Replacing t5 bulbs on 72" nova extreme pro

[Prairedog]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the hobby and am just starting up a 155gal. bow front with dual corner overflows. I was going to use the tank for a freshwater planted tank, till I walked into the local marine lfs in my city. I saw there display tank and that was it, I am now going to set it up as a Saltwater Reef tank. Anyway I purchased a 72" nova extreme pro fixture for the freshwater setup, I was going to replace the 460nm with freshwater bulbs. My question is I can't afford to buy a new fixture right now, so can I use this fixture till I can afford to get an ATI powermodule and what would be my best bulb type an placement for the 39watt nova, it has 12 bulbs. Any help would really be appreciated!

[Virtuoso]

I have a 4 bulb 42'' Nova Extreme (not pro) on my 90g and it is doing fine. I think you'll be okay as long as that is the length of your tank. Check the T5 FAQ thread in this forum for suggestions on bulb selection. It makes a big difference.

I think that fixture is fine and would not upgrade to another T5 light. I would save up and go LED.

[rtparty]

I would go with 4 ATI BLue Plus, 1 GE 6500k and 1 ATI Purple Plus on each side. So 12 bulbs total.

Bulbs make a HUGE difference in those fixtures.

[Daimyo68]

I have the 6 bulb Nova Extreme Pro on my 65g tank. I can keep anything in there from softies to clams. Save your money and keep that fixture until it dies.

As for bulbs, reefgeeks has the ati bulbs, which I use and you can see the image below.

Front to back of fixture:
Blue Plus
Purple Plus
Blue Plus
GE 6500k (this is the only bulb that is not made by ATI)
Blue Plus
Blue Plus

[Prairedog]

Hey guys, thanks for the reassurance on the fixture, I'm glad I can use this light and save myself some money to spend on other items for my setup! Just wondering if anybody had anymore bulb configurations for a 39 watt 12 bulb fixture like this. I'd like to keep an anemone, sps corals and some clams, mabe even a few lps corals if possible. Once again, thanks for your help everyone and Keep on Reefing!

[Prairedog]

Daimy068 your tank looks great does that bulb combination give you good growth and light penetration, rtparty recommended the same so you guys must like it. If you were going to do a slightly different combination would you swap out a blue plus for an aquablue special or a aquasun or 75.25 just curious! The current combo your using does it give you a nice dusk/dawn look! Thanks Again, Everyone!

[Daimyo68]

It's a very blue look for the dusk/dawn time.

The image is all 6 bulbs on. I haven't really played around with changing the bulbs out for other colors, but Grim_Reefer (where we got our bulb setups from) recommends:

You could make the color slightly bluer by moving the Actinic White (Purple Plus) and GE lamps back one slot so 2 blues are in front. For a more blue look replace the GE lamp with an Aquablue, less blue replace a blue with an Aquablue

I get great growth, from bottom to top. I did however learn that the par values are pretty high in a 24" high tank with the fixture on it's stock legs. I now have most of my sps at half way down in the tank. What would happen is the sps would bleach out. Once I moved them down, I had color back in a few weeks. I have a Hydnopora that likes the high par, but most others do better lower.

I did a par level reading a couple months ago, and here's what I had:

65g Tank, 36x18x24
Current Nova Extreme Pro, single contoured reflector
4 ATI Blue +, 1 ATI Purple +, 1 GE 6500k
Bulbs are 4.25" from water surface
It's 19" from water surface to sand bed

Center of tank:
Just above surface of the water - 680
Just below surface of the water - 520
Half way down - 316
On the sand bed - 206


Front Glass:
Just below the surface of the water - 336
Half way down - 238
On the sand bed - 178

At the tip of my highest placed acro - 379
At the Green Millepora, at the back of the tank just under half way down - 269


Even though the values are still high, the color spectrum has depreciated over time, especially in the last month, so I will be replacing them later this month.