Any 6 foot T5 setups?

[SeanT]

I have been doing a bit of research on T5's and I lke what I see from the performance and satisfaction ratio.

But I can't seem to find any 6 foot hood setups, fans etc all included.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?
And could I have some recommendations for bulb selection to get me a nice crisp look with just hint of blue when all bulbs are burning?

Thanks,
Sean

[SeanT]

Also, since I have never seen T5's running in person and they aren't a point light, can I assume there are no shimmer lines?

[Tagareef]

Hey Sean,

It's been a while. Welcome back.

Here is a 72" T5 fixture made by one of our sponsors, Aquatincs:

Constellation

This is the only 6' fixture available without going with 2 36" units or a retro. I am anxiously awaiting two 36" x 8 bulb ATI Powermodules for my 180.

Luis

[Tagareef]

...and yes, no shimmer lines. I read somewhere that one company is installing LEDs in there fixture for the shimmer.

[SeanT]

Hey Luis,
How have things been with the tank, family etc.?
Are you running T5's and if so any opinions?
Sean

[SeanT]

I just checked on the Aquactinics Constellation.
The lamps are 39 watts.
Is that powerful enough for a 2 foot deep tank?

[Icefire]

yes, it's 3" long lamp so 2x by row

[Tagareef]

Sean, Everything's good and my girls are growing up too fast! Got bored and almost tore down the reef earlier this year. A friend got me back into it by dragging me to a local club meeting and I got inspired to stay in it for a while longer. Dumped a bunch of old 10+ year old colonies and got some new cool corals. Also started Z**vit a couple months ago with awesome results so far.

No, I'm not using T5's yet...tomorrow I'm picking up a 4 bulb retro kit to try out on my frag tank. If this works out well for my frags I will definitely be installing T5's on the main reef.

Oh, by the way, the Deltec is going up for sale soon too!

Hope all is well with you,

Luis

[SeanT]

Icefire,
The 39 watt bulbs will penetrate deep enough?
So much that going with 54 watts would be a waste?

Luis,
I hear ya about the girls.
Mine is 9.5 years old and think she is 30 lol.

About the skimmer...don't you still skim with Zeo?

Sean

[The Grim Reefer]

The length of the lamp determins the wattage. The 39 watt lamps will be fine for a 24" tall tank. You can just sit the fixture right on the tank.

[SeanT]

Thanks for the info.
Is this is a good combo for bulbs?
Front

Blue Plus
UVL Super Actinic
UVL Aquasun
Blue Plus
GE 6500K Daylight
Blue Plus
Aquablue

I got that from another post.

Sean

[The Grim Reefer]

Thats a good place to start. Once it has been up and running a while you can decide if you want to change a row of lamps to make the look more blue or white. That should be in the range of 14K halides, maybe a tad bluer than a Phoenix

[Wryknow]

I run T5s on my 6' 215 gallon tank and they work wonderfully. I used the ICECAP retrofits from reefgeek (2 sets of 4x39W fixtures with the 660 ballasts) in parallel rows of 4 bulbs. I run 6 bulbs of Gieseman daylight bulbs and two blue plus plus I have 2 x 6' VHO actinic bulbs on a 420 ballast for actinic supplementation. I run four ICECAP fans (two on each end of the hood) to cool the bulbs off.

Over-all I would say that this set-up works great - I am very happy with it. My rose anemone has excellent color and has split for me. My acropora and montipora are growing well down as far as 12" down in the water column. Softies are thriving all the way down to the sand (I just had to prune them this weekend.) The only draw back is that I have to wipe off the bulbs and reflectors every week or so to clean the salt water off of them (I have a number of fairy wrasses that like to carpet surf) but it only takes about 5 minutes and really isn't too onerous.

Many thanks to Grim who inspired me to make the decision to get the T5 set-up almost a year ago now!

[SeanT]

About the bulbs.
PA has the "UV" brand of bulb.
I know I am looking for these two:
UV Lighting 36" 39w T5 Super Blue Actinic Lamp
UV Lighting 36" 39w T5 AquaSun Lamp.

But I am unsure how these two correalte to my wants:
UV Lighting 36" 39w T5 14K Lamp
UV Lighting 36" 39w T5 Actinic WHITE Lamp

They don't seem to carry:
GE 6500K Daylight
Blue Plus
Aquablue

Is there a vendor who has them all?
Preferrably an RC sponsor.

Thanks,
Sean

[The Grim Reefer]

Check reefgeek, he has a lot of different lamps and usually about the best pricing.

[HowardW]

<<< About the bulbs.
PA has the "UV" brand of bulb.
I know I am looking for these two:
UV Lighting 36" 39w T5 Super Blue Actinic Lamp
UV Lighting 36" 39w T5 AquaSun Lamp. >>>


I really like the Aquasun T5 bulbs and think they work great with the UVL Super Actinics, I think they give a nice crisp look and good color rendition, and they are high on the PAR scale for T5's too.

[SeanT]

Just placed my order.
I have been running 400 watt MH and 160 watt VHO's for so many years...

Well at least my electric bill will go down a little bit.
I am hopeful that controlling tank temp will become a little less dependant on my chiller.

T5's DO run cooler right?

I will miss my shimmer lines but I may mess around with a few LED's and see what I can get going.

Thanks for all the help.

May take a few pics of this bad boy and post them when it gets here. Not many angles of it on the vendors' sights.

[Waxxiemann]

Those low profile fixtures are nice. I wonder how well it would cover a 30" deep tank if it's only 14" wide? Any thoughts?

[The Grim Reefer]

Originally posted by SeanT
Just placed my order.
I have been running 400 watt MH and 160 watt VHO's for so many years...

Well at least my electric bill will go down a little bit.
I am hopeful that controlling tank temp will become a little less dependant on my chiller.

T5's DO run cooler right?

I will miss my shimmer lines but I may mess around with a few LED's and see what I can get going.

Thanks for all the help.

May take a few pics of this bad boy and post them when it gets here. Not many angles of it on the vendors' sights.

Yeah, cooler. You might be able to do away with the chiller.

[SeanT]

Cooler = Sweet.


Waxxiemann,
My 180 is 24" deep.
The lights need to be raised off of the tank to get a better spread.
They have legs or a hanging kit.
I opted for the hanging kit so I could just raise it out of the way when I need to tool about.
Sean

[Waxxiemann]

cool, thanks.

[musky1963]

I just got the 72" Constellation for my 180g a few days ago and I really like it so far. One bulb is on backorder, so I am just running 6 rows instead of 7. I will keep you posted on what I think with it going full bore and what lamps/config that I use. Water temp is not rising either .

[SeanT]

Good to hear.
How do you have it mounted?

[musky1963]

It is just laying across the top. I asked for the mounting legs, but never received them . I guess that I really do not need them. Lots of room to feed in the front and can slide them easily enuff.

[SeanT]

I would inquire about the legs...hey they are about $30.