Carey's LAST Build- 125g Reef

[carey]

On my 55g I have the ATI aquablue specials and their reg actinics.

I was thinking the 12k whites and 2 of the blue plus and 4 of the reg actinics.
But like I said, I'm only able to afford the 6 whites this month. :-(

Also, when my whites are on, its not only 6 whites on that switch, theres 2 blues as well. So 8 bulbs on switch one and 4 bulbs on switch 2. I was gonna use the blue plus ones on switch one.

 

[huma-huma]

8 on one switch and 4 on a second?? Wow I followed along when you got this hood but for some reason it didn't sink in that it has 12 bulbs!! That's crazy! Is running more on one switch normal?

 

[carey]

Personally I think it's stupid, no idea why they would set it up like that. lol

It also doesnt mention that in any of the online descriptions. I'd prefer to have some blueish in my whites only but I wish i had a choice. hehe

Still a great fixture!!

 

[huma-huma]

I'm sure you could have it re-wired, would just need to take 1 or 2 off the primary switch and connect them to the secondary...but like you said, still a great fixture

 

[huma-huma]

And I just noticed, you joined in feb 2011 and have over 5k posts.......holy crap lol

 

[maxst2]

Carey you might want to look into building (or have built) racks for your tanks.

2x6 and 2x4's and go from floor to ceiling with stock tanks from tractor supply. Rugged and are usually a buck a gallon. Or use glass tanks what you have.

I'll be heck of a lot cheaper and stronger than buying those crappy stands.

 

[Gti_Leo]

Personally I think it's stupid, no idea why they would set it up like that. lol

It also doesnt mention that in any of the online descriptions. I'd prefer to have some blueish in my whites only but I wish i had a choice. hehe

Still a great fixture!!

i would avoid the actinics there is no need for them and the blue plus puts out a much nicer color with alot more PAR, if anything just place two true actinics and the rest blue plus

 

[carey]

i would avoid the actinics there is no need for them and the blue plus puts out a much nicer color with alot more PAR, if anything just place two true actinics and the rest blue plus

Thats a solid idea. Might do that then. I just dont know how blue the blue plus ones are. lol

 

[huma-huma]

They are blue....plus some

 

[Gti_Leo]

lol they are really blue, 20000k blue, where as the actinics hit a bit of a purpleish.

we basically look for a full spectrum lighting to enhance coral growth which thse bulbs already do, so its not really a matter of what types of lamps its more of a matter of how much PAR you can generate. PAR is not just how bright a lamp is its also includs how much light gets to a set area and also involves the spectrum. that beign said the more the PAR the better the growth, the rest is all simply looks to the viewer, which is why alot of people remove the actinics and go on a 4 lamp system with 1 daylight 1 purple and 2 blue. the daylights put out slightly more PAR and give a whiter look where as the purple and blue give the same PAR and together allow for coral colors to really stand out

heres a good review on the different lamp spectrums and there is also a link to the grim reefers PAR tests on reef central ( KZ lamps were later tested in the area of page 30)

http://www.practicalcoralfarming.com/t5spectrums.html

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=918935

sylvania makes both ATI and KZ lamps and both put out similar numbers but KZ fiji purples produce higher red then the purple plus but less orange

 

[huma-huma]

So if one has a 72" hood with 4 cf bulbs, should the cf's be swapped for t5 in a diy swap or would 2 whites and 2 blues be sufficient enough for coral growth? Sorry carey, just wanna ask right quick

 

[carey]

In my opinion you could keep some corals with what you have. Just not a whole lot. Upgrading to a T5 setup would be the best bet if you can do it. I have 6 bulbs on each side and that gives me good coverage of the 18" width. You are getting a 125g correct?

 

[huma-huma]

Yep again sorry to thread jack but just wanted to ask while the subject was up

I feel like we mineaswell wheel in a diesel powered generator and get some stadium lighting on our tanks.. I never imagined a tank needing a 12 bulb setup to support coral

 

[Gti_Leo]

So if one has a 72" hood with 4 cf bulbs, should the cf's be swapped for t5 in a diy swap or would 2 whites and 2 blues be sufficient enough for coral growth? Sorry carey, just wanna ask right quick

i woudl avoing the PC they are not nearly as bright as T5s and the optics for them is not as good.

