LED\T5 Combo - Have there been any studies or first hand experience?

[twiddledog]

I have been reading a lot of threads about LEDs missing some light spectrums ie. UV. Also I hear grumbling from different people who have gone back to MH\T5 combo.
My question is have there been any studies or experience with LED and T5 combination of lights. I would think that this combination would work marvelously. Although maybe not have the T5s on for entire day, but maybe just long enough during peak hours to add that missing spectrum or whatever else is missing from LEDs alone. Of course there is the bulb choices as well that may help but that is a different topic.

Overall wouldor do T5s work well with LEDs?????

I am days away from setting up an LED combo with 3 Vegas and using my current T5 2x2bulb fixtures.
Any feed back would be appreciated.

 

[lizardfish]

2/1 rb/cw LEDs grow coral and color them up like crazy. But to be full spectrum you need to add ether 420 cool blue(465-480nm) cyan and deep red (650-680nm) LEDs or t5s so a ati blue plus, a super actinic, and maybe a purple plus would fill the gaps in spectrum. Cool thing about t5s is they spread the light more evenly so the red part of the spectrum blends better than a red led so no disco lol

 

[ReefLEDLights]

A few years when I first switched over from MH/T5 to LEDs I kept the T5s

Later to save on costs I dropped the T5 for more LEDs. I found the look a little better with all LEDs. As far as growth the 450nm Royal Blue is all you really need. There has been a lot of talk on "Full Spectrum. Adding the Violet will cause certain pigments in the corals to pop but their intensity is much less than the XT-E Royal Blue and thus do little to help growth. I did add have the Semi Violet to my SPS tank and like the look but growth was not improved.

Bill

 

[SPotter]

I have been using a full spectrum LED/T5 lamp for the last 9 months and I am still trying to figure out how to incorporate the t5's (bulb combination and duration) into the lighting program. I went with this fixture because my tank 36" wide and I was concerned about having complete coverage in the tank. I have played with different combination of bulbs and have run just the leds for a period of time and then compared the tank to when I run both led/t5. I think the growth and appearance was better with just the leds since my fixture is 10 colors controlled over 8ch. When the t5's come on it seems to really throw off the spectrums in the tank and everything looks washed out as if theres too much light. So now I am only running the t5's for 2hrs a day at peak times. I think that I could have gotten away with just the leds with careful coral placement on my tank. If you are buying an led fixture with multiple colors I dont think you will need to add t5's but if you are just going with white/blue, you might want to add t5's for additional color pop by using a purple bulb.

 

[SPotter]

also, i know someone that went from ai sol's with t5's to the vega's and after seeing how his tank looked with the vega colors....he sold the t5 equipment.

 

[ReefLEDLights]

SPotter

Full Spectrum is a vague term but generally means a couple warm white LEDs or some reds and greens. Which can cause some pigments to pop. The LEDs should be brighter than the T5s. Have you tried only 420nm actinic T5. The LEDs in this range are generally less bright and the 420nm is a grow spectrum.

Bill

 

[SPotter]

thanks for the response Bill. I have not tried Actinic bulbs yet. I will try them out next.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[twiddledog]

I spoke to ATI regarding T5 and LEDs...

Our True Actinic has the most UV spectrum of any of our bulbs, but all of
our bulbs have a little bit of UV in them and you do not need much UV
spectrum to make your corals happy so a combination of any of our bulbs
should work. I would think a combination of 2x Blue Plus, 1x True Actinic
and 1x Coral Plus should work good, but even your current combination of 2x
Blue Plus, 1x Purple Plus and 1x Coral Plus should be fine.

 

[TighTT]

Im running a 48in Sfiligoi Genesis T5/LED combo with great success. It has a total of 8 T5's and 3 rows of LED's (12 per row) in the middle. Awesome fixture.

 

[SPotter]

Im running a 48in Sfiligoi Genesis T5/LED combo with great success. It has a total of 8 T5's and 3 rows of LED's (12 per row) in the middle. Awesome fixture.

i had one of those on order but they had an unexpected delay earlier this year so I canceled and went with my current light.....wish I hadnt.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[lizardfish]

"Uv LEDs are less Intense" sorry but that's incorrect, 420 nm pack more energy per a photon but human eyes don't see that part of the spectrum well so it looks "dim" but are very "bright" to coral, to much will burn them in fact.