T-5 advice

[jhale]

I've decided to switch from VHO to T-5's soon, before I have to buy another set of VHO bulbs.

I now have 2 60" tubes in the front and 2 48" tubes in the back.
the MH are 175 - 250 - 175 , this is over a 60"x24" tank 20" high.

how many T-5's would you use? and which bulbs do you like?

I'll be using two icecap 430's to drive them.

thanks.

 

[spykes]

blue+ and aquablue special has very good par and color, makes the tank look 14K

 

[marrone]

2nd on the Blue+, they look really nice and give you good growth.

You could probably get 4 bulbs in the same space as each 2 bulb setup. So you could go with either 2-4 in both the front and back and you'll probably be able to cut down on the amount of time you have your MH on which should cut down on some your E-bill.

 

[jhale]

2nd on the Blue+, they look really nice and give you good growth.

You could probably get 4 bulbs in the same space as each 2 bulb setup. So you could go with either 2-4 in both the front and back and you'll probably be able to cut down on the amount of time you have your MH on which should cut down on some your E-bill.

I like that

when you say blue+ is that a specific bulb from one company?

I think I can only run two 48" bulbs with the icecaps for each ballast, I have to check with them.

 

[marrone]

Here is Reef Greek web site they have a lisitng of the bulbs and acutal charts of each. I purchased my bulbs from them and they took really good care on the shipping as they placed them in PVC and even though UPS bend the box the bulbs were fine.


Reef Greek T-5 Bulbs

Also do a seacrh on RC and you'll find a lot of threads on T-5 bulbs and what works best and what looks best. There are quite abit of different bulbs out there and you can do all kind of combinations to get what you want.

 

[spykes]

aqualux have pretty good reflectors, so far they have as much par as the icecaps but half the price.

 

[jhale]

I looked at reefgeeks site,

so many combinations are possible, it's confusing.
I guess I'll have to hit RC and do some reading.
Does anyone else have T5' bulbs they like?

 

[cali_reef]

I hate everyone I tried, now I'm back to VHO actinics.

Reefgeek is great for T5 stuff, I had great response from them when UPS broke some bulbs in a shipment. I have some reflectors left for 80w bulb, let me know if you want them.
http://www.reefgeek.com/products/categories/lighting/104053.html

 

[marrone]

Jonthan

This is what I was running on my T-5 setup and it gave me a really nice color:

Marine Blue
Blue Plus(Actinic)
Sun(6000k)
Aqua Blue
Blue Plus(Actinic)
Aqua Blue+ (11000k)

The Aqua Blue+ 11000k is very white.

Check some posts on RC as you'll find alot of different option on T-5 bulbs. Check on Moonpod post as he posts alot about lighting.

Michael

 

[cali_reef]

And moonpod sold me all his T5 stuff.

 

[marrone]

Speaking of VHO bulbs I need to change mine and currently I'm running 2 - Coralife 03 actinic with 2- 14k Hamilton 175watt MH, which gives me a blueish white color. I want to get a little more of a whitish color, even though the tank isn't really that blue what bulbs would anyone recomand. I'm looking at the URI Actinic, 50/50 or the White Actinic.

thanks
Michael

Sorry Jonthan didn't want to hijack your thread but this seems like a good place to ask.

 

[marrone]

And moonpod sold me all his T5 stuff.

So he must have upgrade his or I guess didn't like them and switch back :scratchch

 

[cali_reef]

To get the shimmer effect he wanted the MH was the only way to go... He also wanted some SPS and clams at the time.

His new tank will be using SE MH with Luminarcs, I am not sure what actinic supplement he is going with.

 

[jhale]

Speaking of VHO bulbs I need to change mine and currently I'm running 2 - Coralife 03 actinic with 2- 14k Hamilton 175watt MH, which gives me a blueish white color. I want to get a little more of a whitish color, even though the tank isn't really that blue what bulbs would anyone recomand. I'm looking at the URI Actinic, 50/50 or the White Actinic.

thanks
Michael

Sorry Jonthan didn't want to hijack your thread but this seems like a good place to ask.

I can tell you do not use the actinic white, they should be called actinic red, ugh they are horrible.

Pierce did you really hate them that much? I saw some on steves tank, and Jungs, and Kedd's, they all looked good to me, but this was mixed with MH.
did you use them just by themselves or mixed with MH?

I want them to supplement the MH, but also to light the tank for viewing when the MH are off.

 

[marrone]

The 50/50 are suppose to be yellowish. Anyone have the Super Actinic? What color do they look like. I may just go with the URI 03 Actinic after all. I think they're bluer than the Corallife actinic that I currently have, which are pretty old.

 

[jhale]

I've got the super actinics, they are as blue as you can get.

they balance out the three 10K MH I have nicely.

 

[inkblue]

I have the 48-inch Tek 6 bulBs, but only turn on 4 coZ i noticed corals 'wincing' whenver i turn'd on all 6 :scratchch :sleepy:

 

[marrone]

I've got the super actinics, they are as blue as you can get.

they balance out the three 10K MH I have nicely.

Probably not good for me as my 14k Hamilton which is blue. I guess if I went back to the Ishio that would work.

 

[cali_reef]

Pierce did you really hate them that much? I saw some on steves tank, and Jungs, and Kedd's, they all looked good to me, but this was mixed with MH.
did you use them just by themselves or mixed with MH?

I want them to supplement the MH, but also to light the tank for viewing when the MH are off.

I use two 84w to supplement the three 250W DE 10K's I had on my 180, they don't have the same effect as URI actinic 03 or super actinic, corals don't glow under them. They are okay for fish only or just as viewing lights before and after MH, but mixing with MH sucked.

Michael, You should try one URI actinic 03 and one 50/50, they mix pretty well.

 

[marrone]

I'm think about get a couple of each and trying them out and see what they look like. I'll then sell the other bulb that I don't like.