T5s are a slim bulb resulting ina an optic that can be made the directs light much better and allows less light to reflect back into the lamp. a T5s reflectors are designed to put out most of the lamps lumens in a 3-4 inch area across the length of the lamp, which increases the amount of LUX that gets to the area, which is what makes the T5 lamos far mor superior to VHO, T8s and PC even in some cases MH but thats startign a debate that has two sides and the one side refuses to accept . T5 reflectors have a better optic sending all its light to a small area where the reflectors on a MH dispurse the light in a large area, loosing how much LUX is brought to an area. and allowing more lumens to spread out of the lite area. also MH produce on average less lumens per watt then a T5HO. that beign said a regular T5 non HO puts out 10% more lumens per wat then a T5HO but also put out half the wattage of the HOs

 

[Buffy]

i woudl avoing the PC they are not nearly as bright as T5s and the optics for them is not as good.

T5s are a slim bulb resulting ina an optic that can be made the directs light much better and allows less light to reflect back into the lamp. a T5s reflectors are designed to put out most of the lamps lumens in a 3-4 inch area across the length of the lamp, which increases the amount of LUX that gets to the area, which is what makes the T5 lamos far mor superior to VHO, T8s and PC even in some cases MH but thats startign a debate that has two sides and the one side refuses to accept . T5 reflectors have a better optic sending all its light to a small area where the reflectors on a MH dispurse the light in a large area, loosing how much LUX is brought to an area. and allowing more lumens to spread out of the lite area. also MH produce on average less lumens per watt then a T5HO. that beign said a regular T5 non HO puts out 10% more lumens per wat then a T5HO but also put out half the wattage of the HOs

Dang, that was a mouthful.

 

[huma-huma]

It almost seems more economic sense to just go the led route. From what I can undersatand, yes leds are expensive to get into, but they last a lot longer and don't need replaced every year ...not to mention the energy savings

 

[carey]

If you have a few thousand dollars, i agree. But for the average person LED's that we'd need for excellent coral growth are out of our reach right now.

 

[huma-huma]

Crap...I forgot we are talkin 125g tanks here....yeah forget it. How about ill just buy 1 set of leds every paycheck for the next 6 months then ill piece them all together on a 1/4" thick sheet of aluminum and call it a day lol

 

[carey]

I have an LED Par38 bulb on my Pico and lemme say, the shimmer and color is awesome. No heat transfer either. Plus, as a side note, it seems the algae isnt growing as fast under the led over the 50/50 CFL I had.

 

[Gti_Leo]

It almost seems more economic sense to just go the led route. From what I can undersatand, yes leds are expensive to get into, but they last a lot longer and don't need replaced every year ...not to mention the energy savings

LEDs are at the top of the gun rack thaTs for sure, but being at the top they are also the hardest to get to, by that i mean most expensive and somewhat hardest to understand.

a good LED system for a standard 125g will run you in the few thousand dollar range, which in my opinion is not worth it yet when for a quarter of the price and half the price of MH you can run T5HOs that are still efficient and produce the same if not better coral growing numbers.

there was a thread that was moved to the general equipment forum. it was a discussion on T5s out lighting MH. i kindly narrowed down the attridute to a good reef lighting system, those being light output, PAR rating, spectrum color, efficiency, life, cost and looks. ratign each system in the different categories in my opinion leads T5s to the top of the ranking as far as total package goes. when the price of LEDs starts to fall they will slowly move up to the top but for now in my eyes they are still out of reach of 95% of the reefers.


another note, there are dimmable T5HO ballasts, which makes things easier to acclimate livestock and corals to your system and can allow you to creat a nice dawn and dusk live you are able to do with LEDs. just another plus to T5s over the outdated MH