t5 supplement necessary?

[phlibbyreefer]

Stats:

125 gallon 6ft tank
3 hydra52 evenly spaced 12 inches off water level
Running Saxby preset

Tank is 3 months old. I have about 23 frags with maybe 2-3 small colony. mix between soft, lps and sps.

Will I benefit greatly with supplementing t5 lighting?

If it is a big difference I will consider it but if the different is negligible I will discard.

let me know.

 

[phlibbyreefer]

 

[Hitman]

Personally I find T5’s to be a great addition to LED’s. I’m running 4 of the 60” ATI Blue pluses over my 240 in addition to my ) AI Sol Blues. When I added the T5’s my corals took off in growth.

 

[phlibbyreefer]

Personally I find T5’s to be a great addition to LED’s. I’m running 4 of the 60” ATI Blue pluses over my 240 in addition to my ) AI Sol Blues. When I added the T5’s my corals took off in growth.

what would be a good way to add t5's? Looking at some of these hybrid mounts and $500 seems crazy to me.

 

[Hitman]

I did the T5 retrofit kits from BRS

 

[Jonathan veillette]

If your looking for better light spread/coverage/pop and SPS growth then yes! Try the aquatic life hybrid fixtures. Personally I think it sucks spending all this money on these nice led fixtures and having to supplement them with T5's for better growth and coverage. Buy led fixtures in numbers or buy T5's!

 

[reefwiser]

You will find and once you add the T5 lights your corals will grow faster.

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/t5-ho-miro-4-retrofit-kit-let-lighting.html

The aqualift fixtures let you easily add t5's to LED units
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/61-h...h-led-mounting-system-white-aquatic-life.html

 

[phlibbyreefer]

If your looking for better light spread/coverage/pop and SPS growth then yes! Try the aquatic life hybrid fixtures. Personally I think it sucks spending all this money on these nice led fixtures and having to supplement them with T5's for better growth and coverage. Buy led fixtures in numbers or buy T5's!

I am happy with my spread and have no dead zone areas. My thinking was coral growth. But now I am thining my current HYDRA52s are nowhere near there max. Maybe I will keep slowly adjusting those up and see what happens.

 

[reefwiser]

Will not help.

 

[Bpb]

I’m of the belief that it depends on the application as to whether t5 supplements would help. Having kept sps under all 3 major forms of light, I can definitely say that I prefer the results of t5ho lighting. Branching colonies grow more uniform for me and I get more complete color coverage. Even shaded portions are still colorful. I did NOT experience that under a pure led setup. Just personal experience.

I think if you are specializing in corals that move or encrust, it is less essential to have the high scatter blanket diffused coverage of t5 lighting. An encrusting or soft coral that moves will not shade itself and generally the entire specimen will be illuminated well enough with point source led lighting.

You may not find much improvement with adding t5ho.

It will definitely help improve the color and growth rates of branching sps corals though. They will appreciate the higher par and improved coverage.

 

[rossco]

I have 3 Radion XR30 pros on my 72x27x24, starting this April.

I was previously running T5 retros so I just kept a pair and run them front and back, inspired by WWC. If I wasn’t running the T5, I would probably run 4, mounted front to back rather than lengthwise to give better coverage.

My corals were already good sized and shading would definitely be an issue, and on the front side, the side I view from, that would be unacceptable. In my frag tanks, with smaller corals - including acros, I run the Radions alone.