T5 Q's

[burrows14]

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

[mark]

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.

[fishytime]

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...

[Myka]

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.

[fkshiu]

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.

[fishytime]

Originally Posted by Myka

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.

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+)?

[fishytime]

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

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by fishytime

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+)?

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

[Myka]

Originally Posted by fishytime

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+)?

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.

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