T5 Flourescent Lighting Thread

[pecan2phat]

Glad to hear that they work well for you Mike. I forgot that you are independently wealthy and can replace your bulbs more frequently

Seriously though, you always have the best and nicest equipment.

 

[jackson6745]

I always have the most noisy and electricity consuming equipment

 

[joe]

overdrivving T-5 bulbs works great ... i know some people whow do that and are getting great color.
i also cant emphasize enough the importance of individual refelctors for each bulb. if not then your really not getting to much HO from your HO bulbs...kinda defeats the purpose.
ive used t-5's with a single large "communal" reflector and the brightness doesnt even compare to individual reflectors.
just a thought

 

[gforce6]

Get the best stuff, if you can.

 

[joe]

there are also people who are not impressed by the t5 actinic bulbs and therefore use a VHO URI super actinic bulb retroed into the canopy(if possible) the URI are great blue bulbs.
this is the combo many t5 users use if its a 4 bulbs fixture...like the one i used to have,
2xATI Aquablue
2XATI Blue

i think the aquablue bulb is like 60/40 not sure in which way though. alsmot like a 50/50

 

[pecan2phat]

Individual parabolic reflectors can make the difference of up to 50% of the lighting.
As Joe stated, make sure that they're individual reflectors like SLS or Ice Caps.

 

[joe]

Individual parabolic reflectors can make the difference of up to 50% of the lighting.
As Joe stated, make sure that they're individual reflectors like SLS or Ice Caps.

das right,
individual parabolic reflectors all the way!!! this man ^^^^ know his stuff!!
wow 50% i didnt know it was that big of a diffrence.

 

[jackson6745]

das right,
individual parabolic reflectors all the way!!! this man ^^^^ know his stuff!!
wow 50% i didnt know it was that big of a diffrence.

Check his tank thread Awesome 120gal

 

[joe]

Check his tank thread Awesome 120gal

oh boy did i check it out... i love that tank,,,and i love your 120 also,
and that why i too am setting up a 120 (pear preasure)

wait his 120 is only t-5? i did not know that ...that graet,,, so much less heat.

Rich how much you topping off(per/week) on your 120,
i wonder what he is topping off...

 

[jackson6745]

His 120 has 250w halides but he has a 102 plumbed into it with T5's. I think I top off about 12-15 gals per week

 

[mshur]

Glad to hear that they work well for you Mike. I forgot that you are independently wealthy and can replace your bulbs more frequently

Seriously though, you always have the best and nicest equipment.

thankx warren))

anyone have expirience with reeflux-12k bulbs?

 

[kimoyo]

and the t-5 colors are washed out in a washing machine.

:lol:

In case you didn't want to click the link, here's just one photo from it. BTW, in case you were interested, it is a T-5 lit only tank.

:lol:

 

[kimoyo]

When they were in the 120g with dual 250 watt XM SE 10,000k MHs on Ice Caps and two 110w URI VHO actinics also on an Ice Cap, they were actually overlit to a degree.

Whats your photo period for this?

Rich,
Right now, that 102g tank only draws 236 watts for lighting for about 8 hours

 

[pecan2phat]

Paul,
The photo period on the 120g is 10 hours of VHO actinics & 6 hours of MH lighting.
In the spring time to fall, I usually bump this up to 12 hours and 8 hours but don't know if I'll do it this spring due to my astronomical electric bill.
The T5s follow the same routine. 2 outer actinc+ bulbs for 10 hours and the remaining 4 center bulbs for 6 hours.

 

[masterswimmer]

Pecan, you're using 33% of your T-5 lighting as 6500k (yellow) bulbs and then added an 11k bulb. So 50% of your lighting is under 11K. How can you compare that to your MH setup while running 110w of VHO URI actinics on that tank. There's no question in my mind which tank would look superior.

I also agree that T-5 actinics leave a lot to be desired. URI makes the best actinic out there IMO.

Rich, lets be real now. I never said that T-5's were THE BEST way to go. This thread was started to find out if it's possible to run T-5's efficiently and effectively on a reef tank. I think I've proven that it is possible. And as far as the RC TOTM's being predominantly MH lit tanks, (first off there haven't been 100's of them, only 12 per year), that stands to reason they would be MH lit tanks because almost all of their TOTM's are SPS dominated tanks. T-5's are another viable alternative to MH's. Less expensive to run, less expnesive to replace bulbs and potentially comparable colors.

There are a lot of 'right ways' to do things in this hobby. Don't condemn anyone for going outside mainstream and having success.

:grouphug:

master

 

[Deanos]

And as far as the RC TOTM's being predominantly MH lit tanks, (first off there haven't been 100's of them, only 12 per year), that stands to reason they would be MH lit tanks because almost all of their TOTM's are SPS dominated tanks.

Also not mentioned, metal halides have been used on reef tanks far longer than T-5s. You can only imagine the ratio of MH lit tanks to T-5 lit tanks in the submissions they receive. :scratch: 10:1 100:1?

 

[masterswimmer]

Also not mentioned, metal halides have been used on reef tanks far longer than T-5s. You can only imagine the ratio of MH lit tanks to T-5 lit tanks in the submissions they receive. :scratch: 10:1 100:1?

Deano, another great observation.

master

 

[pecan2phat]

IMO, without the 6500ks, there would be limited growth on the SPS.
Tanks that are run with a 50/50 ratio of just blue bulbs and 11,000k bullbs are too blue for my taste.
I think that you should run at least one 6500k in a 6-bulb setup just for the PAR alone on that bulb.
My choices in the bulb setup was to attempt to keep SPS corals that came out of my 120g with MH lighting, if I went with 3 actinic+ & 3 aquablue+, I think the corals would have browned out vs being faded at this point.
Also was never a fan of the 20,000k look.

 

[Rborgia]

I use the following T5 on my 58:

2 x Aqua Blue Plus
1 x Sun light (6500K)
1 x Pure Actinic Blue

all D-D Giesmann.

If you look at the SUN bulb directly, you can see the yellowish color to it. However, when the other bulbs are on, you can't really see it.

I chose the above bulbs only because of the spectrum coverage. Yes some/most is overlapping, but each one may peak out a little higher then the next on a given range.

Pure Actinic:

Aqua Blue Plus:

Sun Light:

 

[kimoyo]

IMO, without the 6500ks, there would be limited growth on the SPS.
Tanks that are run with a 50/50 ratio of just blue bulbs and 11,000k bullbs are too blue for my taste.
I think that you should run at least one 6500k in a 6-bulb setup just for the PAR alone on that bulb.
My choices in the bulb setup was to attempt to keep SPS corals that came out of my 120g with MH lighting, if I went with 3 actinic+ & 3 aquablue+, I think the corals would have browned out vs being faded at this point.
Also was never a fan of the 20,000k look.

If your corals look faded that means you have too much light vs. not enough nutrients. Since you nutrients are so low you might cut back on your photoperiod and see what happens. Thats pretty funny considering your using so much more wattage with the halides and vhos.

Remember the light from halides falls off quickly from the center point but t5's have uniform light over the entire tank.