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T5 guru? Need some help


impur

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Without a light meter all I can do is speculate. Since the bulbs are used... its all up in the air. Hard to have a opinion without knowing the lux of the new and old.

Reefgeek84 mentioned in a previous thread that he has a quantum meter for measuring PAR. This might prove useful in a situation like this.

Prices have come way down on these. http://www.specmeters.com/Light_Meters/Quantum_Light_Meter.html.

Other light sensors

http://www.apogee-inst.com/

 

The one I saw about ten years ago they went for around $1000.

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SPS are on that rack i had all my zoos on. That higher rack i made i removed. So i have tenius, porites, and the clam on a rack that sits halfway up the tank. All 3 look really good. New growth is showing on both SPS and great PE.

 

I might have the names wrong on the bulb types. I know there are 3 blue, 2 white, 1 yellow. I'll have to read them tonight to get the exact names again. They are the same bulbs you had in it Ryan, except i removed a blue and added that daylight you gave me.

 

I did post this on RC. No real responses yet except the MH vs T5 crap

 

 

I mean its gotta be something. Its been 3 weeks now, maybe the LPS that are looking poor are not getting enough light?

 

 

The reduction in photo period was to acclimate the corals to more light. The MH was on at 12pm and off at 7pm.

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I still have problems with LPS, specifically open and closed brains. they cannot handle the light, if they are not shaded they will die. After months (4-5) I can slowly get them out on the sandbed, but it takes a long time to get them used to it and they tend to bleach if you do it to fast. If yours where acclimated (light) prior from another reefers tank then that wouldn't be the case, just my experience.

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browning? Remember what I said about the Encino browning? I had to raise it up. When mine bleach I shade them when they brown I raise them.

 

AND I will point out there is no methodology to this and do at your own risk! ... Had to say that.

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I did post this on RC. No real responses yet except the MH vs T5 crap

 

 

.

 

 

Im with those guys, if you already had halides, why change a good thing? IMO Halides still RULE over T5. But I guess you dont want to get into that here :) Id put the halides back over the tank and see what happens.

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Well I will tell you my experience so far with my T5 only tank, I don't have time to read through all the posts on here sorry.

 

So, my tank is basically a 120G but it is 26 tall instead of 24. I have 8 48" bulbs over my tank about 10" above the water line, all bulbs have Icecap SLR reflectors and are all overdriven on Icecap 660 ballasts. I also have 3 high power fans in my canopy blowing across the bulbs when the lights are on. 4 bulbs come on at 8am and the next 4 on at 10am, then the 1st 4 go off at 6pm and the last off at 8pm. On day one of the setup I put 3 layers of window screening over my tank and then slowly removed a sheet until they were gone 2 weeks later. I have not had one SPS, LPS, or softy melt fade or die with this setup. Most of my LPS are on the bottom of the tank and in the front or back areas where there is less light, the colors on my corals have actually improved a lot with this lighting compared to what I had with my MH setup. The T5 setup like this is very bright and has no problem reach all the way to the lowest part in my tank, my Oregon Tort is actually about 10" from the bottom of my tank and it is growing great and the color is amazing.

 

Personally I think the key to changing any light setup is to give your corals time to adjust to the changes. The Window screening is the easiest way to do this and works very well. I have used thing method anytime I changed lighting, bulbs, etc...

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In my opinion, the symptoms are definitly related to light shock. The corals need a proper acclimation to the new lighting. I would use the plastic window screening from lowes or home depot. Just put like 3-4 pieces on top of each other and every 5-6 days, remove a piece of the window screen. This slow acclimation will allow the damage done to heal and hopefully you wont lose anymore coral.

 

HTH's

Dennis

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Thanks for the info Rich, i hope things get turned around and i can get my tank like yours!!

 

Dennis yah i agree with you. At this point, i think all the corals have adjusted to the different light, its been over 3 weeks. Now comes the point where i need to determine how high to put the various corals to give them optimum lighting.

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Ok since my upgrade from my 29gal to 75gal and subsequent light change about 3 weeks ago, i've been having problems. I thought that the troubles ended with my last SPS dying. All my zoos and LPS have done fine.

 

Upgrade went from a 10m old 250w 14k MH pendant to the 6-54w TEK T5 fixture sits 6" from the water surface of my 75gal tank, my photo period is actinics on at 12:30pm, rest of the lights on at 1:30. Lights off at 7pm actinics off at 7:30pm. It has been this way for about 8 days. Bulbs are 3 D&D super actinic, 2 D&D aquablue+, and 1 GE6500k daylight. The first 5 days after the upgrade or so the light was lower and photo period was all lights on at 12:00 all lights off at 7:00.

 

When i got home sunday after being gone since friday i notice that my favia has some flesh receeding and is still completely retracted as it has been since going under the new light. My echino is showing recession as well, my xmas favia is retracted, and my acan is turning brown. My micro is fine, both my frogspawn took awhile to open completely, but are fine, and my candycane still looks upset but should be fine, and my remaining blasto looks fine. My hitchiking plate coral was white when i got home yesterday.

 

Zoos are all fine save for my PPE which have not opened in about 10 days. I've added a few new frags which are fine, my RPE are fine, PBPE (pink bubblegum people eater) are fine, and CPE (chameleon people eater) are fine. Not sure why the PPE are the only ones not opening.

 

So yesterday i ran some tests and added a piece of eggcrate to one side of the tank, the side with the LPS having problems.

 

I know you asked about eggcrate here is the best I could do:

As per this article http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-10/bp/index.php

Read TEST #6 regarding eggcrate. In short eggcrate will reduce PAR, depending on light type and height from tank. See Im not full of ......

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Ok so i've been watching some of my LPS corals start to decline. I've moved my echino into shade. My candycane is going downhill as is my favia. My acan looks terrible. My micros are doing great, my frogspawns are doing great, my xmas favia is doing fine, and all my zoos are doing great and some showing new growth. [language filter]?????

 

I am seriously at my wits end. Nyles will you come over and try to figure this out with me this weekend if your free? Maybe sunday?

 

First off pics of my surviving SPS. ALl doing wonderful. The porites has began encrusting to the plug.

 

P1010183.jpg

 

Diatoms on the glass but a middle shot of all the zoos and rics doing fine

 

P1010181.jpg

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