T5 Combinations

[rybcat]

Who is running what for combinations and pictures would be great. Type of reflectors used as well.

This is a nice way to show off your tanks as well.

[Stasher]

4 x 24" T5
SunBlaze fixture with individual reflectors.

2 Geissman Actinic plus
2 Geissman Aquablue plus

Looks really nice but for the heck of it I took out an aquablue and popped in a Hagen Marine-glo last night. It is more around a 14k look now, I like my tank a little bluer.

I might order a new bulb to replace that Hagen as I have no idea how they stack up against the Geissman for output.

[Stones]

Here are a few pics illustrating the type of reflectors I have in my fixture as well as the bulb combo and how the bulb combo looks over the tank.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g47/prestieb/DSCN0022.jpg

From top to bottom the bulbs are: Aquascience 22K, Sfiligoi Pure Actinic, Aquascience 15K, Kz New Gen Coral Light, Kz Fiji purple, Aquascience 22K, Kz New Gen Coral Light, Aquascience 22K

Here is a picture where I higlighted the shape of the T5 reflectors. They are very similar in design to the TEK II reflectors being wider with many more small bends than the old TEK I's that were narrower and had 10 sharper bends.

http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g47/prestieb/reflectoroutlined.jpg

Here is a pic of what the spectrum looks like over my tank. Its a little too white for my liking so next time around I don't think I would put in the Aquasciene 15K and the Sfiligoi pure actinic. I'd swap the 15K for a Kz new gen coral light which is actually much bluer and swap the pure actinic for another Aquascience 22K.
http://i53.photobucket.com/albums/g47/prestieb/DSCN0040.jpg

[rybcat]

Stasher....I like a little more of the bluer look as well, have you tried the pure actinic's at all?

Stones.... after looking around I cant seem to find that lighting system other than in the states, is this were you purchased your's from? Who here in Canada sells the bulb type you are talking about? I also see that you have an 8 bulb fixture above your 90, if I were to go with 6 bulb that would obviously do for alomost any coral with the exception of SPS...if in th future I want to put a couple pieces of SPS in there do you think the 6 bulb would be suffice?

[Stasher]

Haven't tried anything else but I have been recomended one of Stones' bulbs a few times.

Aquascience 22K

Now to find a Canadian distributor.

[shroom]

J&L (J@L) carrys aquascience and bayside as well.I had to change brands as it's almost impossible to get ATI in canada.

[Stones]

Stones.... after looking around I cant seem to find that lighting system other than in the states, is this were you purchased your's from? Who here in Canada sells the bulb type you are talking about? I also see that you have an 8 bulb fixture above your 90, if I were to go with 6 bulb that would obviously do for alomost any coral with the exception of SPS...if in th future I want to put a couple pieces of SPS in there do you think the 6 bulb would be suffice?

I picked up that fixture from aquarium obsessed which is based out of the USA as far as I know. He did however ship the fixture from Barrie, ON so I wouldn't have to pay duties on it. Wil runs the company and was great to deal with. He even gave me the sale price on the fixture which ended in August even though I purchased it in October.

If you are going to go with a T5 fixture as opposed to a retrofit, I'd suggest getting one with active cooling and decent individual reflectors. As far as I know, the only ones available right now with these features are the ATI powermodules from ReefGeek, the Sfiligoi stealths from AquariumObsessed, and the Aquatinics Constellation series (however they only come in 5 or 7 bulb instead of the standard 6, 8, 10, or 12).

If you are going to do retrofit, active cooling is much harder to achieve as you will need multiple computer fans as well as a variable voltage 12V DC converter. Retrofit reflectors also take up much more space than the ones they use in the pre made fixtures so you will also have to take that into account.

As far as the bulb types that I'm using, I picked them all up from Bayside corals although I don't think Colby is getting in any more of the KZ New gen coral lights. Too bad as I really prefer the Kz New gen coral light to the Aquasicence 15K bulbs. Its much bluer in spectrum even though it is supposed to be 14K. The Aquascience 15K bulb looks and performs much more like a 10K bulb.

I know J&L also carries the Aquascience line as well as Progressive Reef. Progressive Reef has also started bringing in ATI bulbs as well, but from what I've read, Aquascience beats them hands down. Here is an interesting read that compares ATI to Aquascience:
archiv.korallenriff.de/Lichttest/T5-1.pdf

As far as your concerns with having just a 6 bulb fixture, I'd think that with a 20" tall tank you'd be pretty setup for most corals. Shouldn't have much of a problem keeping SPS so long as you run more of the white spectrum bulbs than the blues. That said, you should also be able to fit a 8 bulb unit over your tank as I'm assuming its 18" wide. An 8 bulb fixture will give you a few extra bulbs to play with so you could run extra fiji purple/ATI procolour or blue spectrum bulbs without having to sacrifice PAR as you would with a 6 bulb fixture. That way you can greater customize your lighting spectrum to your personal taste and would definatley be able to keep SPS almost regardless of your bulb choices.

