The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[The Grim Reefer]

Originally Posted by discusheckel

if you were to buy a true actinic t5 tube, peaking at 420 nm, which brand would you buy?

ati

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by The Grim Reefer

ati

Thank you sir.

Have you carried out any experiment or do you know of any study on the speed with which different brands of T5 tubes lose their PAR output? In particular, I am interested in comparing ATI Blue plus with Narva Blues (or Giesemann T5 tubes).

A lot of people in the UK are switching to Narva blues away from ATI Blue plus on the grounds that the former is cheaper.

Thanks

[cboy]

Originally Posted by The Grim Reefer

You should be able to get 10 to 14 months out of those lamps. I've seen more stuff get blamed for hair algae....... All things being equal it will grow better under infrared light which old lamps produce more of but I would check the water parameters. I'd be shocked if the elite doesn't cool the lamp well enough they would be dead this soon. You could always throw in a new blue plus and compare it to the others you have. After about an hour you shouldn't notice a huge difference between a new and old lamp.

Thanks Grim!

[tmerf11]

I've got a Dimmable sunpower 8x54 on a new tank... no corals yet - just a CUC and 1 fish and was wondering if I could get suggestions on a lighting schedule. Since the entire unit is dimmable do I need to worry about channel 1 and 2, or would it be okay to just have all 8 bulbs come on at 10am and ramp up to 90%(or whatever I decide is the brightest I want) around 4pm and then back down to off at like 8pm??

[Wondereef]

ok, i've been trying to verify this but short of sifting through this entire epic thread to find it , i'll just ask.

Does an icecap 660 overdrive 80w t5 bulbs when running a pair on that ballast? and if so what does it overdrive them to?

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Thank you sir.

Have you carried out any experiment or do you know of any study on the speed with which different brands of T5 tubes lose their PAR output? In particular, I am interested in comparing ATI Blue plus with Narva Blues (or Giesemann T5 tubes).

A lot of people in the UK are switching to Narva blues away from ATI Blue plus on the grounds that the former is cheaper.

Thanks

I looked this bulb up and found out it is obsolute? Could the low price because suppliers are tryong to get rid of there stock?

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by Wondereef

ok, i've been trying to verify this but short of sifting through this entire epic thread to find it , i'll just ask.

Does an icecap 660 overdrive 80w t5 bulbs when running a pair on that ballast? and if so what does it overdrive them to?

First off I cannot verify that the 660 on a two 80 tubes does or does not overduve them. I have heard it dioes and and it does not from different sources. I do know that I hqave on in my fixture and the bulbls do not last as ling on that fixture.

Now after working in quality control for the lighting industry for 2 years I will say that overdriving a bulb has more negaties than positives.

on the plus side you do get more light out of it. But not proportunate to the amount you are over driving it. Pushing 10% more electricity through it might give you 5% more light. Pushing 20% more power through it might give you 7% more light. Each bulb reacts differently to being over driven.

Over driving a bulb does result in more heat being generated. The greater the amount of heat that builds up in the bulb the shorter its life span. However if you compare a bulb driven at the rated power and not force cooled it will build up heat faster than one driven with 20% more power and is force cooled.

As bulbs get hotter the frequencies that the phosphates elit start to shift. These shifts are normaly considered nominal and of no concern in normal lighting situations but in the aquarium industry we try to avoid shifts into the IR range. the shift is why most of us replace bulbs on a regular bases even though they still look like there producing a lot of light. With ovedriving the shifts will be more sever and occur sooner so you need to replace the bulbs faster.

But keep in mind that this is all basicly heat related. If you could keep a bulb cool enough you would see less shigfht in the light spectrum as well as longer bulb life regardless of the power that was pushed through it.

how much light shift are we taliking about varies by the tube and the individual phosphates used in it manufacture. Some may shift more so than other which are usualy the bulbs with shorter wave lenghts. but even the longer wave lenght bulbs do shift. No a 10,000K bulb will not shift to 6,500K but it could if run long enough shift to 9,000K, and the 6,500K could shift to nearly 5;000K. but the big point of the shift is that they start producing more and more IR light as they older.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by tmerf11

I've got a Dimmable sunpower 8x54 on a new tank... no corals yet - just a CUC and 1 fish and was wondering if I could get suggestions on a lighting schedule. Since the entire unit is dimmable do I need to worry about channel 1 and 2, or would it be okay to just have all 8 bulbs come on at 10am and ramp up to 90%(or whatever I decide is the brightest I want) around 4pm and then back down to off at like 8pm??

I'm assuming then that your setting up the dimmable light to run on a controler that will vary the light automaticly?

