ATI 4 bulb fixtures… I need some real user feedback / experiences please.

[Witch-King]

Hi everyone. Recently I’ve been thinking about switching out my current lighting system. I’ve been looking at the ATI 4 bulb fixture, but was hoping people could give me their experiences with this fixture before I make my final decision. I’m curious to find out what people are keeping in their setups, locations of certain corals, coral health and so on.

Another HUGE question I need answered is how much noise do the fans make? I’ve been living with a duel 250 HQI Maristar unit for a while now and even though the system is great, I never did like the fan noise it produces. So if anyone has ever listened to both the Maristar and ATI please share your opinions / experiences with these lighting systems. I don’t think I could take the swirling fan noise for another year or so. Plus I’ve never been able to run my halides longer then 2 hours a day. The rest of the time its just the blue T5s running. Even though I do love the blue colored tank 8 hours of it is a bit much.

Any information would be greatly appreciated as I’m going to make the switch sooner instead of later, Thanks everyone for taking the time to read my post.

[ret25yo]

you WILL NOT hear the fans at all, I have an 8 bulb fixture with 4 fans and do not hear any at all. you will not be disapointed with the purchase.

[barjam]

I used to have a 4x54 setup on my tank before upgrading to mh and it was hard for me to get a bulb combo that I liked. It seems easier to get a good color when you have more bulbs to work with. I ended up with:

Blue Plus
Super Actinic
Daylight
Blue Plus

Which is very, very blue but looks nice. I tried many, many different bulb combos but I could never get good daylight look with a 4x. I never tried the recommended Aqua Sun though, perhaps that would have made the difference.

[Witch-King]

Thanks Ret. Having a tank about 6 feet away from me most the day, the noise becomes a huge selling point.

Barjam you bring up a good point. I would get the 6 bulb, but most if not all the added light will just be spilling onto the walls. The tank is oddly shaped so any fixture over 12” wide becomes pure waste. I’ve been doing some searching, but everyone seems to have 6, 8 and 10 bulbs going.

Can anyone direct me to threads or pictures where people are running 4 bulbs? That way I can get a general idea of what my tank may look like?

Thanks once again for dropping me feedback everyone.

[slant77]

I have a 6 bulb fixture and like the others have said you wont hear the fans. Also from what I have read you dont want to turn the fans all the way up for best performance so this helps out with the noise they make.

[barjam]

That combo I listed looks like a 20k MH setup, to give you an idea what to expect. If you head over to the T5 Q&A thread I believe that is also Grim's recommended setup for 4x users.

[Paulairduck]

I have the six bulb and love it, fans are super quiet.

Geismann actinic
Ati procolor
Ati special
ati procolor
ati special
Geismann actinic

The color's I get are amazing, but I also run ZEOVIT!!

[Witch-King]

Paulairduck I know that 2 bulbs are controlled by one ballast and 4 by the other. Could you help me out by explaining which bulbs are controlled by each ballast?

Also does anyone know if there is any side affect to running a T5 ballast with a missing bulb? For example would the ballast be damaged if it was meant to run 4 bulbs, but you only had three installed in the fixture?

[tbone28]

I have (2) of the 8-bulb fixtures - 8 fans total. My tank is in the family room/kitchen, and i can't hear it at all.