. This is the SPS tank

When I first set up tank #2, I threw a basic combo in there and the corals seemed to really like it, but when I had time to look at it and start fiddling I decided it was just a bit washed out. The corals were coloring up like crazy under this mix though so I may revisit. It was very bright, thats for sure!
4 ABS, 2FP, 6B+

[bucfan]

Thinking of my next set of bulbs to get for my 8 bulb ATI unit. This is what I run presently: ATI Blue+, Giesemann Aquablue Azure, Giesemann Actinic Blue, ATI Purple+, ATI Actinic+, Giesemann Tropic, Giesemann Aquablue Azure, ATI Blue+.

Now I am thinking of this combo. I prefer a slightly more blue look. Not sure how this will look.

ATI Blue+
Giesemann Super Purple
ATI Blue+
ATI Coral+
Giesemann Actinic Blue
ATI Blue +
Giesemann Aquablue Azure
ATI Blue+

Center 4 bulbs will be on 9 hours
Outer 4 bulbs will be on 3 hours

What do you think of this combo and would you place bulbs differently?

[cincyjim]

Can you recommend the best bulb configuration for my 6 bulb T-5 light fixture (AquaticLife Six Lamp T5 HO Light Fixture). I've been going with the dealer recommended but I'm not sure that is the best for my tank. I have a couple Branched Montis, Mushrooms, Zoas, Frogspawn, GSP, and a clam that sits about half way up the tank. The tank is a standard 75g 4' wide tank.

Thanks,
Jim

This is the current configuration:
48" come with 1 purple, 1 white and 4 blue lamps.

[tekjunkie28]

How good is the aquaticlife t5 fixture with digital timer?

[cincyjim]

Love this light! I've had a couple of years now and I'm really enjoying it. It seems to produce a good amount of light. I forgot to list that I have a Toadstool and it's on a rock on the sand bed and it does really well that far down. I wouldn't use to grow Acros or anything though.

The timer has been working good. I have noticed that the main clock gets off (slow) by about 3-4 minutes a year but it is simple to readjust.

[JamesHolt]

For T5's ,,how far apart are the holders face to face (where the bulb snaps in at)..
I was going to build the plates for my hood tonight at work and forgot to pickup some bulbs to go by..
It is a 40g breeder so it is 36" wide