T5 Retro... which bulbs?

[Rychek]

I've got a canopy and IceCap 660 retro kit, but I don't have any bulbs. I'm planning on getting bulbs soon (hopefully by the end of next week at the latest), but I'm unsure of which bulbs to get. I did some reading in a T5 Q&A thread, but my brain went numb and my eyes lost focus after a while. The lights are for a 90 gal (48"x18"x24") reef. Currently I've only got a few Zoas, Kenya Tree and a mushroom, but I want to be able to keep lps (I'm planning on adding another IceCap 660 before I even think about sps). Anyway, I'm thinking about using the following bulb configuration:

ATI Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun 10K
ATI Blue Plus

Will these bulbs give me enough light? Is that too much blue? I'm toying with the idea of swapping one of the the blue bulbs for another daylight bulb, but I'm not sure which and with what. Any thoughts/suggestions? Thanks!

[BIGBIRD123]

I would check out this post on RC, it's by a T5 Guru named GrimReefer. He is probably one of the best there is about T5's. He hooked me up with a nice scheme for the best par. Here's the link...
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1429542

Steve

[lt1z28]

That is more than enough light for softies and lps. That bulb combo is going to look really blue. If you swap out the Super Actinic with an ATI Aquablue it will look white with a tint of blue.

[Rychek]

I would check out this post on RC, it's by a T5 Guru named GrimReefer. He is probably one of the best there is about T5's. He hooked me up with a nice scheme for the best par. Here's the link...
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1429542

Steve

That's the thread that I was reading. The bulb combo I posted above came from there.


That is more than enough light for softies and lps. That bulb combo is going to look really blue. If you swap out the Super Actinic with an ATI Aquablue it will look white with a tint of blue.

I like the idea of white with a slight blue tint. Blue is probably my favorite color, but there is such a thing as too much blue. :) If I make that switch, the bulb config looks like this:

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue
UVL Aquasun 10K
ATI Blue Plus

[BIGBIRD123]

That will be a good combo.

Here's what he recommended for my 280g...
Front
Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
ATI Blue Plus
Aquablue
UVL Aquasun
Blue Plus
Aquablue

I like that set-up.


S

[lt1z28]

Here is my old tank http://maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=34736 to give you an idea of what it looked like. Here are the bulbs I was using on an Aquactinics TX5 fixture
ATI Blue Plus
GE 6500K
UVL Super Actinic
ATI Aquablue
ATI Blue Plus

Here is what I will be using for my 240g...
Front
ATI Blue Plus
UVL Aquasun on IC 660
UVL Super Actinic
ATI Procolor on IC 660
ATI Blue Plus on IC 660
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aqua Sun on IC 660
ATI Blue Plus

[Rychek]

I like the colors in those pics. I liked the colors of you 240 when I purchased those Zoa frags a few weeks back as well. I have yet to see a setup with T5 lighting that I didn't like.

I'm going to try for the blow setup. I think the hardest part will be finding the bulbs locally. I know I can get them from reefgeek.com, but the ATI Blue Plus is on backorder and I'd prefer to support our sponsors (if at all possible). I'll have to see if Jeremy can order the bulbs for me.

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aquablue
UVL Aquasun 10K
ATI Blue Plus

[Rychek]

I ordered bulbs. Now I just have to get the canopy finished so I can set everything up when they get here. :)

[tropheusmaster]

i hear t5's last longer

[Rychek]

My bulbs arrived last week and I finally finished finishing my canopy. I installed everything and all I can say is "Wow!" I knew the T5s would be better than my PC lights, but I didn't expect it to completely change the look and feel of my rockwork and corals. Here are a few pics of my project:

Ballast Mounting:
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc246/Rychek426/IceCapMounting2.jpg
Light Test:
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc246/Rychek426/T5Lights.jpg
Full Tank Shot
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc246/Rychek426/FTS-2.jpg

I don't have any reflectors yet, but I'll begin adding them next month. I intend to use IceCap reflectors.

[Rychek]

I'm having a bit of trouble with my IceCap 660 ballast and my GFCI. Every time I try to plug it in/turn it on when it's cold, it trips the GFCI. If I plug it into a non-GFCI outlet and let it run for a few minutes, then plug it into the GFCI, it works just fine. Anyone ever have something like this happen to them? I'm using a single plug GFCI that I picked up from Home Depot a few weeks back and a Coralife surge protector/dual timer. TIA.

[rz1a]

what else are you running on that gfci with the lights?

[Rychek]

I'm running 2 ~300 watt heaters (primary and backup), Koralia 3, CSS 65 skimmer, Mag 9.5 return pump and a small (~10 gallon rated) air pump. However, it still trips the GFCI with all of the pumps off. I'll have to test it with the heaters unplugged because I can't remember if they were on or not.