T5s Q&A

Great! Just a simple crisp look... I personally like it.

 

I have been torn for over a year on lighting. I run 3 140w VHOs now because I keep really only fish. I have some coral that can do ok under these lights but I need to upgrade. I would have went with T5 a long time ago if it wasn't for my tank being 27" deep down to the sand. So MH vs T5 has all I have been doing for a year. I kinda want to put MH to rest because I feel they will put out too much heat and draw too much energy. My electric bill is high enough. I have a 6 foot long tank. If I did T5s, would I go with like a 6x80w 60" setup? I have one IC ballast already. I could get another one with some SLR reflectors. How would this do on my tank? That is 480w vs 750w of halides that I would go with. I hear horror stories about MHs really killing peoples power bills. Thanks guys

 

I would definetly go with the 6x80, which you can either stagger to cover the entire tank or do what I did and have them centrally located.
If you were to OD all the lamps you would have good penetration but remember ODing 5' lamps brings their power draw to close to 100w each, plus the lost energy which can be upwards to 10% regardless of what lighting you choose. For example a 250w MH lamp will really be pulling closer to 275w or more.

If you have not read my posts of my tank I have 8x80 on my 24" deep 180. I get decent numbers on the sand, anywhere from 119uMol which is off the end of the lamp or 270uMol dead center. 270 is easily enough to grow most SPS well.

You could OD lamps and put montis and things like that toward the bottom or use the bottom as a place to put LPS. Many people have had issue with T5 and LPS higher up as the more coverage that T5 provides is sometimes to much for certain LPS especially favids.

You have a couple options when SLRs are concerned. Get the 2.5" Aquailluminations, that come in 60" or go my route and get 2" wide Aquactinic's and use 2 36" to make a 60" one.

The Aquailluminations are one of the best SLRs on the market, but in my case wider than I wanted. The Aquactinics are very nice SLRs as well, I was sold on the width as I wanted to cram as many lamps in and still have room to access my tank somewhat easily.

Remember fans are always good esp if you OD the lamps!!

Good luck

 

This is some great info Frag. I would probably go with a 6x80w centered like yours is. That is how my 3 VHOs are set up right now. So I have some more questions. Do I want to overdrive the bulbs? Is it necessary? Like I said before I am trying to keep the power consumption to a minimum. If it is gonna be close to running the MHs then I may just go with them. I realize it is a big tank and with it comes big expense. Right now my tank will stay between 79-81 degrees. If I get MHs then I will probably have to get a chiller too. Man it never ends lol. Iread through some of your posts and the lights look awesome on your tank. I swear I am not good at these kind of decision

 

Well, thanks! I need to post of of my newer pics as I am months behind on my build thread, I just can't find my darn USB cord!

In all honesty yes you will be drawing maybe ~800watts but think about this, you will drawing close to 825w just on the three pendant MH and most likely you will want to add some T5s for blueing/actinics. Remember MH is better at producing warmer spectrums and isn't very great at producing bluer light, whereas T5 is best at making bluer spectrums and not as great at the reds on other "warmer" colors.

Do you need to OD the lamps? In my eyes no but it will not hurt esp if you want SPS to the sand. I can tell you, you will be able to grow SPS to the bottom 1/3 no problem maybe even close to the sandbed, depending on what it is. I have seen SPS grow in ~100uMol, not incredibly fast and somewhat brown but what can you expect. I would say ND lamps would probably allow you to grow monti capricornis and m. digitata maybe 6 or so inches from the bottom of the tank. But, don't quote me on that, there is quite a few factors involved

I keep my tank at about 81 all year with the help of 2 3.5" fans thats it, it got a little hot for a day ~85ish but thats because it was upper 90's and we refused to run the AC as it barely works and didn't want to pay $$ just to hear it.

Grabbing good lamps that put out good PAR will also help contribute to overall SPS growth. I would stay away on True actinics in favor of Blue+/Actinic+'s and Aquablue+'s

 

I'll be building my own T5 Hood soon, thanks to the BRS group buy! Four lights, 4 ft, 54w each. The question is, can I run 3 actinics, 1 white, and rig up a white LED strip to make up for the blue color? I really don't like the look of full actinic, but I understand how important it is for my corals, the LEDs would be simply for aesthetic color balancing. Will the extra actinic make enough of a difference, or should I just run 2 and 2?

Any ideas/feeling about this?

 

So you have 3 actinics @ 54w ea. & 1 white @ 54w. You'l have to put lots of LED's to balance out the color. What do LED's run, 2 or 3 watts ea.? Your still left with a large percentage of "blue".
I think 2 & 2 is still the best bet IMHO.

 

Hey Doc!!

Long time no post...It's that time of year again. I need to change my bulbs and instead of getting the same kinds i've been using, I want to change it up a bit. Right now i'm using a mixture of a fiji pink bulb, 2x UV super blue bulbs and then a ATI blue+. Someone on here recommended it about a year ago and it held true to their word but after a while it wasn't to my liking. I'm looking for just a simple crisp slightly blueish look. Not too white and not too blue. Haha I feel like i'm ordering at a restaurant!! Anywho, i've heard great things about g-mann bulbs. What do you recommend?

 

Hey ermano,
I just picked up 4 g-mann bulbs that where 2 aqua blue +, and 2 acttinic + and it gives a nice crisp look not to blue. Doc had recommended them and I liked the look as soon as I put them in.

 

Blues are different than actinics... Actinics is a violet lamp. Not too intense, put out little PAR(but often great PUR) but help bring out fluorescence in corals.

Blue is probably the best color T5 can make and they can make it with GREAT PAR... This is mainly where MH and T5 differ, T5 is great with blue and not so great with the warmer coolers, MH great with warmer colors but bad with blue.

3:1 will be awfully blue, but if you like that go with it. If you don't want as much blue why not go 1:1 on the lamps. That will combine to make a crisp bluish white, IME a great starting point for determining what color you REALLY want.

To answer your question if you get good LED strips and get a few you could probably offset some of the blue but 3 blue T5 lamps might be hard to overcome.