My tank is 30x30x24, once I remove my btas, I plan on starting a sps dominant mixed reef. now for the past 5 yrs i have been using leds, i have two 120w 16k maxsoect razors. About 2 wks ago I acquired a 6x39w dimmable ati unit. I am currently running the t5s to give them a test run. I may add atinic and blue led strips in front and back of t5 if I decide to continue with it. Those of you who have been in the sps world for a while, or anyone else with experience on lighting please chime in and help me decide my best route to take.
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Led or t5
- Thread starter Mikeamadio
- Start date
The bulbs aren't new, I was told they were changed recently. I do have 6 brand new bulbs for the fixture.
I'm not a lighting expert, but i have uses T5's before. I can say I have the best extension and quickest growth from using them and with them, you pretty much grow anything. But I've also have the largest cyano outbreaks from using them. I was running T5's on my frag tank that I just broke down.
A comBo should work well as you'll get the coverage from the t5 and blue/shimmer from the LED. Just make sure that when changing the bulbs, they recommend that you burn in the bulbs for atleast 100 hrs before you use them. (Not sure of the science behind it) mounting height will depend on how high your corals are placed
A comBo should work well as you'll get the coverage from the t5 and blue/shimmer from the LED. Just make sure that when changing the bulbs, they recommend that you burn in the bulbs for atleast 100 hrs before you use them. (Not sure of the science behind it) mounting height will depend on how high your corals are placed
Mike you know I have a hybrid T5 + LED. I suspect the T5’s are doing the major weight lifting base on the PH change before and after the bulbs are turned on. So if you want to add LED it’s pretty much cosmetic. I would go with 4 b+, 1c and 1p. I think the 6 bulbs really is a great fixture you can get some very nice color from them with or without LED.
Although I have LEDs i do miss my T5 fixture. Had great color with them but cost of new fixture and bulb replacement drove to the black box LEDs. It took awhile for me to get use to the LEDs as they shine directly down and did not seem as bright as the T5 which shine wider even with reflectors.
Thats kinda what im hoping for joe. I just dont think the leds had that bite to them compare to t5, im just hoping i can get some growth by the sandbed. The led is just to get some shimmer and more blue. My curent set up is 4 red sea atinic 1 ati coral plus and 1 ati purple plus. The lighting also came with 6 brand new red sea 15k, which I am guessing is similar to the ati coral plus. Hopefully someone needs them amd i can do some trading or something at a later date. I am currently battling some cyano, so what's a little more? Lol, hopefully it will all settle in well and clean up. I'm in the process of building a stand for it so I can suspended it 8 to 12" off the water. Right know I have 3 2x4 stacked o top of each other so the lights only 4.5" off the water Some of my sps are experiencing some rtn from the base up I believe I'm not sure if the t5 is to bright not e nought or something else, but that's for a different thread.