marcel leroux
04/03/2006, 01:52 PM
The info I receive from Reef Central is paramount in the success of my tank. I also made many mistakes that could have been avoided if I just took my time. Patience is definately a virtue in this hobby.
My best advice is, do as much research as you can and buy the best equipment you can afford. Do not try and do it cheap as you will spend the money in the end anyway.
I started with a 265watt lunar aqualight, corals did good, colors were amazing, no complaints until the ballasts started going. I replaced 4 and had enough. So i decided to get a TEK t5, I am planning on getting a larger tank soon so decided on getting the 6 bulb system. I read about how bright they were, but nothing prepared me for this. These things are extremely bright and 6 bulbs way to much for a 55, even when i just run 4 bulbs it seems too bright. I learned a painful lesson, i fried most of my corals. You must aclimate your corals to your light as much as anything else. I lost 2 of my 5 chalices, my acans went grey and my blastos just shrivelled up. It was heartbreaking to watch, at first i thought it was my water, did water change after water change but my water continued to test normal. Finally deduced it was my T5's, and cut back the photo period to half the time and only run 4 bulbs. Within a week things looked better, colors are slowly returning
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302rt1.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302rosyscale.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302rosyscale2.JPG you can see the bleached acan in the middle of the pic, it used to look like thishttp://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302grnacan5.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302mdl.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/943028line4.JPG
My best advice is, do as much research as you can and buy the best equipment you can afford. Do not try and do it cheap as you will spend the money in the end anyway.
I started with a 265watt lunar aqualight, corals did good, colors were amazing, no complaints until the ballasts started going. I replaced 4 and had enough. So i decided to get a TEK t5, I am planning on getting a larger tank soon so decided on getting the 6 bulb system. I read about how bright they were, but nothing prepared me for this. These things are extremely bright and 6 bulbs way to much for a 55, even when i just run 4 bulbs it seems too bright. I learned a painful lesson, i fried most of my corals. You must aclimate your corals to your light as much as anything else. I lost 2 of my 5 chalices, my acans went grey and my blastos just shrivelled up. It was heartbreaking to watch, at first i thought it was my water, did water change after water change but my water continued to test normal. Finally deduced it was my T5's, and cut back the photo period to half the time and only run 4 bulbs. Within a week things looked better, colors are slowly returning
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302rt1.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302rosyscale.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302rosyscale2.JPG you can see the bleached acan in the middle of the pic, it used to look like thishttp://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302grnacan5.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/94302mdl.JPG http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/943028line4.JPG