Want to add T5's or Halides to my LED's - advice/experience needed

[nickh06]

Looking to add T5's or Halides to my leds to get better coverage, color, and growth. Current footprint of tank is 72"x24"x24". I am running 3 ocean revive units now. Everything is growing nice but color could be better.

-My first choice would be to add a 4 bulb 60" ATI fixture. t5's up front and leds in the back

-Also looking at adding 3 halides. Every time I try to find a decent halide I get lost. Does anyone have any recommendations on them? Would have to do 3 individual pendants. If I went this route I would use leds for actinics.

- T5 retrofit kits. Any recommendations on these? Would like to get two 60" 2 bulb units (one for front and one for back with leds in the middle). I know nothing about them, do you need reflectors, ballasts etc?

Thoughts/suggestions??

Thanks!

 

[jbdreefs]

Jeff runs LEDs and halides, hopefully he will chime in. If you haven't followed grants build thread, see his ATI fixture mod: not time tested, but looks promising.

Reefbrite makes a cool halide/led combo, and the concept would be an easy diy project. Good luck and I will be following because I am looking at a similar setup sometime this year.

 

[jbdreefs]

The retro t5 kits have reflectors.

 

[declanisadog]

If you have a canopy I would retrofit T5's.

 

[myreefclub0070]

Led's and t5's is what I run.
You get some colors from each that you won't get on there own.

 

[enderg60]

Do 3 halides. 250w minimum, Id recommend 400w if you can handle the heat.

 

[berje]

Aren't halides and leds both produce spotting? which is why people generally run either mh and t5 or led and t5, because t5 eliminate the shading from either mh or led?

 

[nickh06]

Thanks for the input everyone. Yeah, I am leaning towards T5's vs halides. Mainly just for power consumption and price.

Was thinking about going straight to T5's and selling my leds but I want to be able to have some control over the look and intensity vs switching out bulbs to get the right color.

MYREEFCLUB0070;1022988 wrote: Led's and t5's is what I run.
You get some colors from each that you won't get on there own.

Any pics of your setup? Interested in seeing what kind of each you use. How is the color and growth?

 

[brandonmason]

I ran halides and leds over my 210 with great results in regards to color. Some things grew faster than others

 

[nickh06]

Looks great Brandon! Thanks for the info. Are halides built sepeartly? Reflector, ballast, bulb? Or do you typically buy them as one piece? Haven't been able to find what I'm looking for

 

[brandonmason]

Yea it's 3 separate halides and 4 black box style leds

 

[porpoiseaquatics]

Nick....as I told you in PM...thought I'd post here for all. I started with MH/T5 then went to LED/T5 and finally to only LED. Even though the LED's are high quality units, I do believe they are missing something so I'm experimenting with a MH/LED combination and that has produced really good results. My next step is to combine the 3....MH/LED/T5 and I believe the results will be what I want. By not having to go with 400w MH, I can reduce the heat load so it will be 3 x 250w, 20,000k MH with 4 x 54w 460-520nm T5's and 3 x AI Sol Blue LEDs over my 180. The AI Sol's have 70 degree optics around the edge .... to answer the shading question of another poster. The T5's aligned down each side of the MH's will also reduce shading. The LED's along with the moonlights in the MH fixture will provide the night lights.

 

[nickh06]

porpoiseaquatics;1023087 wrote: Nick....as I told you in PM...thought I'd post here for all. I started with MH/T5 then went to LED/T5 and finally to only LED. Even though the LED's are high quality units, I do believe they are missing something so I'm experimenting with a MH/LED combination and that has produced really good results. My next step is to combine the 3....MH/LED/T5 and I believe the results will be what I want. By not having to go with 400w MH, I can reduce the heat load so it will be 3 x 250w, 20,000k MH with 4 x 54w 460-520nm T5's and 3 x AI Sol Blue LEDs over my 180. The AI Sol's have 70 degree optics around the edge .... to answer the shading question of another poster. The T5's aligned down each side of the MH's will also reduce shading. The LED's along with the moonlights in the MH fixture will provide the night lights.

Thanks for the info Jeff! Seems like using a combo is better than using LED's alone which is what I was leaning towards. Going to be interesting to see how everything responds when I add some supplemental lighting.