Adding T5's to Radions

[GlassMunky]

So I am considering adding a few T5's to my SPS tank that is currently running 2 Radion Gen2 Pro's and wanted some opinions from other reefers, especially SPS/Acro keepers.

A little bit about the system:
its a standard 90G display tank with a 40G display fuge tied in, and both displays share a common 30G sump. Bubble Mag Curve 7 skimmer, Carbon reactor, Calcium Reactor for dosing, 2MP40's and 1 MP10 for flow inside the tank and everything runs on a DC1200 return pump and everything is controlled through my Apex.
The tank has been up and running for about 1.5-2 years now, and most all the corals are growing well and colorful. I say "most" because there are few picky acros that have encrusted the LR but now seem to be stuck in "limbo" where they have some color and PE but no new growth.
Most of the corals in the tank are past the "frag" stage in my mind and are what i would call "mini colonies" not full fledged mature colonies but on their way. I cant wait to see the next years growth.

Which brings me to my question/discussion: As some of these corals are growing bigger, they seem to be somewhat shadowing themselves where the parts of the corals that have direct access to the LEDs are super bright colored but the more shaded parts seem to be staying brown/tan, as well as some of the corals slightly lower in the tank being shaded from the higher up corals.
I have an old MH/T5 fixture that I'm considering ripping apart and pulling out the T5 reflectors and ballasts and try running up to 4x 48" 54W T5's in conjunction with the Radions to give a more even spread of light throughout the tank and hopefully help with some of the shading/spotlight effect.

Does anyone currently run a Radion/T5 combo?
Thoughts/opinions?

I was thinking that at first, I should maybe only start out with 2 T5's and run them for only a couple of hours at first, to acclimate the tank to the extra light, and then slowly over time maybe add the other 2 T5's (for a total of 4) and then slowly adjust the photoperiod up? I really don't want to hurt any of my corals in the process, does this seem like the best plan of action?

Also, what color T5 bulbs would people recommend running in conjunction with the Radions? I was thinking maybe 2 Coral+ bulbs??


Any and all help is appreciated. THANKS and HAPPY REEFING

 

[Anthony Wood]

Shading is the issue with LED's. You can't go wrong with adding T5's as long as you acclimate them properly. But you already said that you know you'll have to acclimate them. If your old fixture has parabolic reflectors like the new ATI and geismann T5HO fixtures have at it! If not do yourself a favor and pony up the money for the ATI T5HO retrofit kit that has parabolic reflectors. They make a huge difference in the amount of PAR that'll get reflected into the tank. Non parabolic reflectors will not get you the results your looking for. these type of reflectors will reflect a large majority of the light being produced back into the bulb itself, so you may see the tank getting brighter to the eye but in all reality the corals that are shading themselves are getting very little to no usable PAR your just adding spectrum to the tank. So why use non parabolic reflectors if its not going to achieve to results your looking for lol.

Since you obviously know what your doing as far as light acclimation just do what you feel is the best process is to acclimate your corals. Just keep in mind corals can survive months in not enough light but can be burned to death in a matter of days. So the longer the acclimation the better. Brown means the color is very healthy packed with zooantha (I know thats spelled wrong) just not appealing to the eye. As far as bulbs it all depends on kelvin rating you want on the tank. Coming from an ATI Sunpower 6x80W owner thats tried every ATI T5HO bulb out there. Coral + is a very bland white and not very appealing, Aquablue special has a faint blue look but still white and more crisp of a white, Blue + my personal favorite is a very nice crisp blue and will make the tank a nice tropical ocean blue. The three bulbs listed have PAR output very close to each other, so you don't have to worry about that it comes down what you want to tank to look like. Spectrum differences are the amount of green and red output the bulbs put off from greatest to least output of these colors goes Coral +, Aquablue Special then Blue +. I should note that they all have plenty of green and red output for the corals. Hope that helps!

 

[GlassMunky]

Shading is the issue with LED's. You can't go wrong with adding T5's as long as you acclimate them properly. But you already said that you know you'll have to acclimate them. If your old fixture has parabolic reflectors like the new ATI and geismann T5HO fixtures have at it! If not do yourself a favor and pony up the money for the ATI T5HO retrofit kit that has parabolic reflectors. They make a huge difference in the amount of PAR that'll get reflected into the tank. Non parabolic reflectors will not get you the results your looking for. these type of reflectors will reflect a large majority of the light being produced back into the bulb itself, so you may see the tank getting brighter to the eye but in all reality the corals that are shading themselves are getting very little to no usable PAR your just adding spectrum to the tank. So why use non parabolic reflectors if its not going to achieve to results your looking for lol.

