Thinking about jumping in the T5 game

[AZG]

So since day 1 I've been and LED guy. I'm a kessil head through and through. I'm hesitate on spending money on gear. But when it came to lights I'd drop a $800 no problem. Why? I think because the blue light is absolutely beautiful. It makes colors pop, can make a dirty tank look clean and don't for get that shimmer kid ;Happy. What I'm saying is I buy lights for me not for my corals. My growth and colors are fine. No bleaching, pretty steady. I just feel it could be better, especially with my sps.
Now my frag tank has been up for few months in the basement. It's not for showing just collection and growth. Of course I gotta have my two a360 wide on a 36x20x12 frag tank. But I wanna do what's right for my boys in the tank (or I could just be bored). From what I'm reading online is T5 really helps them develop beautiful color. My plan would be to buy a $100 fixture and change out the bulbs. So the questions I have are. What kind of bulb? Best/cheapest way to automate the light? Placement, height? And your experience overall? Why you like T5 better? Convince me my friend! Help me better understand! Thank you!

 

[Bpb]

Well youalready grow plenty of sps with LEDs. So just do it! What do you have to lose. See if you like it. Pick up a 4 bulb sunblaster or two from amazon or find a used 36” ati t5ho fixture on the forum and load it up with some ati bulbs. Hang it 12-18” over the frag tank and let it do its thing. Unfortunately $100 total to adequately light that footprint isn’t realistic, even with t5ho

 

[rkpetersen]

I added 4 T5s to my 3 Hydra 26HDs about 2 months ago. I used the relatively inexpensive Aquatic Life hybrid fixture, in 4' length. The T5s really do add some color depth that is hard to describe, and they also markedly reduce areas of chronic shadowing that are inevitable with any stationary point source lights (this becomes more and more noticeable as acros grow.) Also, it is quite clear to me that coral growth has been enhanced. I'm using ATI bulbs, and haven't used others yet. Two Blue +, one Coral +, and one Actinic. Considering switching to all Blue +. My lights are all 10" above the water line. I automate them by plugging them into an Apex outlet and programming the time (no dimmer). They run 5 hours midday, with the morning and evening ramps handled by the LEDs.

 

[Jimbo662]

I added 4 T5s to my 3 Hydra 26HDs about 2 months ago. I used the relatively inexpensive Aquatic Life hybrid fixture, in 4' length. The T5s really do add some color depth that is hard to describe, and they also markedly reduce areas of chronic shadowing that are inevitable with any stationary point source lights (this becomes more and more noticeable as acros grow.) Also, it is quite clear to me that coral growth has been enhanced. I'm using ATI bulbs, and haven't used others yet. Two Blue +, one Coral +, and one Actinic. Considering switching to all Blue +. My lights are all 10" above the water line. I automate them by plugging them into an Apex outlet and programming the time (no dimmer). They run 5 hours midday, with the morning and evening ramps handled by the LEDs.

+++++1 I got the Aquatic Life fixture and added my existing radions.

 

[SDboatguy]

I was T5 only then added 3x Hydra 26 HDs ....love the set up and my corals are looking good and growing nicely

 

[Finhead]

I added 4 T5s to my 3 Hydra 26HDs about 2 months ago. I used the relatively inexpensive Aquatic Life hybrid fixture, in 4' length. The T5s really do add some color depth that is hard to describe, and they also markedly reduce areas of chronic shadowing that are inevitable with any stationary point source lights (this becomes more and more noticeable as acros grow.) Also, it is quite clear to me that coral growth has been enhanced. I'm using ATI bulbs, and haven't used others yet. Two Blue +, one Coral +, and one Actinic. Considering switching to all Blue +. My lights are all 10" above the water line. I automate them by plugging them into an Apex outlet and programming the time (no dimmer). They run 5 hours midday, with the morning and evening ramps handled by the LEDs.

+1 on this. I have a DIY fixture 4 bulb T5 running with my 2 Hydra 26's. All blue+.

 

[skiergd011013]

I love t5s. I have a 4 bulb fixture with 2 blue plus,

and 2 true actinic

 

[cracker]

I really like my T5's over my 75.

 

[jda]

I would do two on each side of your Kessils. GE 6500K and True Actinic. The 6500k will develop colors that you LEDs are not very capable of and the Actinic will add UV that also do not get in the Kessils... they balance each other out to about 14-15K look and then you can use the Kessils to blue-it-up to your desire to show off the tank.

IMO, there is no doubt that the T5 will develop color better than your Kessil will... and if you like the way that the Kessil illuminates, then you will be happy with this.

 

[Finhead]

I would do two on each side of your Kessils. GE 6500K and True Actinic. The 6500k will develop colors that you LEDs are not very capable of and the Actinic will add UV that also do not get in the Kessils... they balance each other out to about 14-15K look and then you can use the Kessils to blue-it-up to your desire to show off the tank.

IMO, there is no doubt that the T5 will develop color better than your Kessil will... and if you like the way that the Kessil illuminates, then you will be happy with this.

Actually the Kessil has a fair amount of UV.

 

[AZG]

Thank you everyone for the input.

 

[AZG]

I added 4 T5s to my 3 Hydra 26HDs about 2 months ago. I used the relatively inexpensive Aquatic Life hybrid fixture, in 4' length. The T5s really do add some color depth that is hard to describe, and they also markedly reduce areas of chronic shadowing that are inevitable with any stationary point source lights (this becomes more and more noticeable as acros grow.) Also, it is quite clear to me that coral growth has been enhanced. I'm using ATI bulbs, and haven't used others yet. Two Blue +, one Coral +, and one Actinic. Considering switching to all Blue +. My lights are all 10" above the water line. I automate them by plugging them into an Apex outlet and programming the time (no dimmer). They run 5 hours midday, with the morning and evening ramps handled by the LEDs.

Do you run the LED's midday as well?

 

[Finhead]

Do you run the LED's midday as well?

I run the same type of setup with 2 Hydra 26's 4 T5's. I run the LEDS for 12hrs a day with a peak of 5 hours where the T5's overlap that peak with a hour before and a hour after so 7hrs total on the T5's. Hope that's the info you were looking for.

 

[rkpetersen]

Do you run the LED's midday as well?

Yes, pretty much as Finhead describes, although I did acclimate the tank by gradually increasing the amount of time the T5s are on, starting with 30 minutes around the middle of my tank day at 2 PM.