Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

I'm sure there are folks out here with T-5 lights and some with halide/pc setups like the one I currently have.
I'm thinking of changing over to a T-5 setup at some point in the future. I guess the halides are adding about $75 per month to my power bill. Just wondering if some of the more experienced reefers could give me advise based on your experiences. BTW, I'm running a fish and coral setup.

Thanks,
Buzz

In the particular comparison you gave, a decent T5 setup will end up being better than the Coralife PC/DE MH fixture. I suggest the IceCap retrofit kits from ReefGeek with ATI bulbs.

Definately ATI bulbs. Geismann has the secret when it comes to bulbs.


So what brought you out of hiding, Andrew?

Well, it is nearing finals time , so in order to compensate for my laziness, I have resorted to hermitage. I am getting back on track now, though. Besides, I need to take a break from it every now and then.

Are you sure about the ATI's. Reefgeek has the Gmann bulbs listed and ATIs. From the limited info i read from GrimReefer i was under the asumption that the ULV/UVL bulbs had the better par. I'm not interested in that as I'm just trying to run some Actinics and just ordered a few of the Gmann bulbs. Not everyone makes the 80W bulbs. You obviously want to go with a good mix of bulbs from the 6500 to the different blue bulbs. With all the different brands its difficult to keep track of who has what bulb with all the blue plus, super blue plus, aquablue, aquablue plus, etc.

I could be wrong, but it seems like at one time I was told that the ati were actually Geismann bulbs, maybe they owned the company or something. Who knows???
I think it's funny, when they first started doing t5 lighting in this country there was only one blueplus bulb. Now there's many "something blue plus" bulbs. Honestly, what a pain in the a**, I had a terrible time finding what the origional blueplus was, cause I didn't want to change.

It did get a bit confusing, but I think I can clear it up. Giesemann, at one point, made ATI bulbs (as they make the D-D bulbs now, also). Then ATI resumed production of their own bulbs. Currently, ATI is the highest emitter of PPFD (their Sun tube, which isn't available now, because they are redoing it for even greater output), closely followed by UVL's Aquasun tube. The ATI Aquablue special is next in intensity and not too far behind from the UVL bulb (which is still a good bulb). However, the new ATI Sun Pro promises to be substantially higher in PPFD than the competition. I plan to switch one of my Blue Plus bulbs for their new Sun Pro tubes when they come back out to even out the blue look (and some of the VHO look).

So, being in my situation, would you try to custom build a system or buy one of the prefab setups like the coralife? With the tank being 6 feet long, I will probably need two 3 foot setups. (I guess).

Buzz

So the ATI blueplus special is what....12K ish?

Buzz....Personally, I like the control of doing the system you want instead of generic like the coralife. It's still expensive, and you don't have to go DYI all the way if you don't want. You can look here, I think the guy's name is David and he's really helpful: http://www.reeftanklighting.com/

You could do a custom setup with the 80w bulbs and stager them. They are something like 54 inches long. The problem is there isn't as much of a selection for the 80w bulbs. But you could go with bulbs 1,3,5 flush with one end of the canopy and the 2,4,6 bulbs flush with the other. I just have a 2 bulb setup to run along with my MH. I got it all from reefgeek.com.

And they send you tiny candy bars when you order.....


It's the little things that make a difference.

12kish...err, maybe . I would have to show you some pics, as they are fairly blue, but yes, in that neighborhood. For a bluer bulb, they can put out a fair amount of PPFD. BTW, they sent the little mints in my order, hidden amongst the packing peanuts

If you were to put one together, the retrofits are your best bet, rather than the prefabs. However, I heard the Aquactinics setup is fairly nice (very good reflectors and fan). Oh, I did forget to mention the fan--having one blowing across the bulbs can improve output (and yes, this was done quantitatively, because I didn't believe it at first) by about 20%! I guess another good bet for a premade fixture would be the Sunlight Supply Teklights. In any case, you should have individual reflectors (for each bulb) and a fan or two.

Well I just got my Gmann bulbs to help counter the 10k XMs I just put in. I was running 14k MH bulbs forever. I had a coralvue actinic T5 on and an Aquablue ATI, both 80w bulbs. I got in a Actinic plus and a True Actinic. I put the plus on with the Aquablue ATI and the Gmann plus overpowers the Aquablue. Too blue for me. Right now I'm down to 2 hrs a day with the MH but will bump it up to about 8 hours over the next few weeks. The Actinic plus is just so bright compaired to the ATI bulb. I did run the ATI bulb for a few months, actually two ATI Aquablues until I didn't think they were blue enough and added the coralvue bulb, which sucks by the way. So hte ATI bulb I have in was only in use for a couple of months but it looks really bad next to the brightness of the Gmann bulb. I should have gotten a 11k T5 to go with the two Actinics. The good thing is the colors look great with the 2 MH and 2 T5 on. The XMs were a little too yellow by themselves.

What Giesemann bulb did you get? So the Giesemann is visibly brighter despite the fact that the newer ATI Aquablues put off more PPFD than most of the Giesemann bulbs?

I am an absolute fan of Giesmann bulbs, the output in every bulb I've used (and I only use their bulbs, MH AND T5, well worth the extra cost) has been noticably better.