Since you obviously know what your doing as far as light acclimation just do what you feel is the best process is to acclimate your corals. Just keep in mind corals can survive months in not enough light but can be burned to death in a matter of days. So the longer the acclimation the better. Brown means the color is very healthy packed with zooantha (I know thats spelled wrong) just not appealing to the eye. As far as bulbs it all depends on kelvin rating you want on the tank. Coming from an ATI Sunpower 6x80W owner thats tried every ATI T5HO bulb out there. Coral + is a very bland white and not very appealing, Aquablue special has a faint blue look but still white and more crisp of a white, Blue + my personal favorite is a very nice crisp blue and will make the tank a nice tropical ocean blue. The three bulbs listed have PAR output very close to each other, so you don't have to worry about that it comes down what you want to tank to look like. Spectrum differences are the amount of green and red output the bulbs put off from greatest to least output of these colors goes Coral +, Aquablue Special then Blue +. I should note that they all have plenty of green and red output for the corals. Hope that helps!

How is one able to tell if they are parabolic reflectors or not?


Initially my first thought was to add 2 more Radions (4 total) over the tank to get more even spread of light, but the $$$ needed to do that right now is just not available to me. which is where my thought of hacking apart my old light came into play, wanting to keep costs as low as possible.

 

[reefboxerguy317]

I actually just did what you mentioned couple weeks ago, and the added t5s seem to make huge difference. Picked up used tek fixture, gutted the middle 4 t5s, and installed my radions. Wish I would've done this years ago.

For bulbs I'm using two blue plus, one purple plus, and coral plus. The t5s are adding more than enough of the crisper white look, so I turned the white LEDs down a good bit.

 

[Anthony Wood]

The reflector will be shaped sort like half of a octogon. Its not going to have any round edges. Thats the best I can explain it, put ATI parabolic reflector into google and look through the images tab. Im with you on the price tag of 2 more radions thats a lot of cash! The reason I brought up needing parabolic reflectors is because you need a more even par distribution not just adding more spectrum to the tank like what most HQI/T5 fixtures design the T5's to do. In your instance the only reflector I know of thats is going to distribute any significant par to the shaded spots on your corals is going to be a T5HO with a parabolic reflector combination. Any other reflector type and can almost guarentee your not going to solve your shading issue just be adding a broader spectrum to the tank like I said. BRS has a T5HO retrofit kit avaiable thatll fit your need, not sure what the price tag on them are. I dont beleieve they kits have a high price tag. But hey you gotta do what best fits your needs! I mean if you dont mind tearing apart your old fixture instaed of trying to sell it for the money the retro fit kit will cost have at it, tear it apart and retrofit it to the tank. The worst thats gonna happen is that its not going solve your shading issue and youll know why, instead of getting frustrated with the set up. I really hope your old fixture solves your problems, that would be awsome but i have my doubts if your old fixture didnt come with parabolic reflectors on the T5's. If it comes to the point where your old fixture retrofit isnt doing the job then upgrade to a parabolic reflector.

This just crossed my mind you could use the ballasts and endcaps from your old fixture then just get ahold of ATI and buy their replacement reflectors for the sunpower in the correct length. They run about $10-$30 depending on the reflector length. Use all that you can from old fixtures then buy just the reflectors and make it work, problem solved!

 

[GlassMunky]

The reflector will be shaped sort like half of a octogon. Its not going to have any round edges. Thats the best I can explain it, put ATI parabolic reflector into google and look through the images tab. Im with you on the price tag of 2 more radions thats a lot of cash! The reason I brought up needing parabolic reflectors is because you need a more even par distribution not just adding more spectrum to the tank like what most HQI/T5 fixtures design the T5's to do. In your instance the only reflector I know of thats is going to distribute any significant par to the shaded spots on your corals is going to be a T5HO with a parabolic reflector combination. Any other reflector type and can almost guarentee your not going to solve your shading issue just be adding a broader spectrum to the tank like I said. BRS has a T5HO retrofit kit avaiable thatll fit your need, not sure what the price tag on them are. I dont beleieve they kits have a high price tag. But hey you gotta do what best fits your needs! I mean if you dont mind tearing apart your old fixture instaed of trying to sell it for the money the retro fit kit will cost have at it, tear it apart and retrofit it to the tank. The worst thats gonna happen is that its not going solve your shading issue and youll know why, instead of getting frustrated with the set up. I really hope your old fixture solves your problems, that would be awsome but i have my doubts if your old fixture didnt come with parabolic reflectors on the T5's. If it comes to the point where your old fixture retrofit isnt doing the job then upgrade to a parabolic reflector.

