talking about T5 and SPS color !

Delphinus · #1 07-11-2007, 05:14 PM

Hmmm, interesting. The diffuse-ness of the light helps keep the bottoms viable. Ok, that's a major plus then for the T5's.

Curious, what are your thoughts about penetration of T5's? How tall is your tank? Would additional bulbs (ie. 8 vs. 6, or 10 vs. 8, etc.) compensate for taller tanks (e.g., a 30" tall tank).

I imagine one big plus of an 8 bulb unit is the ability to mix and match bulbs to get a wicked colour and spectral coverage.

What other things would you say you are doing that are contributing to your better colour these days?

michika · #2 07-11-2007, 05:33 PM

Is it just me or does the water at the top of both tanks look hazy? Could it just be the photos, but some of the colors looked washed out, particularly at the top of the tanks.

Delphinius, I must agree with you, I've seen some local tanks that look just as good, if not better. The colors, and clairity of some local tanks are much sharper, giving the viewer a "cleaner" view.

Nate · #3 07-11-2007, 07:56 PM

Ummmm....

Tony 24 inch tall tank, 30 inch wide...the 8 bulb tek unit gives full coverage.

Penetration is great, I wish the tank was 30 tall for 2 reasons. One, growth to the top, and 2 I bleach quite a few corals with the intensity of the light (ie encrusting monti's) even on the very bottom of the tank.

I also wanted to mention I have been trying out as many different bulbs as possible everything from 3000 k to all the different ATI bulbs. So if you have any questions about a bulb in particular, I will be happy to let yyou know iuf I have tried it and noticed abything with it.

BEtter colour I attribute to....

LESS Maintenance
T5 lighting
More flow (4 koralia 4's and a couple of seio's on a seio controller, and two rio 32 hf'splumbed through the eurobrace.)

Oh, and I am now using a bubblemaster as well, which hasnt made a difference in colour, but possibly polyp extension for some reason
and just better tank design than my tanks prior.

andresont · #4 07-12-2007, 12:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nate

I also wanted to mention I have been trying out as many different bulbs as possible everything from 3000 k to all the different ATI bulbs. So if you have any questions about a bulb in particular, I will be happy to let yyou know iuf I have tried it and noticed abything with it.

.

Can you please tell me what is the best T5 lamps choise for crisp white with lots of blue in it? I just ordered T5 Tek x 6 lamps and Bulbs choice was
4xATI Blue+, 1x Midday and 1x ATI BlueSpecial ?
I did not received my fixture yet , did i make a right chice for 36" long 24" inch deep 60Gal tank with SPS in mind?
Thx.

Der_Iron_Chef · #5 08-10-2007, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andresont

Can you please tell me what is the best T5 lamps choise for crisp white with lots of blue in it? I just ordered T5 Tek x 6 lamps and Bulbs choice was
4xATI Blue+, 1x Midday and 1x ATI BlueSpecial ?
I did not received my fixture yet , did i make a right chice for 36" long 24" inch deep 60Gal tank with SPS in mind?
Thx.

andresont....did you end up getting this fixture? If so, which bulbs did you decide on, and do you like the colour combination? Any recommendations for me (I just ordered a T5 Tek fixture).

Nate....any recommendations for bulb combinations? I prefer a crisp white with slightly blue look. In other words, no yellow

andresont · #6 07-12-2007, 12:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michika

Is it just me or does the water at the top of both tanks look hazy? Could it just be the photos, but some of the colors looked washed out, particularly at the top of the tanks.

Delphinius, I must agree with you, I've seen some local tanks that look just as good, if not better. The colors, and clairity of some local tanks are much sharper, giving the viewer a "cleaner" view.

I does look hazy , i think this might be because they use clay to help skim away nutrients that stick to it.

Chin_Lee · #7 07-12-2007, 01:01 AM

OK I don't really see the difference in power between these T5 tanks and a MH tank.
The first tank is 350g and tank dims (converted) are 6.5' long x 36 D x 24H.
For lighting its using:
10 x ATI Aquablue special 80 Watt which equals 800 watts
4 x ATI Blue plus 80 Watt which equals 320 watts
6 x ATI Aquablue special 39 Watt which equals 234 watts
2 x ATI Blue plus 39 Watt which equals 78 watts
Thats a grand total of 1432 watts over that tank.

Second tank is 250g and tank dims are 6.5" L x 36 D x 28 H.
12 x 80 Watt ATI Powermodul which is a total of 960 watts.

I think the main advantage the T5s have over MH is the even distribution of light throughout the tank.

honkey sauce · #8 07-12-2007, 01:06 AM

in germany, t5 and Zeovit is well practied combonation

Veng68 · #9 07-12-2007, 08:50 AM

What's the consensus on when to change T-5's?

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

LostMind · #10 07-12-2007, 04:13 PM

Hey Chin,

On a 3' wide tank, you can't get really good coverage via MH ime. You'd have to put up two mh's back to back or use a light mover (light movers rule, btw). So in the first tank you listed out up there, to get adequate mh coverage without a light mover you'd need 6 mh lamps.. 6 x 400w = 2400w + actinics. Or you could probably get away with a couple of actinics and 2? mh's on a light mover, which imo would be pretty cool, although it would make the display look kinda funky (and would be tough for taking pics) but would probably be awesome for all around coral growth due to light coverage? Would be a fun experiment, too bad the wife won't let me have more then one tank.

In any event, I think the original post was to validate the use of T5 lighting to grow SPS coral. I think T5's have been proven worthy of SPS so many times over it's a not a question of if you can run a successful SPS tank with them, but it's now become a just a matter of preference.