As would still run 2 channels seperatly. If this is a 6 or more bulb fixture I put two (blue based) bulbs on the dawn to dusk cycle) and the rest on the mid day cycle.

For timing you want to adjust them to your life style so they will turn off generaly at your normal bed time.

A good starting point is what I call hour 0 when the Dawn to dusk lights turn on.

so

00:00 Dawn to dusk turn on
01:30 Mid Day bulbs turn on
09:30 Mid day lights turn off
11:00 Dawn to dusk turn off

Note this is a starting point. From here watch how your tank is doing and then you can fine tune the system but remember the ideal is 8 hours of full light and minimium of 8 hours of near darkness.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

I looked this bulb up and found out it is obsolute? Could the low price because suppliers are tryong to get rid of there stock?

I do not think so. The information shown in the link you included in your post is actually obsolete. I talked to this company only yesterday and was told that they have plenty in stock. Having said that I am going for ATI blue plus.

[The Grim Reefer]

Originally Posted by Wondereef

ok, i've been trying to verify this but short of sifting through this entire epic thread to find it , i'll just ask.

Does an icecap 660 overdrive 80w t5 bulbs when running a pair on that ballast? and if so what does it overdrive them to?

According to Ice Cap it was around 100 watts. I had excellent luck overdriving 80 watt lamps but wouldn't do so with the shorter lamps.

[Wondereef]

Originally Posted by The Grim Reefer

According to Ice Cap it was around 100 watts. I had excellent luck overdriving 80 watt lamps but wouldn't do so with the shorter lamps.

Good to know, thanks for the info.

@troptea: Thats why i asked is becuase I'm trying to avoid from overdriving them allot as I want to keep them cool and retain that long life. as I have a 5' 100g using 4x54 t5's run on WH ballasts and I want to go back to icecap for the color and increase the spread in my tank to fill it out. so i'm going to replace two of the 54's with 2 80's run off a 660 and run the other 2 54's off a 430.

Thanks
Tom

[cheezischrist]

i dont know if im posting in the wrong place but my eyes hurt now from reading and staring at lights. my ati bulbs came today from reefgeek. the purple plus and aqua blue special and one of the blue plus are working fine. the other blue plus turns off after its on for a while. ive moved it to every other slot and gotten the same result. is this a bad bulb?

[tmerf11]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

I'm assuming then that your setting up the dimmable light to run on a controler that will vary the light automaticly?

As would still run 2 channels seperatly. If this is a 6 or more bulb fixture I put two (blue based) bulbs on the dawn to dusk cycle) and the rest on the mid day cycle.

For timing you want to adjust them to your life style so they will turn off generaly at your normal bed time.

A good starting point is what I call hour 0 when the Dawn to dusk lights turn on.

so

00:00 Dawn to dusk turn on
01:30 Mid Day bulbs turn on
09:30 Mid day lights turn off
11:00 Dawn to dusk turn off

Note this is a starting point. From here watch how your tank is doing and then you can fine tune the system but remember the ideal is 8 hours of full light and minimium of 8 hours of near darkness.

Thanks for the help... The dimmable sunpower actually has a built in controller that I'll be using to turn everything on and off and ramp the intensity up and down. But I like what you suggested. I'll probably start with my bed time and work backwards.

[DiscusHeckel]

Originally Posted by TropTrea

Note this is a starting point. From here watch how your tank is doing and then you can fine tune the system but remember the ideal is 8 hours of full light and minimium of 8 hours of near darkness.

There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that reducing the number of hours of full light gives rise to better colouration (or coloration) of corals. I think that there was a thread here in RC on this topic. I will update this post when I find the link.

[Tank14]

Probably an easy question....for a 4 x 54 TEK setup, I plan on having three ATI Blue Plus but not sure about the fourth. Should I go with ATI Aquablue special or Geissman midday? Tanks is mostly LPS with a few easier SPS pieces and am looking for the bulb that would give better growth. Thanks!

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by Tank14

Probably an easy question....for a 4 x 54 TEK setup, I plan on having three ATI Blue Plus but not sure about the fourth. Should I go with ATI Aquablue special or Geissman midday? Tanks is mostly LPS with a few easier SPS pieces and am looking for the bulb that would give better growth. Thanks!

If growth is your main concern then I'd go with the ATI Coral Plus.

If you want a better visual effect then I would go with only 2 Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus, and 1 Aqua Blue Plus.

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by cheezischrist

i dont know if im posting in the wrong place but my eyes hurt now from reading and staring at lights. my ati bulbs came today from reefgeek. the purple plus and aqua blue special and one of the blue plus are working fine. the other blue plus turns off after its on for a while. ive moved it to every other slot and gotten the same result. is this a bad bulb?

