T5 Lighting

[Robert Staie]

I am looking to upgrade my lighting over my 200 gallon Mixed reef Tank measures 48" side to side and 36" front to back and is a depth of 27 inches. I am looking at the ATI or the Geiseman dimmable units. Not sure whether to go for the 6 tube or 8 tube unit. Anyone have any experience with these units?

 

[Anthony Wood]

I have the ATI sunpower 6x80W unit. Go with the 8 bulb it'll leave you more room for more bulbs. If you don't need the PAR of all 8 which I doubt you will on a mixed reef you can put an extra actinic, or red bulbs like the KZ fiji purple in the 2 extra slots. That'll add a broader spectrum to make your corals pop but at the same time not add and usable PAR to the tank and roast your corals. My tank wasn't wide enough for an 8 bulb or I would have gotten that. Just be very careful to acclimate everything to the new fixture they put off a serious amount of light more then you would think due to their reflectors.

 

[Robert Staie]

Thank you for your input. You bring up an interesting point of buying the 8 tube. I could add some specialty bulbs to run on a separate schedule of the rest. I am currently running a 6 tube coral life lighting system right now and am running 2 lagoon blue and 2 actinic and 2 aqua-blue Geiseman Powerchrome 54W.

 

[Anthony Wood]

Nice! To be honest with you i can't picture what that bulb combo looks like in my head haha I just stick with ATI bulbs. I have 5 ATI blue+ and one KZ fiji purple running on my SPS tank. You are going to love whichever fixture you get, both use the same exact parabolic reflectors.

 

[Robert Staie]

Think of a 14K lighted tank and then add some 10K lighting for top of the day. More on blue side. Thank you

 

[Anthony Wood]

gotcha! thanks for the mental picture