lets talk about t5 lighting

[dine]

ok so i have a 48in 6 bulb aquaticlife t5 fixture. im not really having any problems but i am slowly trying to dial my tank in. so i want to find out from people with a similar setup how you have things set up (4 bulb chime in too).

1.what bulbs do you have?
2.how do you have them set up (order)
3.what are your timers set to
4.what were you looking for with your set up (growth, color, mix)
5.and what did you get, would you do something different?


i just want to see what people are doing so i can adjust somethings to better my tank.

 

[thanh386]

I run 12, 60inch. I have (or will have once they all come)

3 ATI Coral Plus- i prefer this over any "white" bulb out there. It gives off a white with a faint reddish hue. Makes my red SPS brighter
2 ATI actinic - i think its a preference in brand when it comes this color, I chose ATI because it was cheaper than geisemann. Bulbs brings out the green and orange.
2 KZ Fiji Purple - I love this bulb. its a bright purple that gives off so much par. It suits me because I dont like running too many whites. DO NOT , i repeat DO NO cheap out and get the ATI version, it's red NOT purple.
2 KZ and 2 ATI Super Blue - I have always been running the ATI, but this time around I wanted to try KZ and compare the two brand. KZ, being like 15 bucks more, came out a little better. It's a richer blue and it's relatively 25-30 par higher than its ATI counter part. If you have the money, go KZ.

The last bulb I leave for season. For summer, I run another coral plus, in fall, winter I run another Fiji purple. dont ask me why I just do

 

[90galguy]

Following along as well if you don't mind. I have a 4-bulb Deep Blue Xtreme t5. It's only 3 months old and running the original bulbs. I'm also wondering about bulb combinations. In addition I'm wanting to add additional moon light leds. The fixture came with (8) moon lights, but just doesn't give me what I'm looking for.

 

[holley123]

I've got a 18 inch 2 bulb current t5 that I run with my mh to give me more white. The light works great but bulbs are a pain to find. Running true lumen 12k power whites with blue actintic. (looking for a bigger fixture that will give off more light possibly a 30 in 2 bulb)

 

[dine]

add pictures too if you have them to show us what it looks like

 

[rdnelson]

I run a 6 lamp 54W T5 fixture. I am using all Wave Point lamps and love them.

2 x Actinic
2 x Whites
2 x Purple

The actinic come on about 1/2 hour before the rest and go out about 1 hour after the others. Everything in my tank is growing like a weed. The fixture was a DIY retrofitted from a High Bay warehouse light fixture.
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[fishlips]

Over my 90gal mostly sps,Only 4 bulb ATI sunpower.Use ,2 blue plus,1aqua sp,and 1 coral plus. Its just a tiny bit to white, But the corals love it. Will replace aqua sp to coral plus later. That bulb is great, a tint of redish purple. And lots of par. No need for purple plus, that has very little par.

 

[kvdigiulio]

I have a 90gal and I go back and forth between a 4 bulb vho setup and a tek 8 bulb t5 setup. I just purchased all my t5 bulbs and put them in friday the day before the frag swap. Great timing on my part, the new frags look great. My setup consists of 3 ati blue+/2 uvl actinic/ 2 ge 6500k/1 ati purple+. I am in the process of rearranging the bulbs in the unit to my taste. I have two switches that each fire up 4 bulbs. When they first come on all 8 fire up for about 4hrs then when i get home i switch off the whites and leave the 3 blue+ and 1 purple+ on. I have the purple in the front followed by the blue+ but it seems a little on the purple side so I'm going to move the purple to the rear and see if I can get a bluer spectum. I wanted some growth and good color from my lights when I purchased them.

 

[snowmansnow]

with 4 I would run
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue Special
GE 6500K
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue Special

Thats going to be some of the highest par your going to get and still have a nice color.
B

 

[90galguy]

SnowManSnow;744046 wrote: with 4 I would run
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue Special
GE 6500K
ATI Blue +
ATI Blue Special

Thats going to be some of the highest par your going to get and still have a nice color.
B

Isn't that 5? Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....that's a 4 bulb running with a MH. got it! I'm still new to this lighting thing!

 

[90galguy]

I have a Deep Blue Xtreme lighting fixture that uses a timer to turn on and off lights 1 & 3 and 2 & 4 at specified times.

How about this setup?
1 - ATI Aquablue Special for light #1
1 - ATI Coral Plus for light #3
2- ATI Actinic for lights #2 & #4

I also purchased a pair of R2 Moonlights to enhance the 8 moonlights that came with the unit, but produce very little shimmer if any at all.

Does any of this make sense?

 

[snowmansnow]

You'll get basically no PAR from the actinics.

 

[snowmansnow]

And ya I put an extra lamp in earlier haha. Just take out 1 blue special.

They r all t5 lamps.