Led to t5

[barber42]

I am going to switch from 3 black box leds to an ati 8x80 with reefbrite xho over my 180. I am asking for experienced help and opinions on a staring height for the light, and a schedule. My tank is 90% sps with a few lps very low.

 

[loui]

8 T5 bulbs is a ton of light I would get the light as far away from the top of the tank as you can at the start, even as high as 2 feet if that is possible. Also if the fixture allows it I would not use all 8 bulbs at the start. This is going to be hard to come up with a plan since you are adding so much light you are really going to need to pay attention to the corals during the transition. I would go in very small increments and watch the reaction of the corals as you are increasing the lights. I would also go about 2 weeks in between each change. I would think 4 bulbs at the start running 8 hours would be fine as long as you have the lights up high. Personally I like having my lights at least 12 inches above the tank. If the T5 fixtures allows it you can dim the bulbs to help with the transition.

Remember to go slow and pay attention to the the corals they will let you know if they are happy or not.

 

[barber42]

Thanks along the lines of what I was thinking. I have the capability to hang the light 2’8” above the tank, however I didn’t plan that high. Maybe I will!

 

[Gablami]

It’s so easy these days with a par meter. Rent, borrow, buy one. See what the current par is, and then install the ati, and get it about the same par. Then lower it slowly if you want to increase your par.

Anything else is guesswork, if you’re trying to have a smooth transition. Not saying it can’t be done, carefully.

Without a par meter, hang the sunpower fixture high and slowly slowly bring it down over weeks, watching your corals FROM ABOVE to assess for signs of stress (bleaching, reduces PE) etc.

 

[barber42]

Looking into a par meter, wish I knew someone that had one.

 

[loui]

Great looking tank you got there. Looks like getting the fixture up high won't be an issue. I think you will see very good results changing to the reefbrite, T5 combo.

 

[barber42]

Thanks loui

 

[grammyreef]

My lfs had a par meter for rent, you might check with yours. Also, I think Bulk Reef Supply has a 7 day rental for 50.00. Well worth it.

 

[Vahanyos]

I'll be following this if you'd be so kind to document your progress

I currently use the Hydra 52HD but I REALLY want to go back to T5.... I'm really scared to make the switch since my SPS are doing well. I don't want to stress them out. My logic is what everyone pretty much said above....

Gablami hit the nail on the head - I was thinking of doing exactly what he said. Test PAR with current lights, change them, and test PAR immediately after installing the T5's and if the PAR matches up, I don't see why there would be any unhappy corals.

Good luck!

 

[Gablami]

I'll be following this if you'd be so kind to document your progress

I currently use the Hydra 52HD but I REALLY want to go back to T5.... I'm really scared to make the switch since my SPS are doing well. I don't want to stress them out. My logic is what everyone pretty much said above....

Gablami hit the nail on the head - I was thinking of doing exactly what he said. Test PAR with current lights, change them, and test PAR immediately after installing the T5's and if the PAR matches up, I don't see why there would be any unhappy corals.

Good luck!

T5 bulbs have a burn in period where they can run a bit brighter initially. Consider preburning them for a couple days beforehand, or hang high to be safe before measuring par and lowering.

 

[Vahanyos]

T5 bulbs have a burn in period where they can run a bit brighter initially. Consider preburning them for a couple days beforehand, or hang high to be safe before measuring par and lowering.

Appreciate the advice! I'll definitely keep that in mind!

 

[DHill6]

My lfs had a par meter for rent, you might check with yours. Also, I think Bulk Reef Supply has a 7 day rental for 50.00. Well worth it.

Correct, also a deposit against your cc for the amount of the meter

 

[barber42]

Thanks for all the helpful insight. I have decided to go with radions, only because of electrical reasons.

 

[acer]

The club has looked into purchasing a par meter- and then lending it out with a deposit.

 

[SVP]

I went from an Kessil ap 700 to a 8 bulb ATI dimmable fixture with 2 reefbrite XHOs. Took PAR reading on both lights at various depths and wrote down every reading and depth and where at plus height of lights off water. One thing that I did not think of was the actual spectrum the T5s had vs. The AP700. I actually went lower on my PAR and length of photo period. Using the logic it's easier to kill corals with too much light than too little. I watched my LPS hammers, torches, blastsos, etc get sunburned. They don't bleach, I would guess that SPS would show signs by bleaching/ whitening/ fading/,loss of colors. Before I got too far I had to dial it back further. It was too late for a few hammers it receeded the soft tissue/membrane up and past the skeleton and to my horror they were just gone. I never thought about the difference of spectrums. LUX . It was extremely different for the T5s vs AP700. Followed almost every tip that has been given on here, plus did not rush into it. But still lost a few due to my error. I watch my corals all the time and like a hawk during this period as it was the most stressful time of the move tbh. And yet the transfer still got the best of me by taking 3 heads of my hammers. It sucks, tbh and if this helps one person not make the mistake I did then that's great.

