Bulbs and timing

[diablo243]

I am running a Halide T5 combo light on my 90rr, it has 2 - 250 halide and 2 T5 bulbs(4' long fixture). I can control each hailed and the T5s (both at once) individually with 3 separate plugs. I'll be using a RKL and will control one and off worth that over timers, so here are my questions:

Thinking I'll be a softy, lps tank(new setup) and was wondering what people would recommend for the T5s (color and wattage)? Worth using the led conversion bulbs over standard?

What would people recommend as a timing schedule, T5s first, then 1 halide, then the other for dawn and the reverse for dusk?

Thanks all

 

[Bpb]

I'd honestly go both t5, then both halides plus both t5, then both t5, then off.

Bulb choice will be really something of personal taste. Honestly if it were my tank and I were only planning on keeping Lps corals I would choose a blue heavy bulb combo for maximum fluorescence. Specifically:

Giesemann actinic blue
Ati true actinic

Those two bulbs in front and those two in back. The giesemann actinic blue are similar to the ati blue+, only slightly less par, and a little deeper blue in color, with less of a turquoise/baby blue appearance.

The true actinic bulbs are called useless by some, but once you've seen them visually paired with a standard blue bulb, the color combo is spectacular and is the absolute perfect dawn dusk extreme fluorescence look.

For the metal halides, I'm assuming you've got double ended bulbs, and if so I would either use the Phoenix 14k, or any other popular double ended 20k bulb (Hamilton, ushio, whatever you can get your hands on).

This would be a pretty blue look overall with great shimmer and amazing fluorescence. Being Lps and softies focused you don't need par monster bulbs, and these corals show off their best colors via fluorescence, rather than reflective color (like most sps corals), so having a lot of warmer kelvin whiter light won't be visually that beneficial, unless you just happen to really like a bright white shallow water looking tank. Which case I would amend my bulb combo recommendation and suggest you run
For the t5ho for each pair
Ati blue+
Ati true actinic

And either the ushio 14k or the Hamilton 14k for your halides. Those are both pretty bright white bulbs

 

[diablo243]

Great info thank you! My fixture only has a single T5 per side so what would you do then, same bulb for both or 1 of each?

 

[Bpb]

Yeah I'd put the actinic up front in that case with the blue in back

 

[mcarroll]

Something around 5-6 hours for the main lighting is plenty, BTW....more than that and you're mostly just burning up your bulbs sooner than needed.

(Daylight in the tropics is 12 hours, but that includes sunrise, sunset, etc....an on/off fixture delivers the power at a continuous peak, so less time is needed for "equal lighting".)

Personally, if you're really going to run that fixture for the main lights, I'd see what the halides put out for lux.

(Download a $free [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] app for your smartphone's camera. While it's downloading, order a bog-standard "LX-1010B" lux meter (or similar) from any major reseller. Better than an app and safer around saltwater!)

If halides alone are sufficient - that is, peaks anywhere from 20,000-80,000 lux - then I'd use the T5's only as night-viewing lights.

This way you really only have to replace your halides on a cycle...the T5's will last forever if they aren't being used 6 hours a day. Your costs will be a lot lower in the long run.

I'd probably run XM 20,000K's or 14,000K's, but Hamilton's 20,000K is nice as well. (If Radium made a 250W DE, I'd suggest that.)