t5 vs MH

[Invigor]

mmm that's niiiiiice.
the TOTM last month on reef central was a 110gal acro tank with 8 t5s on it. the coloration is amazing

[whaase]

That's the same guy as the link I posted.... the 30g was his old tank. He has seemed to master the T5's

Walter

[StirCrazy]

The problem with T5's is they lack the intensity to realy color the corals in deeper tanks, what you are seeing in thoes pics is basicly actinic shots, this is the good thing about T5's. with them you can put 6 on a small tank and go with 4 actinic bulbs and two daylight type bulbs and you get the floressing color of the corals like crazy, if you look at the back grounds of thoes pics all the non coral areas are dark and not lit up very good so you can tell the tank lacks the bright daylight intensity that MH will provide.

As for acros, depending on how deep they are any light will make them grow, lighting is a small part of SPS coleration, there is also the nutrents (or lack of) alk, Ca levels, and so on and so on. the problem comes to play is that the more colorfull your SPS is it seams the more light they need to remain that way. this is because from what I have been reading the color appears when the SPS expelles the algae from inside it, the algae is brown and in low light conditions an abundence of the algae give the corals a brown color. as the coral gets more and mor elight it expells the amount of internal algae as a fewer amount will produce the same amount of food for the coral. this also causes the corals to produce pigments to protect it from UV and causes the coloration. Don't confuse this with actinic coloration theough as that is from the algae giving of a different floressence.

an easy way to tell is to take the coral out of the water into day light and see its color. if it is brown in sunlight then you are getting the color from the actinic lighting, if it is the same color out of water as it is in the water then the color is from the light intensity and other conditions.

My huge Milli I used to have under PC and VHO was only colored in the tank with actinics on (other wise it was brownish) after I upgraded my lighting to 250 watt MH it got to the point when it was a medium blue when out of the water and vivid blue under the lighting.

Rich uses NO lights on his tank with SPS in it and gets some nice color, maybe he can pull us a frag and tell us what color it is in the sunlight compared to in the water.

Steve

[trilinearmipmap]

FWIW I have a T5 setup with LPS/softies and a single SPS coral (montipora digitata) and both growth and coloration are not very good, I know T5 for SPS can be done but I wouldn't recommend it.

[muck]

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

FWIW I have a T5 setup with LPS/softies and a single SPS coral (montipora digitata) and both growth and coloration are not very good, I know T5 for SPS can be done but I wouldn't recommend it.

Are you using the HO bulbs? if so which brand?

[Arty Morty]

They sound pretty good to me. I really dont like the consumption of a MH, not to mention the heat...I will be buying new lights in a month or two, I am glad I found this thread.
Just one question though...
Will they make the tank bottom twinkle like a MH does?
OK two questions
Will they be good enough for demanding clams?
________
Make a vaporizer

[trilinearmipmap]

Originally Posted by muck

Are you using the HO bulbs? if so which brand?

8-bulb 54 Watt T5-HO pendant fixture by sunlight supply
4 11000K bulbs by CoralVue
2 actinic and two Blue Plus bulbs -- forgot who made those

previously had 4 GE 6500K bulbs rather thank the 11000K bulbs

I am happy with this system because I am not really interested in SPS, I just tried to grow Montipora digitata frags to see how it went. Probably if I rearranged my rockwork and put the sps high up just under the lights things would grow fine.

[mr_alberta]

Originally Posted by Arty Morty

They sound pretty good to me. I really dont like the consumption of a MH, not to mention the heat...I will be buying new lights in a month or two, I am glad I found this thread.
Just one question though...
Will they make the tank bottom twinkle like a MH does?
OK two questions
Will they be good enough for demanding clams?

You will not get the MH shimmer affect with T5's as they are not a point source of light. Also, if you are going to go with T5's make sure you get the High Output versions with very good reflectors. The system that trilinearmipmap is using right now is probably one of the best T5 systems available to us.

[Arty Morty]

What does a system like that run? Where would I find a price?
________
LovelyWendie99

[Rikko]

Am I the only one who thinks the MH shimmer is annoying? Halide tanks make me queasy if I look at them too long.
I should mention that presently, lumens/watt output is still the greatest with MH/HQI. They get really hot but produce way more light. If you run, say, 10 fluoro tubes to match the lumens out, you'll be consuming more energy. That was the technical "fact" as of six months ago, anyways.

I did read an article somewhere (I searched for an hour and couldn't find it) that someone did a test using HO T5s with an Icecap ballast overdriving it and actually matched MH light output overall. It looks like the time is coming.