Explain your lighting choices

[Europhyllia]

I've noticed in a lot of the pictures people tend to go for a very dark/ blue look.
Is that something people just prefer visually?
Or do some corals like this better?

Compared to everybody else's tank mine looks pretty stark white.
I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off.

I chose the white bulbs ( 10000k to 15000k) because I read this article
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-08/dw/index.php
and I was interested in coral health and growth.

Since I rely 100% on T5s I figured I needed to get all the light intensity I could get.
How do others feel about the kelvin ratings of lighting?

[Kyle46N]

Some of the pics of people's tanks can be deceiving. Camera's make them look more blue than they really are. On that note...I do prefer 20k's MH. I know for growth, less K is better, but I like my corals color to pop, and I'm in no hurry...lol.

[TexasTodd]

It depends on what you want to grow.

Halide are best for sps and deep tanks but make heat.
T-5 efficient but not as intense as halide and actinic still is not as good as vho but good especially with european bulbs, bulbs also last 18 months or so.
vho limited colors, some heat, only last 6-8 months, but the best actinics made.
pc's well, the lower cost alternative kind of. Not as intense as others, limited colors, and actinic not as good as vho.

I can't speak for other corals, but YES sps will develop better colors with a high amount of actinic, 420nm, 460nm, 15-20kk bulbs etc., but this is only part of the equation.

I think ideal is the old halide/vho actinic combo, or, possibly a lower KK t-5 with vho actinics which I may try on my next system.

All the above can be argued, but so can salt, feeding, skimming, etc.

Todd

[Europhyllia]

Texas Todd. That's very informative! Thanks for sharing your insights.
I only do LPS and Softs and my tank isn't very deep but I would love a clam.

Interesting about the actinics. My 11Ks are Giesemann's. I might get some Giesemann's Actinics to replace the ones that came with my fixture to at least get the 'better' T5 actinics...

[hobogato]

try replacing one of your 11K bulbs with an ATI blue plus. fairly high par for a blue bulb but lots 420nm and 460nm

[Paul28]

Im all softies and very few Lps and lot of people say MH is to mutch for softies me i dont think so IMO brings out great color in them and thay grow large and healthy i run MH xm10ks and t5s 2 ATIblueplus and 2 UVLsuper actinic and love it but thats just me :)

[Europhyllia]

try replacing one of your 11K bulbs with an ATI blue plus. fairly high par for a blue bulb but lots 420nm and 460nm

Interesting.
Right now I actually have a 1:1 ratio of 11k to actinics but the bulb I have is called a Gieseman AquaBlue and recommended ratio is 2:1 or 3:1 (1 being the actinic). Should I try the ATI Blue Plus in place of one of the Actinics? Like 2 Giese AquaBlue: 1 ATI Blue Plus : 1 Giese True Actinic?

[Gseclipse02]

i had MH's but to keep my tank at 78-79 degrees it was costing us nearly 400 dollars a month (chiller and magnetic ballast/SE bulbs) i went to t5's and the next months bill went to 200$. now my chiller doesn't come on with the t5's

"I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off."

i would run them the whole time just my .02

[allan]

"I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off."

i would run them the whole time just my .02


I think he meant that it was only visible when his halides were off.

I run t5s myself, but I have a little bit of everything. I don't really like the deep blue look from running more of the blue tubes. As it is now I have a pink tube (man card on probation) and two other purple looking tubes called Coral Excellerator and Coral Stimulator... or they may be called Red Wave and Red somethng. Either way it seems to really bring out the orange and pinks in the tank. But the combination that I have seems to have a very light appearance from around 11am to 5pm and the early morning and late evening colors are popping.

I got another pink coral excellerator tube the other day to replace the damaged one from the other week's storm. Gonna let you in on a little secret... Those tubes are not stronger than the ceiling fan contrary to popular belief.

At any rate, BLUF, I like the ability to tweak the colors with a bank of t5s, but have been thinking about getting a set up of the VHO tubes to experiment with the colors after talking to Todd about it the other day.

