What does everyone think of T5's for reefs

trilinearmipmap · #1 03-26-2007, 12:44 AM

I am going on 3 years with my T5-lit 120 gallon tank 48" x 24" x 24". It is an 8 x 54 Watt Tek Light.

It is a mixed softie/LPS/SPS tank.

The light is too bright for some softies eg. mushrooms will not grow.

The sps have done fine however I only have the easier sps for now Monti caps Monti digitata and horn coral. One Monti cap frag I got about two years ago was 1" size now it is about 10" across with multiple sworls and I have taken quite a few frags off it. I don't know how this would compare to growth under halides.

I am getting a calcium reactor in the next month or so and then I will try some harder sps.

RonPeter · #2 03-26-2007, 12:46 AM

That's good to hear as I am setting up a 90 gallon withe a 6 light Aquatinics SolarFlare fixture.

ron101 · #3 03-26-2007, 04:25 AM

Has anyone seen any quantitative head to head comparisons? I hear a lot of claims about efficiency and brightness without any supporting numbers.

marcingo · #4 03-26-2007, 02:55 PM

thats the biggest problem. But if you search in google T5 vs MH you should find a guy named sanjay who is doing it. Im not sure if he has posted his results yet but he might have.

mr_alberta · #5 03-26-2007, 03:12 PM

That's odd, my softies are loving the new 36" 4 bulb tek light system I have on my 6" deep tank!

Quote:

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

I am going on 3 years with my T5-lit 120 gallon tank 48" x 24" x 24". It is an 8 x 54 Watt Tek Light.

It is a mixed softie/LPS/SPS tank.

The light is too bright for some softies eg. mushrooms will not grow.

The sps have done fine however I only have the easier sps for now Monti caps Monti digitata and horn coral. One Monti cap frag I got about two years ago was 1" size now it is about 10" across with multiple sworls and I have taken quite a few frags off it. I don't know how this would compare to growth under halides.

I am getting a calcium reactor in the next month or so and then I will try some harder sps.

kwirky · #6 03-26-2007, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr_alberta

That's odd, my softies are loving the new 36" 4 bulb tek light system I have on my 6" deep tank!

I've got a chunk of toadstool bout 4" across that's about 9" from the water surface that's been doing ok. Now mind you there's aanother chunk from the same colony which fell under my rockwork and has been GROWING in the dark shadowy spot between a rock and the glass. So I don't think it's too picky for light anyways lol

advanced aquarist this month did some testing to find the lux requirements of various coral, and found that some soft corals require just as much light as SPS.