Made the switch to T5

[Trigger Man]

Stones:
I was wondering why you have decided to hang your t5 unit so high, I was under the impression from what I've heard when buying my unit that 2 to 4 inches above the tank was the ideal height to hang them.

Lastnight:
Maybe think about putting a Fiji Purple bulb in your bulb mix. When I added it into my mix it brought out more color on certain corals.

[Stones]

Originally Posted by lastlight

I'm waiting for my 8x80w so this is all great information. There's next to nothing available on them. Heck until a few days ago I thought they were WHITE lol. Most do.

The variable hanging kit sounds awesome as does full glass shield. I hope the 60" fixture also has a full shield. I plan to mount a length of board to my ceiling first so I might not take advantage of the rail system.

How do you plan to access your tank with the fixture in the way. I wonder how others with similar setups do. I can't imagine adjusting the wire connector everyday is good for it. If it gets weak somehow and lets an end fall you'd be ruined. Also, swinging the fixture and tethering it to the back of the tank would be risky I imagine.

For mine I was thinking

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aqua Blue
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Pro Color
GE Daylight 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aqua Blue
ATI Blue Plus

Still up in the air. I've never had a T5 before.

Actually, I have the Sfiligoi fixture hanging ~5" from the waters surface. I took those photos right after I got the fixture cable hanging system installed.

I would actually have the fixture even lower but I have a RENA autofeeder on the back of my tank that is ~4.5" tall so my light has to be higher than this.



With the fixture as high as it was in the photos I originally posted, I was getting an incredible amount of light spillage into the room. My tank is only 18" wide and the fixture I believe is 19.25" wide.

With regards to the other question about raising and lowering the fixture, the cable system that came the fixture works pretty great.



In the image, the area highlighted in red is threaded and tightens to lock the cable in place. When you loosen this piece, it turns into a button that when depressed, allows you to raise or lower the fixture. I did notice that when you tighten this piece and lock the fixture in place, it does leave a slight kink in the cable holding the fixture up. However, I do not forsee this becoming a problem as the kinks are so small they are unnoticable from a distance and the locking mechanism still slides easily over these areas.

Even with my fixture 5" above my tank, I can still reach in and perform minor maintenance tasks without raising the fixture. Reaching to hard to get areas and re arranging live rock would require me to raise the fixture though.

With regards to the 60" fixture, they do come with a full glass shield however it is a 3 piece instead of a 2 piece. The instruction manual for my fixture is generic so it shows all 48", 60" and 72" models in both T5 and metal halide + T5s.

That bulb combo you have selected looks great and was what I was originally planning on going with. However, ATI bulbs are not so easy to come by any more unless you order them from reef geek. I would probably suggest swapping out the GE 6500K bulb for another ATI aquablue special as these are 12K bulbs and look incredibly white. Even the 15K Aquascience bulb I have in my fixture stands out and I would have rather went with another Kz New Gen coral light if I could have found one. I would also recommend the Kz Fiji purple over the pro colour as I've done a fair amount of reading on T5's and most people who were using pro colours switched to the Fiji purple as it is a higher PAR bulb but still brings out the vibrant reds, pinks, and to some degree, purples that blue bulbs can not.

[i have crabs]

where did you get the fixture from?

[Stones]

Will at Aquarium Obsessed hooked me up with the Sfiligoi fixure. Very excellent to deal with and he even express shipped it to me using Purolator since I had to wait an extra week due to the boat from Italy taking longer to get here than originally expected. He even shipped the fixture from Toronto although his business is based in the USA so that I wouldn't have to pay duty (which would have been outrageous considering the price of these fixtures). I would definately recommend him to anyone in the market for a Sfiligoi product.

[lastlight]

Thanks for the advice. I will make those changes. All ATI bulbs means less hassle too. I did intend to buy from Reefgeek tho Progressive Reef has said they will stock them soon. I hope so.

I bought my fixture from Aquarium Obsessed. They are the only Sfiligoi dealer in North America...

[lastlight]

Beat me to it =)

Oh that was you...I read about your ordeal.

[Stones]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Thanks for the advice. I will make those changes. All ATI bulbs means less hassle too. I did intend to buy from Reefgeek tho Progressive Reef has said they will stock them soon. I hope so.

I bought my fixture from Aquarium Obsessed. They are the only Sfiligoi dealer in North America...

You will have to let me know if your reflectors are the same as mine when you get your 80 watt fixture in. So far, I'm pretty impressed but it seems that the 8 bulb fixtures are meant to be used on a tank that is at least 24" wide due to the light spread and style of reflectors.

[lastlight]

My tank is actually 30" wide. Will said it was a sort of fine line between the 8 and 12 bulb fixtures. In the end my wife said I could buy the 8 =) I also plan for a lot of open sand in the front and lighting the back few inches of the tank doesn't matter much to me. LPS need a happy spot too!

I'm actually thinking for me those reflectors are going to be advantageous. I'm most happy to hear about the full glass shields tho. I didn't want to have to clean bulbs.