t-5, overdrive or not?

[roons]

i currently have 8 bulb t-5 , sunlight tek , on a 120 gal , 3" off water, ............................i run 5 ab and 3 b+


ive been driving them normally with triad ballasts from reefgeek, my corals dont grow that fast but look good, 2 croceas that ive moved up seem to be bleaching around the edges.................do you think overdriving them would help the tank? how much hotter would they run? i replace every 12-14 months now, how would that change?

[The Grim Reefer]

You would have to remote wire the ballast. You also have to run a couple of fans to keep the lamps from overheating. I think I would only OD half the lamps. You might try running a couple of GE daylight in your mix if you are looking for more growth, they out perform the Aquablue by about 25%

[s3aL]

Originally posted by roons
i currently have 8 bulb t-5 , sunlight tek , on a 120 gal , 3" off water, ............................i run 5 ab and 3 b+


ive been driving them normally with triad ballasts from reefgeek, my corals dont grow that fast but look good, 2 croceas that ive moved up seem to be bleaching around the edges.................do you think overdriving them would help the tank? how much hotter would they run? i replace every 12-14 months now, how would that change?

I dont think a bleaching clam is from not enough light. Clams tend to turn brownish when not recieving enough light. From all the Tek T5 tanks ive seen, you should have plenty of light for just about anything. What are you water parameters?

[roons]

water is all good, always.......................you think i should replace the 2 ab i have in center with ge daylight grim?

i run same combo as danano, yet he doesnt seem to have growth problems............

ab
b+
ab
ab
b+
ab
b+
ab

[rioreef]

I overdrive 4 of my 6 T5s. I just replaced the 4 ODs at the 12 month mark, but the 2 on the triad ballasts still appear to be ok. I am glad I went the way to OD.

What I do is have three timing cycles (# of bulbs lit: 2-4-6-4-2). I I just put the triad ballast on a timer that is on three different times during the day and the IceCap ballast is on for one light cycle. This allows for a ramp-up of light and then decrease. Operating like this for a year now an my tank/coral are all doing great.

Welcome back Grim. I will say a year ago, your comments/research on T5s made me go this route and I have never looked back.

Chris

[The Grim Reefer]

Couldn't hurt. How clear is your water?

[roons]

very, i run ozone..................btw that listing of bulbs is front to back......................also, could you explain briefly how the 6500k of the ge is better than the 11000k of the ab?

[staninct]

PAR values of the lower Kelvin rating (6500 vs. 11000 - especially with the GE Bulb) mean better penetration into the water, and therefore your SPS should grow much faster. There are, of course, about a million variables that could throw this off, but it is a generally accepted practice to run a lower k rated bulb (i.e. yellower) for better growth, and a higher rated bulb for "blueness" effect for the pleasure of the human eye.

[roons]

so this would be not too yellow and id get better growth ?

front

ab
b+
ge
ge
b+
ab
b+
ab

[The Grim Reefer]

As far as not looking too yellow try the lamps in this order

Front

B+
AB
B+
GE
GE
AB or B+
B+ or AB
AB

The more blue lamps you run at the front the bluer the light will look. Doing this might lok slightly more blue.

Front
B+
B+
GE
AB
GE
B+
AB
AB

[roons]

ok , i could play around with it , but i have 4 sets of 2, 4 ballasts, so id like to keep either the ge together in the middle, or ge/ab combo in the middle two sets.....................maybe...............

front
b+
b+
ab
ge
ge
ab
b+
ab


?

[The Grim Reefer]

That would be worth a try.

[roons]

ok, ill order them tomm, see how it goes, do run sun bulbs as well?

[The Grim Reefer]

Suns were pathetic, now they have a 6500K midday that might be more in line with the GE but the ATI sun produced just a little more PAR than the Actinic Plus.

[roons]

http://www.reefgeek.com/products/cat...uorescent.html


your saying the giesemans which are more money are not as good? i was wondering what t-5 combo you run

[The Grim Reefer]

The GE lamp looked more greenish to me which is easier to wash out with blue lamps than yellow Sun lamp. GE PAR measured just off the lamp is about 1500, the Sun were slightly better than the actinic plus which is around 1000. I know of 2 other people who have measured them and gotten similar results.

My last T5 mix was 2 actinic plus 2 aquablues 1 pure actinic and 1 GE.

[roons]

ok, thanx for your help grim, ill let ya know how the results come out