T5 Q's
 

Ive set up my aquaperfekt photon plus 2x250w mh+ 4xT5 bulb unit and I am not liking the yellow color I'm getting. The MH are 2 unknown brand 10k bulbs and I will be switching them out for 2 aqua connect 14ks. What I am unsure of is the T5's I have never ran them before and am not sure what to look for. I am starting to keep more sps and would like to get the most color out of them. I plan on using KZ bulbs...Is there a good combo anyone can recommend to me?

Cheers
Ray

There's some pictures at the end of this thread with a T5 Giesemann's and Aqua-Medic and just put up a new post showing with 2x250W 14K Phoenix's. Also check the link in the start of my first post for some more pictures.

If you can get aquascience bulbs, I would consider those....they out par giesemann, KZ and ATI....I would either go with their new "duo" or the 22000k for color...

Sorry to disagree with you Doug, but I was really disappointed with the AquaScience 17,500K's that I bought. I found they looked AWESOME at first, but the color spectrum really faded within 6 months. The bulbs are now 9 months old and look like 10K's.

Imo, if you have good quality MH bulbs running with well chosen ballasts to produce a respectable amount of PAR then who cares about the PAR of the supplemental T5s? Plus the fact that in your case you have 4 T5s, so even if you choose T5 bulbs with lower PAR you will still be getting a fair amount of PAR in addition to the MH. My preference when using T5s as color supplementation for MH I like to use an equal amount of KZ Fiji Purple and UVL Super Actinic. :)

If you've got both MH and T5, use the MH as your main PAR bulb and supplement the colour with the T5. This allows you to use a yellower (IE higher PAR) MH bulb while getting the colour pop with the T5 bulbs. A mix of a single KZ Fiji Purple with UVL Superactinics will give great supplemental lighting. I've also found that Geissmann Actinic+ bulbs gives excellent colouring as well. Since colour is so subjective, try different combos to get the look you want.

6-9 months is all you should expect from your T5s in a lighting unit that isnt actively cooled....I cant find the link to the actual in tank experiment where they had ATI bulbs one one side of the tank and Aquascience on the other.....flow and coral placement was mirrored on each side of the tank as closely as possible and after six months the difference in growth of the same coral species was quit noticeable.....

Fiji purps and "true/pure" actinics are a waste of a bulb IMO....great for color but not much else, and the fiji purps produce a red spectrum(algae growth) that most tanks not running a ultra low nutrient system, cant handle.......why not get some usable par out of your "color" bulbs( like the Aquascience 22000k and G actinic+)?

Found it!
http://archiv.korallenriff.de/Lichttest/T5-1.pdf

54W Fiji Purples produce like 330 PAR man...

But do most tanks need that much red:wink:

the "red light" theory http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/12/aafeature1

Ah but Doug, you use T5s as your only source for light. Of course you want PAR out of them. If your primary light source is MH you don't need high PAR from the T5s.

As far as Fiji Purples go, I do agree they have a lot of red spectrum, but something about them really makes the color pop on corals. If I have a T5 only fixture like yours Doug, I would only use one strip of Fiji Purple, but if you have MH with one or two T5s on each side, they have to be the same on one side as they are on the other or you will get different shades in the front of the tank as the back. That doesn't bother some people, but it drives me nuts. That's the only reason I would suggest more than one strip of Fiji Purple.

I have bulbs that have 18 months of use on them and their color spectrum hasn't faded as much as the AquaScience 17,500K with 6 months on them. One of these bulbs is a Hagen 18000K. :lol:

I'm also not a fan of Giesemann T5s in most situations! :lol!:

Well in my eyes, if Im gonna use energy to drive bulbs, the light they produce might as well be useful...even if I were running MHs with T5s I would choose a T5 bulb that actually has some sort of benefit besides just color....I will be the first to agree that Fiji purps look great, but most peoples systems simply dont handle the red spectrum to well....Ive tried almost every bulb available to me at the shop, KZ, Giesemann, Aquascience, aquamedic, even ran the hagens when I first started( decent looking bulb btw)....I will continue to push and use the AS bulbs because the proof is in the puddin:wink:

Sorry I started the thread but have not been able to get on here to reply. I personally think im gonna add 2 fiji purples but I dont know what the other 2 bulbs that im gonna use. I agree with what everyone is saying on this thread. I want colour but I also want some growth out of the T5's also. Right now the fixture is running 2 super antinics and 2 blue+ (54w). I find that since ive installed the hood Ive had an algae boom.

