6 or 8 bulb? Need input

[Lonny]

I'm going to buy either a 6 bulb t5 ho or an 8 bulb fixture and wanted some advice. My tank is 60"×24"×24". It's a mixed reef of lps and sps, I'm leaning towards sps dominant[emoji2]. I currently have a four bulb on it now. My question is would the 8 bulb be to much?

Thanks

 

[clownfish chris]

8 is absolutely not too much!

 

[Lonny]

Awesome thanks! I Want the 8 bulb, just a little worried I'd cook some coral. The one I'm looking at is an ATI sun power.

 

[clownfish chris]

That is a great light. I believe it is dimable as well. I have seen some spectacular tanks with this fixture. if memory serves me correct @Diesel had this light over his tank. Just be sure to acclimate your corals to the light correctly and you should be fine.

 

[DracoKat]

You can always remove a bulb if you feel it's too much I have 4 bulbs and everything looks good to me so far

 

[Lonny]

That is a great light. I believe it is dimable as well. I have seen some spectacular tanks with this fixture. if memory serves me correct @Diesel had this light over his tank. Just be sure to acclimate your corals to the light correctly and you should be fine.

Nice, his tank is incredible! I'm pretty new still, January will be a year for me. Can you suggest a good schedule for acclimation?

 

[Lonny]

You can always remove a bulb if you feel it's too much I have 4 bulbs and everything looks good to me so far

That's what I have now as well. But everything seems to stretch towards the middle of the tank lol.

 

[Diesel]

Some one said something.............

 

[clownfish chris]

Nice, his tank is incredible! I'm pretty new still, January will be a year for me. Can you suggest a good schedule for acclimation?

I have seen it in person and even have a few frags from his sticks. Here is a good video from one of reef2reef's sponsors.

 

[clownfish chris]

Hi Ben!

 

[Lonny]

Some one said something.............

Like magic lol! [emoji102] beautiful man!

 

[Lonny]

Sweet thanks Chris. I guess the screen and shortening the light cycle would be my best bet.

 

[Diesel]

Hi Ben!

Hi Chris

 

[plainrt]

I would do 6 as with 8 your just gonna waste it with a ton of light spill unless using a canopy. I'm running a 4 bulb ati dimmable over my 24 inch width tank and par coverage was pretty good even with only 4. But what do I know.

 

[Lonny]

I would do 6 as with 8 your just gonna waste it with a ton of light spill unless using a canopy. I'm running a 4 bulb ati dimmable over my 24 inch width tank and par coverage was pretty good even with only 4. But what do I know.

Hmm, more food for thought. I'm not running a hood and I didn't think about spillage. To bad these lights weren't so expensive, it's almost as bad as deciding when your ready to have kids lol! Thanks for the input man!

 

[Lonny]

And by the way, excellent tank!!!

 

[Diesel]

If your tank is 24" wide I would go for the 8 bulb.
Reason why is if you want a healthy and perfect SPS tank you need the all the par you can get and the spectrum to make it look awesome, 6 bulbs bulbs ain't going to cut it.
Midway with a 10" above surface you will not get 250 par with a 6 bulb, you might get close if you use Giesemann bulbs, any other bulb won't do it.
Besides you want the perfect spectrum and more bulbs is always better.
Just think about it that we trying to fake the corals that the sun is above your tank but it's not............ with a 8 bulb combo you might get 60% of what the sun offers and that is almost half.
You going to have light spill with any light you put above a open tank even a one bulb unit.
Not one company has a light that won't spill or you have to put all beam flash lights over your tank.
The reason that ppl start building a canopy 50 years ago is first of all to hide their DIY light as there were wires all over and it was never pretty to see these lights, secondly is yes they hated the light spill as it was way more we have now due to the fact simply there were no reflectors, the canopy was turned in most cases into a reflector in the 70's.
Now days the light they sell on the market are all beautiful and there isn't a reason to hide them in to a canopy any more.

 

[reefwiser]

+1 on 8 bulb. Way more coverage and light going into the tank.

 

[Lonny]

If your tank is 24" wide I would go for the 8 bulb.
Reason why is if you want a healthy and perfect SPS tank you need the all the par you can get and the spectrum to make it look awesome, 6 bulbs bulbs ain't going to cut it.
Midway with a 10" above surface you will not get 250 par with a 6 bulb, you might get close if you use Giesemann bulbs, any other bulb won't do it.
Besides you want the perfect spectrum and more bulbs is always better.
Just think about it that we trying to fake the corals that the sun is above your tank but it's not............ with a 8 bulb combo you might get 60% of what the sun offers and that is almost half.
You going to have light spill with any light you put above a open tank even a one bulb unit.
Not one company has a light that won't spill or you have to put all beam flash lights over your tank.
The reason that ppl start building a canopy 50 years ago is first of all to hide their DIY light as there were wires all over and it was never pretty to see these lights, secondly is yes they hated the light spill as it was way more we have now due to the fact simply there were no reflectors, the canopy was turned in most cases into a reflector in the 70's.
Now days the light they sell on the market are all beautiful and there isn't a reason to hide them in to a canopy any more.

Your tank is living proof! Thanks for the advice. About spectrum, what combination of bulbs do you run? Right now I use 2 ati blue+, 1 Giesemann true actinic and 1 I think it's called coral plus.

I chose these bulbs solely on how they make my corals look, wasn't really thinking about proper spectrum.

 

[d2mini]

You going to have light spill with any light you put above a open tank even a one bulb unit.
Not one company has a light that won't spill or you have to put all beam flash lights over your tank.
The reason that ppl start building a canopy 50 years ago is first of all to hide their DIY light as there were wires all over and it was never pretty to see these lights, secondly is yes they hated the light spill as it was way more we have now due to the fact simply there were no reflectors, the canopy was turned in most cases into a reflector in the 70's.
Now days the light they sell on the market are all beautiful and there isn't a reason to hide them in to a canopy any more.

+1
When I ran retrofit halides and T5's in a canopy and you opened it up it was like exposing the sun. lol
But with the nice all in one fancy fixtures, that kind of light exposure into the room isn't really a problem.
I do try to get a light that is either equal to or preferably a little less than the length of the tank. No need to have wasted light spilling over the edge of the tank on to the floor, and you most likely don't have sps literally wall to wall either.