Hope the info helps you make your choice picking out new lighting for your tank.

[rybcat]

What does the active cooling do exactly? Also I was considering the tek retrofits....are they much bigger than the actual tek fixtures? My biggest problem right now is the size available in my canopy, I already have to do some modding just to fit a 6 bulb fixture in it.

[Stones]

Active cooling is probably the second most important aspect of achieving high PAR values from T5 bulbs next to having good 95%+ reflective polished individual reflectors.

TheGrimReefer, Sanjay, and Hahnmeister from Reef Central have all done various tests on different T5 fixtures and retrofit systems. I can't seem to find the exact threads right now since the search feature on RC doesn't work unless you're a premium member. Basically what their results came down to was that T5 bulbs ran without active cooling produced on average 20% less PAR than did fixtures or retrofit applications that did have active cooling. Along with a 20% decrease in light output, T5 bulbs that were ran without active cooling also had a life expectancy 33% less than bulbs ran with active cooling.

Basically, having variable speed fans in your fixture or canopy will increase the average T5 bulb life from ~12 months to ~18 months while also producing 20% more light than T5's ran without active cooling.

This was the biggest factor that made me choose a fixture that had active cooling. Since T5's typically run at less watts than a metal halide setup would for any given tank, you are already limiting yourself somewhat in terms of keeping higher light corals like SPS. If you can increase the light output of your fixture by 20% by simply adding variable speed fans, and at the same time spend less money replacing bulbs as often, you now have the roughly same ( or better in some cases as Grim's tests showed) light output as metal halides would produce along with increased savings in bulb replacement costs.

Regarding your concerns with a retrofit fixture, here is a quote detailing the sizes of the new TEK II's which would definatley be my choice had I gone the retrofit route:

Now made from 96% highly reflective German aluminum with a mirror like finish. New reflector design offers the highest output in the industry. It delivers an amazing 97.1% efficiency. The reflector now contains 29 different bends to maximize reflector output & performance. The old Tek reflector had 10 bends. The Tek II is now 2 3/4” wide. The original Tek reflector was 2 1/8” wide. Increases light output of a T5 lamp by over 300%.

I belive they manufactured the TEK II's so that you can overlap the edges by 1/4" which would give you a total width of 15 1/4" for 6 TEK II's that have been overlapped. I'm assuming that should give you plenty of room inside your canopy. After that, all it would take is some strategically placed computer fans wired into a standard variable voltage DC converter. I've picked these up for about $10 at princess auto in the past to make dimmable moonlights so they would be perfect for this application.

[rybcat]

Thanks Brandon, you must have done some research into these lights. I think I will pick up a couple of the new tek retrofit kits and a couple of different bulbs and see how that goes.

[Stones]

I spent a good few hours reading through many different T5 threads on Reef Central before I made my purchase.

If you need any help with installing some fans in your canopy let me know as I've done this several times now, just not for T5's. Another good option would be to pick up one or two of these and have them blowing on the end cap areas of your retrofit fixutre:

http://www.azoo.com.tw/azoo_en/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=168

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~Giesemann_Stainless_Steel_Aqu arium_Fan_3X_Saltwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Lighting_ Accessories_Cooling_Fans~vendor~Giesemann~SearchSt r~fan~action~view~idProduct~GL4311~idCategory~FILT ACAF.html

http://www.marinedepot.com/ps_ViewItem~category~Tunze_Aquawind_Aquarium_Fan_S altwater_Aquarium_Supplies_Lighting_Accessories_Co oling_Fans~vendor~Tunze~SearchStr~fan~action~view~ idProduct~TZ8611~idCategory~FILTACAF.html

The Azoos are about the best price but hard to find in North America. You can find cheap knock offs from Hong Kong on ebay but then its hard to find them in 110V and not 220V. Your cheapest (and likely most effective) bet would be just to pick up some small computer fans and a vairable voltage DC converter and mount one small fan on both ends of each pair of bulbs. Then wire all 6 small fans in parallel so that each will recieve the same voltage resulting in all fans spinning at the same speed. If its going to be mounted inside a canopy, the fans and wiring job don't need to look as nice as the above premade fans.