From MH to T5s

[Whattup32526]

Ive been thinking about it alot.....I love the T5 color, But love the MH shimmer. First of all my tank is a Oceanic 75g Drilled with overflow in the left rear. Im currently running (2) 250MHs with crappy homemade spider type reflectors, as well as a Hagen 2x54watt t5 retro (without reflectors) for actinics. Ive been wondering what could I accomplish by buying another Hagen 2x54watt retro and adding somemore bulb combos, would that help my color?? My MHs are running off individual Magnetek magnetic ballast, and im using plusrite 14k lamps. Should I ditch the hagen and the MHs and find a t5 fixture? Or add another hagen retro to my current setup?? Im tidering(sp) on what to do

[dave2184]

what exactly are you tying to acomplish a bluer look? If so adding another 2 T5 actinics or swaping your MH bulbs for something in the 20k range will do that.

[ReefWreak]

I would recommend upgrading your MH ballasts to IceCap 250w, PFO 250w, or even Galaxy 250w, and then get yourself 3 Radium bulbs, and you'll have beautiful blue coloration over your tank, and beautiful coral coloration from the increase in blue spectrum.

The only reason I think it would help a lot (assuming that all of your other parameters are in check and under control) would be because it worked for me. I had a low nutrient, overskimmed tank already, and the colors were meh under 10k, though some colors popped. Once I switched to 20k, I could turn off my actinic VHOs and just let the tank flow, and the colors came, and I'm quite happy with them now.

[Whattup32526]

I want the colors to pop more....

[Whattup32526]

So get rid of the magnetek ballasts???

[Whattup32526]

Oh and another stupid question, what type of DIY reflectors work the best?? I cant afford lumenarcs are anything like that...right now im just using some old hammertone reflectors bent in the shape of a w like the normal spiders

[ReefWreak]

I've seen the colors of the corals "pop" more from 10k XM bulbs than from any other bulb combination of T5s or anything else. It's not comparable to anything else. But if you're looking for that "T5 coloration" where it's like very bright colors on the colonies or whatnot, then 20k radium is the way to go. 10k XM will make your tank look white/yellow, but man will corals color's pop under them.

T5 is not about "colors popping" but more about intense coloration. I dunno. It probably doesn't make sense, and it probably won't until you've seen the colors of a coral under XM10k bulbs.

[dave2184]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15234694#post15234694 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Whattup32526
So get rid of the magnetek ballasts???

What he,s sying is magnetics drive the bulbs harder than an electronic does so they look whiter on a magnetic compared to an electronic.

I still say go with a set of 20ks (im abit biased as I love the XM20k bulbs).

As for your reflectors just hit up hellolights.com for a set of the polished batwing style reflectors, I think they do a better job then the hammertone.