T5s Q&A

So you are telling me you think you can only grow SPS in the top third of a 21" tank with T5? I bet you could grow SPS all the way to the sand bed and anywhere you want with a TX5 EASILY!!
270uMol/m2/sec on the sandbed of a 24" tall tank.... EASILY enough for just about all SPS to thrive....
I am not knocking MH at all, I think it looks great, I am here not to bash MH I am here to promote T5....
Good luck with whatever you choose!!

 

well what kinda gathered from this, that there is a difference between t5 and halides we can not notice but the corals sure do. not saying one is better than the other. but when going from one to the other some corals need kinda long adjustment times. possibly even releasing zoox. for a new clade(i think that is the term)

acros suffering are ora plum crazy, sunset milli, suharsonoi(deep water)
also a monti danae(superman) but that monti was 5 months ago and has since went clear and slowly regained all its dark purple color,

acros that are doing great and have kept there color or increased, bali green, blue bottle brush marshall island, rose milli,oregon blue tort, all growing very fast. with amazing polyp displays. as well as all my older corals.

i guess when i grouped them like that i answered my own question.

i think it comes down to i need to find a quantum meter to know for sure. i think my lfs has one. so i will def be asking them to come test my stuff. i think they will for sure.

tangster & dr. frank

for mh vs t5 argument to ever be closed there would need to be some hard facts of corals grown under identical conditions, with nothing diff. than the light source. but to say one is better than the other is just the individuals opinions.

but there are now far to many beautiful sps tanks running t5s only for me to want to sell my setup and go halides.

i will be sure to follow up with more info when i get the meter over here.
babbling again.

thanks everyone, dr.frank ,tangster (for you opinions)lol.

 

Well not with 4 x 54w T5s. I fully agree with you that if had a decent 6 bulb fixture, or even a better 4 bulb fixture, there would be no problem. However, I only have a Nova Extreme with the one large reflector, so I need to monitor where I place more light demanding corals. I wish now that I started with a 75 gal. tank to get the extra width, then I would through a Tek or Ati fixture on it and call it a day. But a 6 bulb fixture would be way too wide for my tank, not to mention an 8 bulb fixture, and retro possibility, thus the move to MH.

 

Ah, I never asked WHAT fixture you have... A 6 lamp Tek would work on a 55, the fixture would hang over the edge but the lamps would fit over the tank perfectly.
Also the TX5 would fit perfectly and it is a VERY nice unit. It is amazing what SLRs can do.

 

I will look into that then. Thanks

 

Here tangster, since I can't just use my own tank to prove T5 will grow coral he is another example.. Here is a 125 from a guy in our club. I know tang you will argue that the colors aren't all there yet but if you were to read his whole thread you would see how much they have colored up since the start with T5!!

 

hi people, there is waaay to many pages on this thread to read through and find if anyone has already answered the questions im about to ask so i figured id give it a go and see what happens.
im new to the hobby and i bought a setup from the lfs so i dont know exactly the brand and output of my lights, now im in australia so different brands id say. all i know is that its a 24inch long twin bulb t5 setup with one white bulb and one blue bulb(actinic?) now i am starting to keep corals and dont think this lighting is adequate. should i just get another one of these twin t5 setups from fish shop and have 2 blue in one with the timer set longer than the one with 2 white globes? this way would cramp the hood of my tank alot, meaning taking lights out to do maintenance etc.
this is gettin quite long but wondering if i should buy a setup that takes 4-5 globes, only thing is with one of these setups can i run actinics longer than whites? like do they have 2 power outputs that i can put on different timers?
last but not least, globe output and colours..are all normal t5s 10k and t5HOs of a higher output? my idea if i had a 5 lights setup would be 2 white, 2 actinic and 1 fiji purple, would this work out well? i am after a kind of blue effect but not to washed out.

sorry about all the questions ppl

 

Wow, never heard anyone call lamps/bulbs globes before!! Must be a "down under" thing!!;D
How big is the tank? If you do not know gallonage dimensions will work, actually I would prefer dimensions.
You have 2 bulbs, looking for 4-5 bulbs in one unit... Yeah there are plenty out there just not sure what is available to you in Australia.
Tek makes a 24" fixture as does Current as well as others. If these brands are foreign to you look for a fixture with single lamp reflectors(SLR) that will increase your output big time and save you money in the long run.

Most fixtures have multiple switches so yes you can have a dawn and dusk type cycle if you use the appropriate timers and so on.

Not sure what your last question is asking.... All normal output(NO) T5s are a lower wattage then HO lamps the 10.000k is the spectrum or color of the bulb not intensity, you can have a NO or HO 10,000k lamp.
Lamps come in a variety of spectrums regardless of output... In a reef setting I would stick with HO.
2:2:1 would be a fine ratio, a little blue heavy but that is your perogative.
Personally if I wanted blue I would do 2:3 and skip the actinic but that is just me, you will over time from replacing lamps find a combo that really works for you, sometimes you get lucky and its the first pick!!

Hope that covers them all!!

Happy lighting!

 

well after a great deal of searching online i only found one setup to choose from that seems to be what i need, not much of a choice which sucks. the one i found is called an octopus horizon 4000 2ft. it has 2x24w daylight, 2x24 blue actinic and blue led moonlights inclosed in the setup. it doesnt say much about setting different times that each light stays on. in the pic it has 3 switches on the side and only one power cable.
how could you possibly control the stages of all 3 types of lights with only one power cable?
i have emailed the supplier to ask if running the blue an hour longer morning and night is possible and so on.

here is the link to the site, if you could have a look and tell me what you think that would be great. thanks for your help

Detailed Product View

 

With only one power cord, I'd think you'd not be able to indpenedently control the daylights and actinics on a timer.

Dr.Frag - even in the other T5 tank you posted pics of above, the bases of the SPS are very brown under the T5s. I guess it's alive and growing under T5s, yes, but the color is not there. I'd rather have good looking, nice colored zoas, palys and mushrooms under PC than browned out SPS under T5. The whole point is they look good, right? This doesn't look that good.