T5 and LED combo

[AZ GoCubs]

I've got a lighting question that hopefully the community can help me solve. In the past, I've stuck to softer corals such as the cabbage leather and mushrooms I've got. However, I've since picked up some Acros, Birdsnest, and Hammer coral that could probably use some additional lighting. With the soft corals, I was just using my two bulb T5 fixture, and I just put in brand new bulbs last month. While my two bulb T5 fixture could probably keep my corals alive, I'd like to make them happy and get some growth! So, I've currently got the two bulb T5 fixture and a first generation fluval marine and reef LED bar running on it. Unfortunately, this first generation model doesn't allow for adjustment and percentages; it's basically on and off. My question is, should I run both lights all day? Or how should I go about integrating both systems? Right now, I've got the T5's running from 9am to 6pm, and the LED's running from 9am to 11am and again from 4pm to 6pm attempting to simulate sunrise and sunset. :thumbsup:

Tanks Specs:
25 Gal tank
HOB aquaclear filter running only chemi-pure blue media.
Remora 120 HOB skimmer
Coral life 2 bulb T5 fixture with 1 10,000K bulb and 1 actinic bulb
First generation fluval marine and reef LED bar (24 inch)

Fish:
6 line wrasse
Black clown
Indigo dottyback

Coral:
1 green mushroom colony (3 heads)
1 small purple mushroom frag
1 birdsnest
1 small green acro frag
1 smal branching green hammer
large 2 headed cabbage leather

[Ron Reefman]

You are probably right that the 2 bulb t5 is a bit less light than your new sps corals would like, but it should keep them alive. But the newer Fluval led uses 0.25 watt leds and they try to make up for weak leds by adding a lot of them. Unfortunately it doesn't work that way. And yours being an older model, I assume may be even weaker. You need 3 watt leds to get good light (enough PAR) down 20" into your tank. The Fluval will help some, especially if the sps corals are higher in the tank.

Running you t5's from 9am to 6pm is good. You can run the Fluval leds anytime you want along with the t5's and it will be OK. I doubt the Fluval leds are adding very much PAR into your tank, but any extra can't hurt given the 2 bulb t5 fixture.

I'd recommend you start thinking about a 4 or 6 bulb t5 fixture. A 4 bulb over a 20" deep tank with limited sps corals is probably OK. If you want to get more into sps corals, I'd recommend you go for a 6 bulb fixture. Or you could look at led fixtures. Given you have a 24" long tank; a single 16" MarsAqua at $100 would be enough to keep anything in your tank. You'd have 2 channels (blue & white) for color control and sunrise/sunset as well as dimmers for color control and intensity control (you would NOT be running it a 100%). You probably already have a couple of timers to turn the 2 channels on and off. And for about $25 to $50 more you can get built-in timers and digital dimmers (not ramp control, just digital dimming at 1% increments).

Here is a link to a post that talks about the various features and costs of less expensive led fixtures ($100 to $500):
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=25052764&postcount=233