T5s Q&A

Wow thank you very much!

At what height would you put it above the water?

Would that fixture be too much for a 48x20x24?

 

No its not too much, I think it would be a good amount.
You can have it anywhere from an 1" away from the water to a foot... How strong do you want the light in the tank?
You can always slowly decrease the distance to the tank.
My lamps are probably 3" MAX from the WATER... Maybe an inch or so from the tank top. I would've gone even closer but didn't want the center brace to cast a shadow.

Happy lighting!

 

Another quick question excuse for using so much of your time =) :

Would this lamp be enough for a 60 gallon 39 in wide 24 inch tall tank? i mean enough regarding a reef with at least some sps, in the website they say it's not suitable for tridacta clams an acapora corals because you need MH to have those, is that true? MH is a must for those?

Thank you so much!

 

The tank is 39" wide?!?! If so the 4 lamps on the Sundial will not cover the tank.

T5 can and will grow SPS and clams.... Thats the point of this thread and the others ons on this and other sites. I have said this probably 100 times on 3reef alone, I have 8 T5s on a 180 gal tank which is 72"x24"X24"... I have SPS growing essentially down to the sandbed. I have enough PAR to grow a clam(don't because the flame angel would make it lunch). The old rules are out, books, online sites and other references are all going out of date. I bet there are many people that even seeing my tank will deny T5 can grow SPS so well. Right now things are moving so fast and people are learning more and more about lighting and coral growth that things are going to change big time.

If you are trying to light a 39" wide tank with T5 you will need like 16 lamps to cover. Or maybe less if you use TEK reflectors, you could get away with like 11 lamps.

What about the Tek fixture you were looking at?

 

I wish Aqualux lighting were still around. They were far cheapoer than reefgeek and had great customer service. They also used ATI reflectors that AFAIK are the best reflectors as far as ease of cleaning up and not staining from salt spray.

When I got my 3x39 t5ho retro for my 35g in 2004, it was 175 dollars shipped with 2 ATI blue and 1 GE 6500k bulb, including W5 ballast and waterproof endcaps. For an all included retro, nobody could beat their prices for individually bought parts or as a retrofit.

 

I have T5s and have a crocea clam. I have 4 x 54w T5 HO (Nova Extreme), Aqua Science bulbs. The clam is in the top 1/3 of the tank, but I have had it for about 9 months now and since I added the Aqua Science bulbs it has actually colored up more.

 

I was replacing one of my bulbs and noticed that my 460nm was close to white compared to the other 460nm so I changed it out for a new one(luckily I had 2 new ones laying around). Has anybody seen this happen? or is this what happens when they get old?

 

Did you get the wrong bulb shipped? I have seen VERY occasionally a mistagged lamp...

Blue and actinic lamps tend to fade over time but not THAT bad....

 

I don't know why some sites list that you can't keep clams under t5ho, and that you NEED MH to keep them.

When I had my 3x39 t5ho lit 35g, I had gold maximas, blue maximas, and a squamosa that did very well fr a long time under only 117w of t5ho.

Heck I had a GBTA and an RBTA in there as well and they were all happy.

 

Yeah, T5 has more power than people think... Between the coverage, the consistant PAR values and the fact that I am lighting my tank with about 200 less watts then a MH setup and still getting probably the same growth as a MH setup should say enough.....

One day the T5 club will have its day.

Happy lighting!