Just got an 8 bulb Tek fixture need some advice.

So I just scored an 8 bulb Tek light fixture off of craigslist for $250. It came with 8 GE 6500k bulbs. He used this fixture 2 times and used it for growing. I need some ideas for bulbs and bulb placement. Also my tank has been cycling for 2 weeks with no lights with only live rock and a damsel. Any advice on introducing my lights to the tank. Starting height? How long should I run per day? Thanks in advance.

Jay

 

congrats on the lighting

check out the T5 thread started by Dr Fragenstein as there are lots of images of tanks lit by various types of T5s

a lot is personal preference to some degree
I have a 6 x 80 watt T5 and have 4 x 14k and 2 x Actinic
if I had used 10K tubes, I would have gone 3 x 10k and 3 x actinic

If I did have a 8 tube canopy I would probable have 5 x 14k and 3 Actinic -

but there are many combinations, so check out the thread and see which tank colouration appeals to you

my T5s are on legs which keeps them about 5 inches off the top of the water surface

your going from zero lighting to bringing lighting on line？
as you have no light dependent corals in there as yet
you can phase them in real slowly

start at 6 hours per day for a couple of weeks
move up to 8 for a couple of weeks
then 10 for a couple of weeks
thereafter 10 hours for full lights with an hour extra either side for actinics

again this will vary , different people have different preferred methods

Steve

 

Not much to add to good Steves post...
If you are intially cycling I wouldn't run the lamps full bore as all you will be doing is giving light to algae.
Do you have the mounting legs SLS sells for the Tek or are you planning on hanging it?
I would at the onset of adding it, run only a few daylights coupled with some actinics, so you can see whats in the tank but won't be paying $$ to light algae. If you don't have any coral in the tank yet there is no need to run all eight lamps.

Only downside to Teks is the wiring SLS does on them. One switch fires the two end lamps and the other fires the other six, so you need to either run two lamps or six during this intial period.

What size tank do you have?
What type of coral are you planning on keeping?
As far as lamp suggestions go, like Steve said, its mostly personal preference.... Some like REALLY blue tanks, some what a crisp white tank, others just want good growth while others just want good colors, some its a little of all the above.

Good luck and congrats on the score, thats a great price!!

 

thanks for your input. I do want to go for a blue look so I am thinking the aquablue+. The bulbs that are in are a white 6500k. These bulbs have been ran very little. Will there be any use for these as I add coral and livestock. they are a GE bulb and I hate to just put those up if they are useless.

 

I have a six bulb tek light, I have in order, UV Super actinc, Geissmann AquaBlue, AquaScience 22,000K, AquaScience 22,000K, UV White Actinic and UV Super Actinic. This give a really nice color overall, not too blue, but blue enough, at least for my taste. Overall color probably somewhere around 15,000K.

 

As i've said before i ran an equal mix of ati blue plus and aquablue specials.Great color,nice and blue,but not over powering,and great growth.Don't plan on using those 6500"s i tried 2 in my 8 tube,nothing but an algae bloom.

 

Are you sure on this as my tek 8 bulb is 4 on one switch and 4 on the other. Is this something they done on a older version?

 

Only downside to running a 1:1 mix of Blue+ to the Aquablue+ is without the red spectrum, even a little, some of the oranges and reds in the SPS will take on more of a pastel color.... A fiji purple will help with that.

Thanks for reminding me, I had mush brain and was thinking of the 4 and 6 lamp Tek's wiring. The 8 lamp does have 4on 4 off capabilities.

 

good thing we got that wiring thing straight, started to get confused because mine is 4 and 4 as well. I think papareef is right about the 6500k bulbs, i have had a lot of purple starting to form but as of this morning, I noticed a bunch of green algae starting to form on my rock. So I am swapping bulbs out today for sure.

 

They aren't useless, they'll grow plants which is what I'm ASSUMING he'd done with his . Unfortunately in a reef environment, I am pretty sure they'll grow GHA.