What lighting are you using to light your SPS tanks?

gpwdr · Mar 9, 2015

T5/mh

w.gurney77 · Mar 9, 2015

New system (4 months running)
2x250w 14k halides and 4x24w t5 blue+

Latinreefer · Mar 9, 2015

ATI Hybrid, best of both worlds LEDS and T5's

jackson6745 · Mar 9, 2015

Latinreefer said:
ATI Hybrid, best of both worlds LEDS and T5's

You mean halides and t5's?

swk · Mar 9, 2015

Ati dimmable sunpower. Love it

BrotherReef · Mar 9, 2015

macscale said:
Hands down one of the nicest tanks I've seen!

Thanks mac. Still a work in progress.

FMF0331 · Mar 9, 2015

I like power compacts ...

Rick_Dude · Mar 10, 2015

JBNY said:
MH/T5 combo here too. Redoing my tank now and will be using the same combination again.

What fixture is that

JBNY · Mar 10, 2015

Giesemann Spectra.

naso tang · Mar 10, 2015

FMF0331 said:
4 ai sol blue , running approx 2.5 yrs

Nice! Obviously there is evidence of success with each type of lighting. To me, the choice really comes down to

1. What is your electric bill (ie lights and chiller use)
2. How much money and effort you wanna spend replacing bulbs

We'd probably all be running radiums if it weren't for those two points.

jackson6745 · Mar 10, 2015

naso tang said:
Nice! Obviously there is evidence of success with each type of lighting. To me, the choice really comes down to

1. What is your electric bill (ie lights and chiller use)
2. How much money and effort you wanna spend replacing bulbs

We'd probably all be running radiums if it weren't for those two points.

I have run 400w+250w halides for many years and never needed a chiller. You obviously can't keep your home like a sauna though.

The bulb change on the radiums can be justified by SPS that absolutely kick butt in color and growth lol.... seriously. Sell some frags.

If everyone ran 400w radiums SPS would be worthless because everyone would be growing underwater jungles

hectat2 · Mar 10, 2015

Ya'll get that color with t5?

jackson6745 · Mar 10, 2015

hectat2 said:
Ya'll get that color with t5?

All T5 is awesome for growth, IMO the best. A coral gets illuminated from every angle resulting in dense growth. IME All T5 makes getting deep color more difficult. I think the trick is to run a higher po4 level. My buddy ran all t5 and had deeper, richer colors than my halide tank. His nutrient level was very high though.

hectat2 · Mar 10, 2015

Ok my phosphate is undetectable with api test nitrates 0 api test kit calcium 480 /mag1450/kh9.0 with red sea test

thanks

my bop lost the color

BrotherReef · Mar 10, 2015

hectat2 said:
Ok my phosphate is undetectable with api test nitrates 0 api test kit calcium 480 /mag1450/kh9.0 with red sea test

thanks

my bop lost the color

If your water is to clean that can happen. My corals did the same thing.

hectat2 · Mar 10, 2015

Ok thank I go to switch my schedule of wc to twice a month see what happen thanks for the help. amazing tanks guys

soggytees · Mar 10, 2015

naso tang said:
I've run
Halides
Halides t5
T6
Ai sol led
Currently running ai sol + t5. Been on this combo for 2 years or more

Here's a fts

Zoom in

WOW! Amazing!! Do you have a build thread here? I'd love to check it out!

gacolt · Mar 10, 2015

3x400w MH SE 20k radium over 125g reef

Acrononomus · Mar 10, 2015

jackson6745 said:
Pic from last month. 32x32 cube running 1x400w radium, 4xt5, and 2 blue led reefbrite. The lighting on this cube is very efficient when you consider the coverage from one halide.
IMG_0984 by rich.colombo, on Flickr

What t5's are u running with your radium, your color looks perfect!

jackson6745 · Mar 10, 2015

Acrononomus said:
What t5's are u running with your radium, your color looks perfect!

Thank you. I like to run 2 coral+ and 2 blue+ with the radium. It adds significant light, and doesn't make the spectrum overly blue. I also run 2 blue led reefbrites which are on in that pic.