[Europhyllia]

i had MH's but to keep my tank at 78-79 degrees it was costing us nearly 400 dollars a month (chiller and magnetic ballast/SE bulbs) i went to t5's and the next months bill went to 200$. now my chiller doesn't come on with the t5's

"I have a couple of actinics but they only show before and after the white lights turn off."

i would run them the whole time just my .02

Oh yes. What Allan says. :) What I meant is that the actinic bulbs are on a 9:30 AM to 10:30 PM schedule while the white bulbs are on a 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM schedule.
So only in that half an hour before and after the whites come on is the tank visibly blue (even though the actinics are still on when the whites are on too)
I actually just decided to up the ratio of whites to actnics after learning how little PAR the actinics contribute to the tank so it's even less blue now. ;)
I wish I had purchased a T5 fixture with more bulbs to play a little more with colors. I might upgrade in a few months to an ATI Sunpower with more bulbs.
Right now I only have 4 80W bulbs so I want to get as much usable light for my corals out of them as I can.

Wow Gseclipse that's impressive about your electricity!
That was actually a big factor in my decision to skip the MHs and go for all T5s as well. Paying 40% extra in energy to make heat when I don't need/want it and then paying extra again to get rid of that excess heat just didn't make sense.

Somebody mentioned the other day to augment their T5 set up with LEDs to get that halide shimmer. That sounded interesting too.
Anybody done that?

Karin

[TexasTodd]

T-5's have more options to tweak color than any others. I really like this plus the low heat, efficiency, and that they last a long time.

I HAVE found that although they can last 18-24 months with good output/color still, they are prone to breaking/going out more often than others. The higher quality bulbs seem to be better about this though.

On the halides, remember, just because a bulb is listed at a certian kelvin K temp color, they still have massive variances at different spectrum levels AND these levels (nm #'s) can change on the SAME bulb using different ballasts.

Read a bunch of Sanjay Joshi's articles. Books could be written on just lighting.

Sanjay has offered to come speak at our club in the past, but we never took him up on it.

Todd

[Rychek]

try replacing one of your 11K bulbs with an ATI blue plus. fairly high par for a blue bulb but lots 420nm and 460nm

This! Do it, you won't be disappointed. :)

I run 2 ATI Blue Plus and 2 Geissemen Pure Actinic bulbs on my 90 gal and I'm somewhat disappointed with the Pure Actinic bulbs. They are awesome for the first few minutes then the bulbs warm up and the color lightens up. The Blue Plus, on the other hand, has a very nice blue color, lots of par for a blue bulb (nearly as much as many daylight bulbs from other manufacturers) and costs significantly less. That's a winning combo in my book. :wink_smile:

When I replace my current bulbs, I'll be using 3 ATI Blue Plus bulbs and some other type of Pure/True Actinic.

[TexasTodd]

People swear by that KZ Fiji Purple bulb too in t5.

Haven't tried it yet myself.

Todd

[Rychek]

I'm running a KZ Fiji Purple and like it quite a bit. It's a bit more expensive, but it helps bring out the warmer colors and is, technically, a daylight bulb.

[Europhyllia]

I saw the PAR ratings on the Fiji purple. http://tfivetesting.googlepages.com/par

I am getting more and more tempted to upgrade to a 6x80w bulb fixture. I'd be more open to experimenting with more blue and purple if I had more bulbs.

Anybody looking for a half-price 6 months old 72" 4x80W bulb T5 fixture? ;)

[350gt]

Lol this thread seems so ancient..

[350gt]

What are vHo's? 😉

[Scutterborn]

What are vHo's? 😉

I'm rocking some Vho lights on my sump. Because I'm radical.


-Ben-

[350gt]

Tubular!

[Scutterborn]

Totally, bro!


-Ben-

[mkengr45]

I know LED are all the rage...but the absolute best sps tanks I've ever seen have used metal halide. I've gone back and forth, but now use a combination of AI LEDs and metal halide.

