Lighting question

[don-n-sa]

just wanted to throw a question to all those who use T-5's

I will be upgrading my lights soon. I am going to have a custom canopy built with retro VHO's or T-5's or maybe a combination of both.

The question I have is for people who have or seen set ups with T-5's exclusively. How do they look?

I heard that T-5 true actinic bulbs are sometimes hard to come by...is that true?

[Thunderkat]

http://www.captiveraisedcorals.com/t5lights.htm

[Brett Wilson]

I have an all T5 25g tank. One of these days i'll post pics....
I like the way the corals look.
I have had some of my corals for 4 years and under many different lighting combinations.

Hard to compare though, my tank is only 2' long.

I think there are at least a couple of people that have T5's on this board with big tanks, maybe one of them will chime in....

[Polkster13]

I bought my 2 T-5 setups from Greg at 360Reef.

I put a 24 inch retro kit on my 29 gallon with one daylight bulb and 1 actinic.

On the 135 gallon tank, I put three of the newer 48 inch units staggered with three actinics and three 10K bulbs. Didn't have any trouble getting the bulbs and Greg sayes he can get me replacements at any time. All of my corals have intensified in color and anemones have really opened up. The two BTA have big fat bulbs on most of the tips after converting over from PC to T-5's.

[don-n-sa]

my plan is to do 2x48" T-5 retro kits with 8x54 watt each for at total of 16x54 watt bulbs

Any recommendations on which combination of bulbs to use? I tend to like the blue look but not too much.

[Brett Wilson]

I would not go with a 50/50 split of actinic/white bulbs... I did this and I dont think it's blue enough.
If you look at reefgeek.com you can see most of the different bulbs..
If you search RC you will find many different people posting their combinations.

I think most people go with a 3 blues to 1 white. according to reefgeek there are many different blue's to choose from.
Personally, I want to try replacing my two whites (10,000K's) with the 11000K 'super blues'.

[jaded]

I just saw seamonkeys set up a few days ago... its looks great! It was a bit dark, but only becuase he has far to much rock in there. His plan was to get all the rock work done this weekend. I'm going by there tonight or tomorrow, I'll post the difference.

On a side note, I love my T5 actinics!!! alex has true actinic's in stock (or he did last week)

[Brett Wilson]

I recommend looking at this T5 only tank...
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-03/totm/index.htm

[jaded]

I knew that would get posted... what a beautiful tank!!!

[don-n-sa]

yeah I remember that one...it was last months TOTM on RC

Man there seem to be way too many different bulbs for T-5's!!!

Aquablue special, blue plus , super blue , I have seen a yellow, and a regular daylight...HELP!

[Brett Wilson]

Just come over and look at mine, then polksters, etc. :)

[Polkster13]

Anyone is welcome to come by check mine out.

[don-n-sa]

anyone else with input?

Tim?...Greg?

[don-n-sa]

TTT

[don-n-sa]

One more try

[Brett Wilson]

Try adding T5 to the subject, maybe that will get more in here ;)

[don-n-sa]

or maybe ghosts or chopping off fingers... <_<

[Brett Wilson]

haha