6x54w T5 Retrofit for 90 Gal with SPS

Awesome! I want some pics, lol. Maybe in the future try a pure actinic with that combo for a nice spectrum. Not that your choice is lacking by any means. Now to watch that explosive growth and awesome glow

 

I meant to take pics but was rushing to work. I don't know if it's just a mental thing but after hooking it up I noticed a few of my half dead sps frags perk up and polyps starting to peak through. Will take pics tomorrow morning first thing.

 

I added 2 T5s (ATI Coral Plus and ATI Blue Plus) to my Evergrow LED unit over my SPS tank. My tank looks much better with the T5 as it provides more coverage, less shadow and basically eliminated the disco effect, while toning obnoxious shimmer down.

6 T5s will without a doubt grow SPS. 4 will even.

 

I love my t5/LED hybrid. I'm occasionally tempted by the cost and convenience of LED, but I like my tank better and feel more comfortable with the LED. T5 should make you very happy. If it doesn't, we'll the relevant question was never whether LEDs grow coral, it's what do you like and enjoy the look of. We can each prefer this hobby in our own way successfully.

 

I borrowed that from your setup that you posted on before with the hybrid set up and it was great. I swapped over because my one Evergrow decided to go on my with the blue channel so instead of replacing with another I wanted to try T5. In the end I found which LED chip went bad and jumped it out to bring the unit back to life.

without a doubt it was more personal preference than thinking LEDs didn't grow coral. there's countless evidence online showing beautiful LED only tanks.

 

Here's a few professional iPhone pics lol. It's the best I can provide at the moment. I did notice that the new ballast is having a hard time firing off the 2 bulbs. Had to unplug and plug it back it for it to turn on. Going to have to contact them for a possible replacement. And ignore the bare light fixture. I've still been too busy to throw painted trim around it to match the tank. Hopefully this weekend I'll have that done. Tried taking some pics up close on two frags to show the new polyp extension that I haven't seen like that. I'm not saying it's directly related to T5 lighting that it didn't do that because of LEDs. I'm just saying that after I took out the LED units, they blossomed within an hour.

 

I think you're not alone in this experience. In my case, its probably because I'm just too dumb to operate LED properly, but my tank went nuts when I switched back to t5.

 

I think it's a lot to do with water quality as well. Where if you slack with one thing, the other might not work at full potential. My water might not be the best in the world, therefore the T5's might help make up the difference with a more complete light spectrum than LED's in my tank. I might be wrong with that statement, but it feels that way with my tank.