This just crossed my mind you could use the ballasts and endcaps from your old fixture then just get ahold of ATI and buy their replacement reflectors for the sunpower in the correct length. They run about $10-$30 depending on the reflector length. Use all that you can from old fixtures then buy just the reflectors and make it work, problem solved!

yea the reflectors from the old fixture are not rounded, they have 5 or 6 sides kind of in an octagon shape like you said.....
I think ill try this out with the existing reflectors and ballasts, and it they don't do the trick i can upgrade the reflectors like you said. seems to be the cheapest option for me and i can do it as i go and see how the tank responds to everything

Thanks for the input guys

 

[Anthony Wood]

Your welcome! Sounds like you have parabolic reflectors that's perfect. In thats case you shouldn't have to buy anything new besides some bulbs. Best of luck! Just throwing this out there take it for what it is haha If its been a while since you've ran T5's and need a refresher on what colors bulbs are, just leave a message on this thread or throw me a DM and I can give you a refresher on bulbs colors and combinations and even some pictures if you would like because I run a ATI Sunpower currently over my tank.

 

[GlassMunky]

Getting close to time to setup the new lights.
Got this message last night from my buddy who is building my hood with pics of it almost done. He is also making the hood somewhat match the stand that he built for me too

So with that being said, its about time for me to order up some new T5 bulbs.
Which ones do you think i should get? all Blue+ or a combo of Blue+ and Aquablue special or even a purple+???


Now as for acclimating the tank to the added light, here is what i came up with for a plan, let me know what you guys think.
there will 2 sets of T5 lights, 2 bulbs on each ballast. My plan is to first, start with only running 2 bulbs for about 1 hour a day during peak photoperiod. Then slowly, each 2 weeks add another hour the T5 photoperiod until it reaches a total of 4 hours.
If after all of that, the corals are responding well, i would then add in the second set of T5's again for 1 hour to start, and slowly bring that up to the same 4 hour period.

I thought that this would be the easiest way to slowly acclimate all the corals to the added light rather than blasting them with all 4 extra bulbs at first. Does that seem right? Thoughts?

 

[GlassMunky]

Bumping this up too see what others think

 

[GlassMunky]

@Anthony Wood what are your thoughts on this plan?

 

[Reefjunkie3]

3 Radion pros 4t5

Good color and growth.

 

[ReefBuzz]

3 Radion pros 4t5

Good color and growth.

You have excellent growth! Can you share your radion setup (the export file) and what bulbs you are using!

 

[GlassMunky]

3 Radion pros 4t5

Good color and growth.

What size tank is that over, and how do you have the lights positioned? Also, what T5 bulbs are you running?

 

[Reefjunkie3]

Tank 190 sps dominated
3Radion 3G pros schedule is on a tweak color radiance program 8:30 to 9:30
T5 ATI 2blue plus and 2 actinic run from 10am to 6:30pm help with shading.
Hung about 9inch from water surface.

 

[dewboy1127]

Can those who have these setups going post pics of how they did it ...i to have two gen 2 and would like to supplement with t5s... i also have a tek5 4 buld fixture ...i just cant figure out how to utilize this stuff in best way as i have a 72gal Bowfront and its a pain to light anyways...i dont have a canopy for it and not sure how to make a curved one to mount lights into and afraid might cause heat build up anyways

 

[GlassMunky]

@Reefjunkie3 did the tank always have both radions and the T5?

My biggest concern at this point is how to acclimate my corals to the added light of the new T5's. I posted above what I was thinking about for acclimation if you care to take a look.

 

[Reefjunkie3]

It was a metal halide and T5 Combo
If you have been running LEDs then t5s addition shouldn't affect the corals.

 

[sromero287]

I'd been using mine with 2 G3-Pro's and 4 T5's B+ Act B+ Aquabluespecial can't be happier with the results, specifically growth and polyps extension

 

[Tetra84]

I'm fixing to add 2 T5 bulbs on either side of my Radions.. which colors do you guys recommend? ATI Blue+ and ? Also, have you guys noticed a significant difference after supplementing your Radions with t5's?

 

[Tetra84]

also, If I was only using 2 bulbs, would it look weird if they were different colors and separated by the Radions? Would there be some kind of color banding -like blue in the front or white or pink in the back? Or should they blend ok?