You don't need two Fiji Purples IME. One is enough.

Right now supplementing my MH (Iwasaki 15,000K) I'm running 1 x Fiji Purple (T5HO), 1 x Gman Actinic+ (T5HO), 2 x UVL Superactinic (VHO)

Ok I'll give your t5 mix a shot. Hopefully it will take away the yellow I'm getting from my 10k mh's

cheers
Ray

what about the URI super actinic? they make them for T5HO now and they were the best color for VHO and I think it is about time they made it for T5. they are a fantastic color.

Steve

I have 2 of those right now along with 2 ati super blues maybe ill keep those and switch out the ati's with a fiji purple and a ....... lol

Ok but at what depth does their par loose penetration value?

hmm I was going to make some smart a$$ remark about T5s here, but there is something that bugs me here and because of it no one can answer your question.

it is fine to say a bulb will produce 330PAR or 400 or 800 ect.. but at what distance and through what?

T5s have a fairly rapid drop off, but is this realy true... nope, it only seams that way because of some of the stupid ways people are rating bulbs. same thing happened with MH and it lead a lot of people to thing they were getting something better than they were (IE when the DE bulbs first came out) light is light and it loses intensity with distance at about the same rate weather it is VHO, T5, MH, LED. but alot of people do measurments from 1 or 2" away from the bulb wich is useless as if you look at the loss of intensity over distance for a rough guess say it will lose 1/2 the value over 4X the distance (don't quote me on that I can't remember the exactr ration but this is for an explanation)

so if you measure the PAR at 1" and get 1000 PAR, then measur at 4" you should get 500, at 20" you should have 250 ect... so now this has been exploited by fudging the distance by different manufactures.. if I do the same measurments at 2" I would get 750 as a start, but at 8" I would get 375 which is the same as you would get in the first senerio at 8" but which one sounds better.

there needs to be a standard brought in between all bulbs MH, Flouressent, LED, ect.. and as far as I am concerned any measurment taken under 10" is useless for comparasons as the numbers are so large everything looks good.

I think a good way of measuing would be to take a PAR reading at 10", then one at 20", and one at 30" this would give you some good referance numbers for any common tank depth and give you a very good idea of the amount of drop off asociated with the light bulb.

personaly I am putting LED over my next tank.. got some of the stuff on order already.. going to cost me about 500.00 to build it but it should last 12 years or more and give me an ouput comparable or higher than a 250watt DE fixture with the consistant lighting that T5s give you. oh and I will be able to change my color with two dials. so if I get tired of 20K, I can change it to 10K, or 11K, or 12K, or maybe 12.5 ect.. you get the idea :mrgreen:

Steve

^^^
Very true, the variables in grim reefers testing of bulbs were never noted but his tests have been very useful with buying bulbs

Pure actinic's are useless. Its like walking around with a black light and seeing what they form of lighting is doing to the colors around you, only visual changes. T5 bulbs rated at 22,000k are very benifical and in my latest changes I am starting to notice my blues pop alot more. As for the DUO comments, yes they are a very white bulb for their kelvin rating but with the hint of red spectrum in them and running them for a month now i believe i am starting to notice my reds coming back. Great bulb

To the OP If i were you i would pure three 22,000k rates bulbs in and maybe a fiji purple. If your adding suppimental bulbs why not put something worth while in?

ah, but if were dealing with bulbs for suppimentation, then worth while is in the eye of the installer. the main point of suplementation is color and obtaining the color you like is very subjective. myself personaly I don't like a real blue tank, only ice white.. so the slightest hint of blue, the next guy might mike a real purple tank, and ome even yellowish.. Personaly I went through 12 MH bulbs and about 4 PC bulbs and 4 VHO bulbs beforI found the combo that I liked.

Steve

I was just thinking about what every one has said here and I'm thinking of this mix. 1 Fiji purple 2 geis actinic plus and 1 kz coral 2 light. This reason I'm thinking of not going all supplemental light is for in the summer time I don't have to run my mh everyday and deal with temp issues. I don't want to spend the cash on a chiller just yet lol what do you think?

sounds good, I would still try for an hour or two of MH if temps allow.

so set your T5's up so you like the look with out the MH, and with the MH. might take a bit more fiddling to get it looking good.

Steve