Anyone using a T5 only Fixture?

[Nizzmo]

I have a 30 inch coralife fixture and it sucks because I can only buy coralife bulbs in that size

[moppy]

There's been a lot of positive advice about the ATI fixtures on Reef Central so I might go that way.

Was looking at the 60inch Sunpower with the 8x80W bulbs.

Which 2 bulbs do you (Bill@IA) use on the separate powercord?

And do you have any problems with heat?

[Bill@IA]

Originally Posted by moppy

There's been a lot of positive advice about the ATI fixtures on Reef Central so I might go that way.

Was looking at the 60inch Sunpower with the 8x80W bulbs.

Which 2 bulbs do you (Bill@IA) use on the separate powercord?

And do you have any problems with heat?

moppy

I put the 2 80w Giesemann Actinic+ bulbs on the seperate power cord.

I have not had heat issues. You can easily raise the 8 bulb fixture if things get a little warm because the immense PAR output still keeps everything lit very nicely. Using an Apogee MQ 200 PAR meter I found I get 1500 PAR AWL, fixture 8" off the water.

[fishytime]

the ATI kicks butt, but getting the 80w bulbs can be an issue....you may have to order a case to get them

[aqua80]

Originally Posted by fishytime

the ATI kicks butt, but getting the 80w bulbs can be an issue....you may have to order a case to get them

and the 48" inch ATI would be more than enough coverage anyways...
theses unit are throwing out PAR and spreading it nicely...

[mrhasan]

One cannot go wrong with T5 and MH but can go wrong big time with LED. Ask the gurus

[moppy]

Thanks for all the input so far. There's actually a thread on RC with 1,000's of responses tanking about going back to T5 or MH from LED as people aren't too happy with the look, growth etc...

I know it's not a fad but LED's have a way to go, especially in price, until I get in.

Bill@IA, do you use a doser or a calcium reactor? That's my next big decision...

[Bill@IA]

Originally Posted by moppy

Thanks for all the input so far. There's actually a thread on RC with 1,000's of responses tanking about going back to T5 or MH from LED as people aren't too happy with the look, growth etc...

I know it's not a fad but LED's have a way to go, especially in price, until I get in.

Bill@IA, do you use a doser or a calcium reactor? That's my next big decision...

I use a doser for the most consistent results.

[Bblinks]

Moppy, I run both led on the main tank and T5 on the frag tank. I agree that T5 lighting display a much vibrant color. I recently moved a few pieces from the maintank to the frag tank and vise versa, the color difference was astonishing. Some of the pink birdsnest and red spatulata that looked intense in the frag tank looks really washed out in the maintank and others more so of the blue color spectrum looks awsome in the maintank but just so so in the T5 tank. I think it all depends on what you are looking for in your fixture whether you want to get the best color out of your corals or scarfice a bit of the color for low maintenance, controllable lights. One thing I don't like about T5 is the life span of the bulbs, I have found once the spectrum shifts you better be ready to change you bulbs or get ready for some major algae out break. I have never had any issues with my AI sol. 9 month for replacement on 6-10 bulbs can be costly.

Here is the maintank


Frag tank with t5

[The Guy]

I've got AI sols on my 90 gallon, still playing with the color intensity but I'm very happy with the Led's, please excuse the picture quality, my camera is not the best