 

[Gablami]

I went from an Kessil ap 700 to a 8 bulb ATI dimmable fixture with 2 reefbrite XHOs. Took PAR reading on both lights at various depths and wrote down every reading and depth and where at plus height of lights off water. One thing that I did not think of was the actual spectrum the T5s had vs. The AP700. I actually went lower on my PAR and length of photo period. Using the logic it's easier to kill corals with too much light than too little. I watched my LPS hammers, torches, blastsos, etc get sunburned. They don't bleach, I would guess that SPS would show signs by bleaching/ whitening/ fading/,loss of colors. Before I got too far I had to dial it back further. It was too late for a few hammers it receeded the soft tissue/membrane up and past the skeleton and to my horror they were just gone. I never thought about the difference of spectrums. LUX . It was extremely different for the T5s vs AP700. Followed almost every tip that has been given on here, plus did not rush into it. But still lost a few due to my error. I watch my corals all the time and like a hawk during this period as it was the most stressful time of the move tbh. And yet the transfer still got the best of me by taking 3 heads of my hammers. It sucks, tbh and if this helps one person not make the mistake I did then that's great.

Sorry to hear that. I have also burned corals, and it really set my tank back. Took many months to recover.

The interesting thing is your experience sounds like the opposite of the common refrain regarding PAR meters and LED lights: that PAR meters under estimate the light emitted by LED because they don’t do a good job measuring the blue spectrum. I’ve heard that specifically relating to kessils.

But your experience is that the broad spectrum of the t5 burned your corals at a lower PAR level than your kessils. Over what period of time did you transition and what bulbs are you running?

 

[SVP]

Sorry to hear that. I have also burned corals, and it really set my tank back. Took many months to recover.

The interesting thing is your experience sounds like the opposite of the common refrain regarding PAR meters and LED lights: that PAR meters under estimate the light emitted by LED because they don’t do a good job measuring the blue spectrum. I’ve heard that specifically relating to kessils.

But your experience is that the broad spectrum of the t5 burned your corals at a lower PAR level than your kessils. Over what period of time did you transition and what bulbs are you running?

Sry for the delayed response. I have the 48" ATI Sunpower high output dimmable fixture. I use 6 ATI blue plus, 1 purple plus, 1 actinic. So I have a few good buddies who either aquaculture or have grow out tanks. They had recommended to use( the 8 bulb ATI has 2 ballasts. One has 2 48" bulbs for morning and evening transitions. The other ballast runs 6 bulbs) the 2 bulb ballast at 100% and then run the 6 at 20%-25%. So when taking my PAR readings that's the setup/configuration I used. While I was lower than the kessil in PAR I believe that the actinic and purple (both are not on an AP700 to my knowledge) is the spectrum of light that my hammers were just not ready for, at that percentage. So after seeing the tissue receeding I backed it down to 30% on the 2 bulbs.
I basically started over and am ramping each ballast up 5% every other weekend. So one weekend I do the 6 bulb ballast the next weekend the 2 bulb ballast. I am now up to 50% with the fixture 1 foot off the top of the water. And with 2 reefbrite XHOS which together add around 120 extra PAR. I have them controlled by my apex to slowly ramp up now to 100% for 30 minutes in the morning ramp down most of the day and at night for pics have them kick on for 30 minutes just as the fixture starts to ramp down to keep my par essentially the same for 30 minutes. But that allows my corals to get some POP in the photos.

 

[SVP]

Sorry to hear that. I have also burned corals, and it really set my tank back. Took many months to recover.

The interesting thing is your experience sounds like the opposite of the common refrain regarding PAR meters and LED lights: that PAR meters under estimate the light emitted by LED because they don’t do a good job measuring the blue spectrum. I’ve heard that specifically relating to kessils.

But your experience is that the broad spectrum of the t5 burned your corals at a lower PAR level than your kessils. Over what period of time did you transition and what bulbs are you running?

I moved all my corals into a deeper frag tank from a 12" deep 60 gallon into a 16" deep 80 gallon. That also has the ATI fixture above it as well. I'm right at my 12 weeks mark. After starting over with my light schedule going backwards to a lot lower % and ramping up from there it's been 10 weeks for that. I have heard that about PAR meters not doing great with LEDS and more specifically Kessils. I have read on Seneyes website that the have an algorithm to help with LEDs to get a more accurate PAR reading. I think I should have paid more attention to my LUX readings for specific wavelengths rather than singularly worrying about just PAR. Hindsight is 20/20 and I try to learn from every mistake. I also shared this experience hoping it might help one reefkeeper to not make the same mistake I did. I did see/read anything about spectrums when switching, maybe I missed it but I hope this helps someone else!