lighting

[picasso12]

Just bought the 48 inch 8 set light t-5 .. looking to see what typs of tint of lighting and what bulbs you suggest .. This is for my 100 gallon tank. Should be bringht enough for sps.. but might do a lil sps but majorty fps

 

[fatboyt123]

Just bought the 48 inch 8 set light t-5 .. looking to see what typs of tint of lighting and what bulbs you suggest .. This is for my 100 gallon tank. Should be bringht enough for sps.. but might do a lil sps but majorty fps

Someone should be able to help you on here but if not (dare i say it) you can try RC and ask in the t5 QandA. Grimreefer should be able to answer you quick with a great color combo of what you are looking for.

 

[fatboyt123]

just noticed but this in the wrong forum.This is for feedback and suggestions of the site.Something that should be put on here or something that you dont like.

we need a nano tank forum cough cough pardon me must coming down with a case of swine flue or sorry i mine H1N1

 

[picasso12]

oh gotcha my bad, well whoever the admin is, he/she can switch to the approiate forum.

 

[Myteemouse]

I would go with 4 true blue and 4 daylight
ATI or giesman bulbs spendy but supposed to be the best..

 

[picasso12]

hmm okay thanks for the imput mouse..

 

[fatboyt123]

did you try RC yet?

i think that would be pretty white what adam just said

 

[returnofsid]

Does your fixture have individual reflectors or reflectors that wrap around each bulb? Not sure what you mean by FPS corals?

Anyway, here's a good mix for a combination of great color and par.

From front to back:
Blue Plus
10000K Aquasun
12000K Aquablue Special
75/25 14000K AquaBlue
10000K AquaSun
12000K Aquablue Special
75/25 14000K AquaBlue
Blue Plus

The RC link people are referring to is authored by RC user GrimReefer and he's the T5HO Guru!! I'll warn you that his thread is about 1000 pages long and has been split MANY times, so it's difficult to find the actual beginning of it. I've been following that thread for a couple of years and there's a lot of very useful information on it. As long as it is, I would recommend that anyone considering or using T5HO lighting, read the entire thing. I also subscribe to it and it grows by about a page a day...lol.

 

[luke33]

It depends on what color your looking for. If you want the 20k look ati blue + throughout. If you want 14k i'd go with blue+, aquablue every other one. For a 10k returnofsid gave you a good combo. The ati's imo are the best out there due to color and par. Just be carefull with bulbs like ge65k or 3k's, fiji purple's or pro color's as they will throw your color off in a heartbeat. And your tank has more than enough light for sps. Atleast it will if you have individual reflectors. Even without you should be fine.

 

[gotfish]

You're talking about a nova extreme I'm assuming. What is the depth of your tank? I'm assuming it's an acrylic and probably in the 24"-26" height. That light not having individual reflectors won't get very good penetration. If you do keep sps, make sure you keep them toward the upper 1/3rd of the tank. Lps and softies should be able to be kept anywhere unless it's a higher light lps in which case it would be in the same range as the sps.

As far as lights go, returnofsid's recommendation is fine. That should be more in the 14k range rather then 10k though. It will be fairly blue, but you won't get much fluorescence from the corals that can. I believe the ballasts are set to kick on bulb 2 and 6 for your dusk/dawn so I would get rid of the first 10k aquasun and replace it with an ATI true actinic 03 and switch the 12k aquablue in the 6th position for the last blue plus.

From front to back:
Blue Plus
ATI true actinic 03
12000K Aquablue Special
75/25 14000K AquaBlue
10000K AquaSun
Blue Plus
75/25 14000K AquaBlue
12000K Aquablue Special

This will give you a nice purplish/blue pop for your dawn/dusk. Just turn on the dawn/dusk switch to see which 2 bulbs kick on and put those 2 bulbs in those places. I'm not positive, but if I remember it's 2 and 6. Either way, all the above bulbs can be bought from www.reefgeek.com

 

[returnofsid]

Keep in mind that the new Nova Extreme Pro has been re-worked and does have individual reflectors. The older models used the Parabolic reflector and SUCKED!! Typically, the dawn to dusk ballast turns on the two outer bulbs. That would depend on the fixture brand though. Sunlight Supply Tek5 fixtures turn on the 2 outer bulbs. Hmmm, just thought of something... that's how they work on the 6 bulb fixtures. With an 8 bulb fixture, I don't know.

As to the reflectors, the newer models don't actually have individual reflectors. What they are is a reflector that's molded around each bulb, in a "gull wing" pattern. This creates much better reflection than their old parabolic reflectors. Very similar to the Tek5 units.

 

[gotfish]

They don't make the pro in an 8 bulb configuration, just the nova extreme which like you said has the parabolic reflector. The pro has 1 and 5 as the dawn/dusk. The nova extreme though if I remember right is 2 and 6, but it's been a while since I read something about that. It could be 1 and 6 or 7, but I don't think it's 1 and 8.

Either way, put the actinic and a blue plus in the dawn/dusk.

 

[beoks]

i've seen the fixture its the tek t-5 with individual reflectors its nice im jealous