T5 Bulbs packed to the gills

[Pig8enis]

I am establishing a 75 sps/ clam tank and have pretty well settled on t5 lighting as I can tinker with the coral coloration and growth pattern as opposed to point source lighting. My canopy has about 19" of space and I have come up with a fixture combination to pack 3 fixtures in there for a total of 10 54 watt bulbs. I want to be able to keep even light demanding sps on the sand bed should the aquascape desire. The total wattage is 540 which rivals my original plan of two 250 watt hqi. Heat not being an issue as my chiller keeps my tank at 77 constantly. The fixtures I am looking at have one piece off aluminum contouring around each bulb. Does anyone see a reason why this would not be good for my intended stock and maybe bulb combination recommendations.

Thank you for your time.

 

[nonstophoops]

Sounds like that should be plenty of light and work very well. I know lots of people that prefer t5's because of the ability to control color. Obviously the tank can't be deep and tanks longer than 4 feet make it tough. I am sure you can find some popular combinations of ATI bulbs that people are using.

 

[Pig8enis]

Yah it's a standard 75 (48x18x20). My main reason for this decision is the light distribution in relation to photosynthetic uptake. Halides have a handful of small bulbs that beam large quantites of photons down to our animals where flourescent bulbs have a larger surface area. In the end it came down to a handful of pictures that showed acro under halides and it grew tall where it bushed out under t5. I am a little concerned that 10 bulbs might be too much now though. I'll have to see, I can remove a two bulb fixture if it comes down to it.

 

[nonstophoops]

Yah it's a standard 75 (48x18x20). My main reason for this decision is the light distribution in relation to photosynthetic uptake. Halides have a handful of small bulbs that beam large quantites of photons down to our animals where flourescent bulbs have a larger surface area. In the end it came down to a handful of pictures that showed acro under halides and it grew tall where it bushed out under t5. I am a little concerned that 10 bulbs might be too much now though. I'll have to see, I can remove a two bulb fixture if it comes down to it.

Very true. You will get much better coloration on the sides and around the coral than with most halides.

I have to say I am excited to get my new reflectors on my tank which will at least help some in this department for me by spreading the light out much better.

 

[Pig8enis]

Yah from what I have been reading the fixture is only half the battle. I am already looking at individual lamp reflectors. They are relatively cheap and from what I read can boost pur considerably.

I was just thinking and I wonder if you could use an led strip mounted upside down in a good reflector and still get the shimmer effect. That would essentially eliminate the spotlighting effect people complain about by increasing he spread but I wonder if it would disperse it to the point of eliminating intensity..... Sounds like a project lol.

 

[Pig8enis]

What reflectors did you get and how high are your lights off your water surface. You have 3 250s with a chiller correct?

 

[nonstophoops]

What reflectors did you get and how high are your lights off your water surface. You have 3 250s with a chiller correct?

I got HQI Lumenmax 3's. It looks like they will be mounted about 11-12 inches off the surface. I also run 2 160 watt VHO's for supplements. You are correct, I do have a chiller and 3 x 250w halides.

I will let you know how the par readings are. I will be using Phoenix 14k bulbs still.

 

[Pig8enis]

A recommendation for boosting par. I was reading that the higher the Kelvin rating the lower the par. Switching out the 14k for 10k and adding a few more fluorescents will burn up some ****.

 

[nonstophoops]

A recommendation for boosting par. I was reading that the higher the Kelvin rating the lower the par. Switching out the 14k for 10k and adding a few more fluorescents will burn up some ****.

Yes, this is true. It is pretty amazing how much of a par difference it makes. Going to 6700k gets even crazier yet, you can get almost twice as much par from a 6700k as a 14k. A few more fluorescents would be needed to offset the yellowness of the lower kelvin bulb. I don't have space for more fluorescents however. Granted I am running a pretty long daily halide light schedule to help offset the lower par.

 

[Pig8enis]

Well my recommendation was in no way a reflection on the state of your corals. Whatever your doing it works well. But yah that par jump is insane, I was just thinking a jump may not hurt seeing as you have a large water volume and by my count you are running 1000 watts. I think it would be safe to assume that the fluorescents are 80 watts. I guess I am curious because that is abou what I will be running wpg wise ( which I know is really irrelevant but it is a gOod starting plot to get your lighting to). My tank isn't where i want it for corals anyway. I won't be looking at them for another couple months. But in the interim I getting my zeo stones up and biopellets running. I also need to switch out my wet/dry for a sump. I thought the extra nutrient Processing would be nice but in retrospect it was short sighted and hasty. The thing is my stand will not accompdat a 40 breeder so I have been trying to find a 45 online and that is kind of an odd size. I'm trying to avoid buying a prefab sump.