Now days too many tanks are so juiced up with blue/purple LEDs I can't even tell what the heck some things are. I like seeing at least a good balance in color.

[350gt]

Leds are far from perfect... But getting close with every gen released..

[mkengr45]

Leds are far from perfect... But getting close with every gen released..
Pretty much nailed it Tony. With every revision and release of new generation LED fixture we are getting closer to perfection. MH isn't perfect by any means but it's just been used for so darn long that there is lots of history and data and optimization of bulbs/ballasts/reflectors etc. There was a time when an optimized MH was considered pretty much the pinnacle when it came to lighting.

Now there is newer technology that will eventually be optimized to the max over time.

[polarbear]

I have a brand new one that I can sell you for $15 if your interested in trying it out. It's 48in and 54w


Interesting.
Right now I actually have a 1:1 ratio of 11k to actinics but the bulb I have is called a Gieseman AquaBlue and recommended ratio is 2:1 or 3:1 (1 being the actinic). Should I try the ATI Blue Plus in place of one of the Actinics? Like 2 Giese AquaBlue: 1 ATI Blue Plus : 1 Giese True Actinic?

[ramsey]

Pretty much nailed it Tony. With every revision and release of new generation LED fixture we are getting closer to perfection. MH isn't perfect by any means but it's just been used for so darn long that there is lots of history and data and optimization of bulbs/ballasts/reflectors etc. There was a time when an optimized MH was considered pretty much the pinnacle when it came to lighting.

Now there is newer technology that will eventually be optimized to the max over time.

There's also less tweaking required with MH. Just put it over your tank and make sure your tank doesn't get too hot. With LEDs, it's a lot easier to burn your corals or not give them enough light. I made this mistake with my Radion. I had it peak at about 80% and things weren't looking too hot. I moved it down to 40% and have slowly ramped up to 60% peak and everything's doing great. I think most people that claim LEDs killed their corals blasted them with too much light.

[350gt]

There's also less tweaking required with MH. Just put it over your tank and make sure your tank doesn't get too hot. With LEDs, it's a lot easier to burn your corals or not give them enough light. I made this mistake with my Radion. I had it peak at about 80% and things weren't looking too hot. I moved it down to 40% and have slowly ramped up to 60% peak and everything's doing great. I think most people that claim LEDs killed their corals blasted them with too much light.


With the sols i found a sweet spot with the whites at 60 and blues @ 80-90%... Only peaking for 2-4 hours...

With the vegas, ive been tinkering this whole time and i think alot has to do with the 5w CW leds. They are just too **** powerful!...

I have my whites set to peak at 15%......

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/13/12/22/2ahahu6a.jpg

Everything is happy and looking great.... iMO. I've meaning to take some pics, just havent had time with a newborn and all....

[350gt]

Oh and i toasted a few things coming from the sols to the vegas... I was trying to use similar settings and that didnt work... Lol


But Ramsey is right, MH is very easy to use if you can deal with the drawbacks... I would argue with chris about MH being too easy..... Thats why kIng(leroy) went back to using them....

[Reef_Freaks]

Europhyllia I have a ATI BLUE PLUS brand new in the box just sitting around I have all LEDs so no need for it I'm sure we work something out I don't need it so I'm not worried about it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

[350gt]

You do realize her last post in this thread was in 09'

[Reef_Freaks]

lol no I didn't lol I guess I was bring delusional from a 8 hour drive yesterday and them doing a 175 gallon water change then setting up christmas lol


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk (http://tapatalk.com/m?id=1)

[CoryDude]

You do realize her last post in this thread was in 09'

She ended getting Stephen to make her a custom led setup before the tank came down anyways. We had numerous led vs halides debates till I switched to led last year.

But, with that being said, I'm thinking of switching back to halides. I love the ai vega and hydra colors, but I've had a problem with larger sps colonies and tissue necrosis in the middle and bottom sides. The LEDs don't seem to have the punch to reach the lower levels of the tank like halides do.