T5 plus Vega

[padi200]

So I was thinking of adding the BRS 4x 48 inch 54 watt T5 fixtures with ATI Aquablue Special for the white light and the ATI Blue Plus for the deeper blue light to my current 4 AI Vegas. My goal is better coral color and growth.

I don't want to fry any corals in the process. How slowly would you phase these in and over what time period?
They will be on a 180 gallon tank, mixed SPS/LPS and lots of fish.

[DavidinGA]

Why are you going to run 4ft tubes on a 6ft tank? Why not 5ft bulbs for better coverage and par?

[padi200]

No reason, do you think that would be considerable better? I certainly can use 5 ft bulbs. Not a big price difference. IF so, how would you start those out?

[padi200]

What do you think of the
Hellolights 60 Inch 4 Lamp T5 Retrofit Kit?

Do you know if I could attach it easily to a wood canopy?

[DavidinGA]

I have a 210gal and just a few months ago added two 60" T5's to it and I went with the LET kit because it uses the ati ballast (HEP) and reflectors which are the best available.

I bought mine from reefnerd who had the best price online. I'm running two 80w coral plus bulbs because they are general use full spectrum tubes that I feel should help fill the light spectrum the best (and because I like a whiter looking tank).

[DavidinGA]

https://www.reefnerd.com/products.php?72&sid=c77bbd40eadd92ae08468de39e00a7aa

[padi200]

Thanks for the information.
I looked around a bit and you are right that looks like a great deal!
I think I will go for that one.
Can you tell me a little about how you set up your schedule for the new lights once you added them? As in, how many hours a day at first and how quickly did you increase etc.

Thanks!

Chuck

[DavidinGA]

I started off running the T5's for just one hour a day for the first week.

Then I think I actually bumped up the lights 1 hour per day after each successive week.

Now I'm up to running the T5's for 5 hours a day. I think I will stay at the 5 hour window now.

[padi200]

Thanks! There must be something intuitive about starting out 1 hr per day and going up about an hour per week because that is honestly the exact plan I had unless you or someone suggested that it was too much too fast. And I think 4 or 5 hours total is plenty.
Gonna order them tonight. Don't see a 10% discount that I thought they used to have for first time customers? But not big deal. Their prices are excellent.
Thanks again!

[DavidinGA]

No problem.

Ya I just figured an hour increase per week is plenty of time for coral to adjust.

[DavidinGA]

Might be worth emailing them about a discount.

[padi200]

I will ask, can't hurt :)

(email sent to ReefNerd)

[padi200]

So I purchased the LET kit from ReefNerds. One quick question for anyone else who has used this kit. The reflector attaches only to the bulbs. But You could attach it to the canopy also? What have people done as far as attaching the LET Miro 4 kit reflectors to the canopy?

[padi200]

Giant thanks to ReefNerds! I purchased the LET T5 60 inch lights and kit. Very easy to put together and very good quality. Attaching pics of lights and tank with lights. I will start with 1 hour a week and very slowly increase the time. Will keep you all up to date on how T5 added to Vegas works out!
Gonna try and upload pic in the next post.

[padi200]

320117

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[DavidinGA]

Giant thanks to ReefNerds! I purchased the LET T5 60 inch lights and kit. Very easy to put together and very good quality. Attaching pics of lights and tank with lights. I will start with 1 hour a week and very slowly increase the time. Will keep you all up to date on how T5 added to Vegas works out!
Gonna try and upload pic in the next post.


Ya i just attached the reflectors to the bulbs. You could mount the reflectors to something but it's too much trouble imo

[DavidinGA]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/06/10/1726ea553b9fc5a57f3292aad4d15a1e.jpg

[padi200]

That looks great!
Thank you again for your suggestion.
They were a pleasure to deal with and the best price around

[padi200]

Just a follow up.

Many of the corals that bleached when I put in the Vega lights about a year ago started to get color back with the new T5s!
Also, I put several nice acros ( Red Dragon and Tierra Del Fuego) with the T5 /Vega combination and they are doing great.
Overall, the tank is doing much much better after adding the 4x 60 watt T5s. I encourage anyone considering dumping their expensive LEDS to consider just adding a T5 retrofit kit or fixture.

[padi200]

It has been a month and I wanted to give a follow up. Since adding the 4x 60 watt T5s I have seen MUCH better SPS coral growth and increased coloration. Two bleached acros are actually getting their color back! The LPS and mushrooms are doing better too. So at this point, I STRONGLY suggest if anyone is not 100% happy with their LEDs and is thinking of ditching them, consider adding some T5s in addition to you LED's. If did miracles for my tank!
I run the T5s or 5 hours a day. I increased each week as suggested.

[DavidinGA]

It has been a month and I wanted to give a follow up. Since adding the 4x 60 watt T5s I have seen MUCH better SPS coral growth and increased coloration. Two bleached acros are actually getting their color back! The LPS and mushrooms are doing better too. So at this point, I STRONGLY suggest if anyone is not 100% happy with their LEDs and is thinking of ditching them, consider adding some T5s in addition to you LED's. If did miracles for my tank!
I run the T5s or 5 hours a day. I increased each week as suggested.
Makes you wonder how much better could it be if you ditched the leds entirely and added more t5...

[savvybuckeye7]

I'm thinking about doing this same thing on my 210g 6' tank, anybody have any more success stories using the vegas + T-5?