acro and T5's

[bgraves]

I have 6 32w T5's over my 58g and was wandering if the lighting is strong enought for sps's? Particularly acro's.

[cloak]

Yes.

Don't muck up the water though...

[xmjxflipx]

yes T5 are sufficient enough for sps........

[seapug]

If they are T5 HO with a good amount of daylight spectrum it might work. Standard output would keep them alive if they are close to the light but you might not get the best color and growth with them.

[TheMcs]

I can't find the links at the moment, but there are studies showing PAR strength of a blue spectrum HO T5 equals that of a daylight HO T5.

[redfishsc]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15561927#post15561927 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by seapug
If they are T5 HO with a good amount of daylight spectrum it might work. Standard output would keep them alive if they are close to the light but you might not get the best color and growth with them.

I can grow SPS just fine under 2 ATI Blue Plus, one ATI Aquablue 12,000K, and one Fiji Purple.


The only thing even remotely resembling a daylight spectrum bulb in there is the Aquablue 12,000K, and that's still a longshot.



Here is what Grim came up with doing PAR testing a while back.

from THIS LINK (http://tfivetesting.googlepages.com/par)

Aquascience
Special 15K 320*
DUO 15K 334*
22000K Blue 302*

AquaZ
Sun Pro 285
Ocean Pro 323
Blue Pro 266

ATI
Sun Pro 357
Aquablue 336
Blue Plus 311
Actinic 137
(Old Style)
Pro Color 215 vs 300 for a UVL Aquasun in a later test

Current Sun Paq
Daylight 10K 272
Blue 252

D&D/Giesemann
Midday 325
Aquablue 324
Actinic Plus 264
Pure Actinic 157

General Electric
GE Daylight 340
GE3000 319*

Helios
Daylight 309
Super Blue 225

KZ
Coral Light 342*
Fiji Purple 330*

UVL
Aqua sun 345
Actinic White 293
Super Actinic 210
75/25 "Aquablue" 254 vs 300 for an Aquasun in a later test.



Note: The Aquascience,GE 3000K and KZ lamp readings included here were taken from a later lamp test. The readings from other lamps tested here and included in those later tests were all within about 10 percentage points of the results included here so while the results are are not an exact comparison they are will within a range that makes their inclusion here acceptable.

[bgraves]

I currently have
1 power glo18000k
2 marine glo actinic( thinking of adding a actinic 420nm)
3 life glo 6700k (thinking of addinct an actinic white 12000k)

[sra127]

i have to say that i have been able to grow my sps with pc's and t5's. i have 8 65 watt pc's and 2 39 watt t5's over my 90 and i have a pink birdnest, green, bunch of monti's, and a few acro's growing well. 4 10k 4 actnitic 1 figi purple and 1 super actnitic

[CLINTOS]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15562198#post15562198 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TheMcs
I can't find the links at the moment, but there are studies showing PAR strength of a blue spectrum HO T5 equals that of a daylight HO T5.

I was looking that up awhile ago and found something simular with 20 000k T5 H.O kind of like radium 20 000k MH compared to avarage10 000k mh

[IslandCrow]

I can't find the links at the moment, but there are studies showing PAR strength of a blue spectrum HO T5 equals that of a daylight HO T5.

What you may be thinking about is an article a few months ago in Advanced Aquarist online magazine talking about Photosynthetic Useable Radiation. . .or PUR. As I understand it, Zooxanthallae use the bluer end of the spectrum more efficiently, and in this particular study, it was determined that actinics actually produced more PUR. They definitely do not have higher PAR, though. I have a PAR meter, and it's not even close. As for PUR, it seems to be a much trickier subject, and not something very useable for the average hobbiest.

In regards to T5 lighting and SPS in general, as you've probably started to surmise, it depends on the T5. First of all, you'd definitely want High Output (HO) T5 lighting. For acros, you're also really going to want individually contoured reflectors for each bulb. Even then, not all of those are equal. If you tell us what brand and model you have, we'll be able to give you a better assessment.

[CLINTOS]

Check out what this guy is doing with I think 3-t5's h.o and individual reflectors

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1215102

[jasonrp104]

I have the same 4 bulb steup as redfishsc and I've got Acro, monti, milli, and a birdsnest. They are all withing 8" of the surface and doing fine

[Tswifty]

No... there's no way you can keep SPS under T5's :p

LINK to a T5 only lit tank (http://www.rimlessreef.com/photo-gallery.html)

[Tswifty]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15562316#post15562316 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by redfishsc
I can grow SPS just fine under 2 ATI Blue Plus, one ATI Aquablue 12,000K, and one Fiji Purple.


The only thing even remotely resembling a daylight spectrum bulb in there is the Aquablue 12,000K, and that's still a longshot.



Here is what Grim came up with doing PAR testing a while back.
Running bluer spectrums is becoming much more popular these days. I know quite a few tanks that don't even run what most would consider a "daylight" bulb.

The one thing I forgot to mention was that I'm assuming your unit has individual reflectors for the bulbs. If not, then disregard everything I said. :lol:

[bgraves]

Yes each bult has it's own reflector and they are hagen glo HO bulbs.