Yes that does sound like a bulb that is effective. Does it turn on as bright as the other Blue Plus. If not then it is probably shipping damage, if it does it could be a manufacturing defect. I would call ReefGeek right away if you wait to long they might not be able to file a claim with the shipping company.

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi again,

I am about to order my ATI bulbs for my 6 X 39W ATI Sunpower unit. I was going to order the following combination:

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
Sylvania 6500K (I can't get GE 6500K in 39W in the UK)
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

The I read about Coral Plus tubes. How would this combination look compared to the one abobe:

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Coral Plus (instead of ATI Blue plus)
Sylvania 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

Thank you.

[AugustWest]

Almost time to change bulbs in my 8X24W ATI Sunpower. Tank is mainly SPS , Coral color and tank look are my main concerns. Looking for bulb combo suggestions.

I'm currently running :

ATI Blue+
ATI Purple+
ATI Blue+
GE 6500K
ATI Blue+
ATI Purple +
ATI Blue+
ATI Blue+

Thank You

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Hi again,

I am about to order my ATI bulbs for my 6 X 39W ATI Sunpower unit. I was going to order the following combination:

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
Sylvania 6500K (I can't get GE 6500K in 39W in the UK)
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

The I read about Coral Plus tubes. How would this combination look compared to the one abobe:

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Coral Plus (instead of ATI Blue plus)
Sylvania 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

Thank you.

I would go with the first combo. The second would be slightly whiter but I'm not sure if you realy notice the difference. On combo 2 though I would not put the 6,500K and the Coral plus together but would move the Coral plus to position 5 from the front and move the rest up one position.

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
Sylvania 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
Coral Plus
ATI Blue Plus

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by AugustWest

Almost time to change bulbs in my 8X24W ATI Sunpower. Tank is mainly SPS , Coral color and tank look are my main concerns. Looking for bulb combo suggestions.

I'm currently running :

ATI Blue+
ATI Purple+
ATI Blue+
GE 6500K
ATI Blue+
ATI Purple +
ATI Blue+
ATI Blue+

Thank You

It is close to what I'm running and I like it. Only big difference is I'm running one less Purple + and one more Blue +. This is personal color preference though.

[The Grim Reefer]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Hi again,

I am about to order my ATI bulbs for my 6 X 39W ATI Sunpower unit. I was going to order the following combination:

Front
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Blue Plus
Sylvania 6500K (I can't get GE 6500K in 39W in the UK)
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

The I read about Coral Plus tubes. How would this combination look compared to the one abobe:

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Purple Plus
ATI Coral Plus (instead of ATI Blue plus)
Sylvania 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Blue Plus

Thank you.

Coral Plus would make it look more toward 14K

[DiscusHeckel]

Grim and Trop,

Thank you.

In terms of growth, would there be a big difference between the two combo?

I have a few fairly large crocea and maxima clams in my set up. I think clams, especially croceas, would require a lot more red spectrum since they live closer to reef top. That's why I thought it might be a good idea to increase the red spectrum by including an ATI coral plus bulb without making the tank look too yellow.

Is this a good strategy or would you advise a different bulb to satisfy the growth needs of clams?

[TropTrea]

Originally Posted by DiscusHeckel

Grim and Trop,

Thank you.

In terms of growth, would there be a big difference between the two combo?

I have a few fairly large crocea and maxima clams in my set up. I think clams, especially croceas, would require a lot more red spectrum since they live closer to reef top. That's why I thought it might be a good idea to increase the red spectrum by including an ATI coral plus bulb without making the tank look too yellow.

Is this a good strategy or would you advise a different bulb to satisfy the growth needs of clams?

If you want to increase the Red without dropping the over all PAR much go with a second ATI Purple Plus bulb. Some people prefer that color effect and it becomes a matter of taste. I prefer a more blue look 470nm effect than a purple look but this is my personal preference. The purple plus is basicly a Blue Plus with a spike in the red end of the spectrum, to give the more purple effect. This combo could actualy give you a little more PAR than either the Coral Plus and definatly more than the Aqua Blue Special.

[mgould73]

I have an aquatinics TX5 36" 5 bulb fixture that I just replaced 2 Aquablue specials in. My tank is a 57G Rimless.

Bulb combo from front to back.


1.Blue Plus
2.Coral Plus
3.ATI Purple +
4.Blue Plus
5.Coral Plus

I really like the way the color looks instead of running the aquablues.

Am i gaining or losing anything from swapping out the Aquablues to Coral +'s? I mainly just have a few softies and LPS but would like to keep a few of the easier SPS towards the top if this fixture is enough light.

Input would be appreciated.