T5 Lighting

[frewl]

I'm trying to decide what fixture I want to get. Its a choice between the 6 bulb and 8 bulb T5 Tek fixture. I have a 75 gallon. I messaged the folks at reef geek and they told me that the 8 bulb was really for 100+ gallon tanks. I'm really not sure of what I want to keep but I want to future proof. Just in case I want to go with an sps heavy tank.

Also I need some advice on bulb selection.

 

[FutureInterest]

I think you'll have a really hard time fitting 8 bulbs on a standard 75 gallon tank. 6 should be more than enough for keeping sps, especially with the new tekII reflectors. They're really quite good. I was getting 10% more out of them over the icecap reflectors. With t5's its all about the reflectors . Also you can prolly find an icecap 660 for cheap and overdrive your t5s. If not, I have a few spare advance ballasts lying around .

 

[wbholwell]

IMO, if the 8 bulb fixture will fit, go for it. That way if you do go SPS heavy you'll be fine. I've got 6 T5's (retros) above my 72 bowfront: five 48" bulbs and one 36" bulb (they all barely fit). My bulb combo is 2 aquablue plus (11k), 2 actinic plus, 1 pure actinic, and 1 6500k. I'd like the tank a little more "blue" so I'm thinking of swapping out the 6500k bulb for a pure actinic (it's the 36" bulb at the front.)

HTH

 

[wbholwell]

FutureInterest;49415 wrote: I think you'll have a really hard time fitting 8 bulbs on a standard 75 gallon tank. 6 should be more than enough for keeping sps, especially with the new tekII reflectors. They're really quite good. I was getting 10% more out of them over the icecap reflectors. With t5's its all about the reflectors . Also you can prolly find an icecap 660 for cheap and overdrive your t5s. If not, I have a few spare advance ballasts lying around .

I think he's going with a fixture. And did you really get 10% more light than w/ icecap reflectors? I might just have to upgrade to those- considering I'm currently using the old TEK reflectors, the increase should be noticable.

 

[frewl]

Well I'm going for the fixture instead of the retro since the tank I got didn't come with a canopy. I got a 660 that I'm going to sell to help bring the cost of this fixture down for me. I think the tank is about 18.5 inches in depth and the 8 bulb fixture is 19. I don't want to have to find a canopy and then retro it. But its crazy that you have to fork out another 50 bucks just to get legs for the thing.

 

[wbholwell]

Hmm... 50 bucks for legs is a ripoff (unless they are hand-machined out of some exotic metal.)

I'm thinking of overdriving a couple of my bulbs- how much will you be selling your 660 for?

 

[FutureInterest]

Wow those must be really nice legs . You could always hang it instead.

Bryan - yah I borrowed the club's par meter when I did my lighting upgrade. I tested tek, hellolighting, icecap, and tekII reflectors. I didn't do crazy extensive testing, so don't quote me on that, but from my observation it was around a 10% boost with the same bulb/ballast/distance from bulb.

 

[frewl]

I got the 660 for $100 from mufet. Its got the wiring harness but not the heat sink. There are 2 sets of T12 waterproof endcaps. I never got to use it. shoot me an offer.

 

[jessezm]

If you're really worried about SPS, keep your IC660 and run 4 of your bulbs on it (just make sure to cool the bulbs). Truth be told, though, right now I've got 8 T5's over a 30" 200g tank that is supporting SPS quite well, though I'm about to hook up some 660's and go into overdrive...

 

[cdub]

i wouldn't pay for the legs, i bought the hanging kit and with some hard work my TEK unit is now hanging from a 16' ceiling.

 

[sprayin70]

I have the SLS retro fit kit 6 bulb with icecap reflectors on my 75. Amazing par for normally driven bulbs. The last tine I tested in Jan was 170 par at the sand bed. What ever your choice make sure you use individual reflectors.

 

[frewl]

I'm thinking that I'm going to go with the 8 just for kicks. Now I'm up to find out my bulb selection. I know there is debate on the usefulness of actinic lighting. Or at least I remember seeing a thread about that. The place that I'm getting them from includes 6500k lights. But they offer upgrades for lights.

<ol>
<li>D-D Giesemann Blue Actinic Plus or Blue: $6.00 per lamp</li>
<li>D-D Giesemann Midday: $6.00 per lamp</li>
<li>D-D Giesemann Aquablue: $8.00 per lamp</li>
<li>D-D Giesemann Pure Actinic Plus or True Actinic $10.00 per lamp</li>
</ol>​

I was thinking about getting 4 true actinic and 4 middays.

I'm wondering what the difference between the middays and just the regular 6500k bulbs.

Or should I go with more middays and less actinics? The "blueness" of the tank isn't important to me. I want more usable light.

 

[cdub]

I definitely would not go with 4 mid days unless you want your tank to look pretty yellow.

I only have a 6 bulb unit but I use 3 ATI blue plus, 2 UVL Super Actinic, and 1 ATI Aquablue. At dusk and dawn I have the two blue pluses on which gives it a nice blue color, and then when all 6 bulbs are on I pops oranges, reds, greens, and blues. The aquablue is more of a true white bulb while the mid day has a fair amount of yellow in it which in my opinion makes the tank look cloudy.

Also there was some information on RC awhile ago about the par values for T5 bulbs. I believe at that time the data was showing that a blue plus had greater par than a mid day.

 

[wbholwell]

^^^ Yes, cdub is correct. You might want to have one midday lamp, but that's probably it- they are very yellow. I really like the aquablue lamps- they seem to be at about 11k and are very bright. And the actinic plus lamps are very bright, too, & they seem to be at maybe 15 or 16k. The true actinics, however, don't seem very bright (although I think that's usually the case with actinics.)
If I was buying 8 bulbs and wanted to maximize usable light, I would select:
1 midday lamp
2 true actinics
3 aquablues, &
2 actinic plus

This may seem like a lot of blue, but I promise your tank will be a crisp white (maybe 11K).

And if you don't like your color combo and you'd like to switch out any of your bulbs, I'll buy them off you!

 

[mufret]

The bulb combo should be determined by your "eye" and what you are going to want to keep. Everyone has a different perspective of what they want their tank to look like. If you like a whiter tank, then go with more of the Aquablues and Middays with a couple of Actinic or Actinic+ bulbs. If you like a bluer look, then go with more of the Actinic + and Aquablues and sprinkle in a Midday and Actinic. The other consideration is the PAR these bulbs produce. If the 6500k bulbs they include with the fixture are the GE Starcoat 6500k bulbs there's no need to switch those to the Midday. The GE's produce more PAR than the Midday and have a more greenish tint versus the yellow of the Midday. The Aquablues also produce decent PAR numbers but the Actinic and Actinic+ bulbs have PAR numbers that are quite a bit less. If you go with the 8 bulb fixture, this won't be a big issue on your current tank but may be if you decide to upgrade to something larger.