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The switch!!!!!


matt

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I have given up on leds! I had a fair amount of success with the ocean revives but when I decided to upgrade everything went to s***. So me and my girl decided to do the switch back to t5. I picked up the ATI 24" 8 bulb dimmable from Jeff at cuttlefish. I wish I had spent the coin on this fixture a long time ago!! I have done some bulb switching but it still to white for me.

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With led

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With t5

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sent from a Samsung note 4

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I have given up on leds! I had a fair amount of success with the ocean revives but when I decided to upgrade everything went to s***. So me and my girl decided to do the switch back to t5. I picked up the ATI 24" 8 bulb dimmable from Jeff at cuttlefish. I wish I had spent the coin on this fixture a long time ago!! I have done some bulb switching but it still to white for me.

 

sent from a Samsung note 4

 

That ATI fixture is awesome! I'm jealous.

 

The problem with "upgrading" from Ocean Revives to another LED fixture is that almost nothing in LED looks as good as Ocean Revives---even the really pricey fixtures. It's hard to believe since the ORs are so cheap, but it is true, at least to my eyes. I do get the best color in my T5 tank, though. My reds always look better under T5 than LEDs.

Edited by Lexinverts
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That's a lot of white bulbs, my 6 bulb currently has 3 blue plus, 2 actinic, and one giesemann super actinic (looks like a blue plus more or less, just wanted to try it out). Compared to LEDs it looks super white but has some blue hue to it. You'll probably have to keep playing with bulb combos until you find your happy place. Good luck!

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Looks great. After seeing Jeffs tanks with the t5 I'm thinking to do the same thing but I thing I would need 12 bulbs to cover my 48x36 tank and well that a shiny penny to replace every year.

Yeah 12 is optimal I have a 66x32 and running an 8 and 4 for total of 12 plus a diy top secret stunner strip for extra pop and shimmer

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That's a lot of white bulbs, my 6 bulb currently has 3 blue plus, 2 actinic, and one giesemann super actinic (looks like a blue plus more or less, just wanted to try it out). Compared to LEDs it looks super white but has some blue hue to it. You'll probably have to keep playing with bulb combos until you find your happy place. Good luck!

With Bluez here I am thinking you will want to double the blue+'

 

I did some research on most common bulb combos for 8 bulb fixture and seems

 

5 blue+

1 purple+

1 coral+

1 actinic

 

4 blue +

1 purple+

1 coral+

2 actinic

 

Are most popular and pleasing to the eye. But it all comes down to tank needs and YOUR preference. Good luck and happy reefing

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I used to use 48" 8 T5 switched from MH. I was never impressed with it because it didn't have the light shimmer of MH and maybe 24" high tank is too high for it. After a first round of bulbs changing, I decided to run it bulbs longer to save some money. Lost lots of corals and clams which may or may not be all due to lower light output. This time around, I went with LEDs. The main deciding factor was cost. I really liked the idea of practically zero on going cost and lower electric bill. First 8 months, I burned and stun growth with too much light. At the time, I didn't know I was giving the coral too much light but I felt some of the LEDs I see at LFS was so too weak. After much tweaking, I decide to increase the light hours but have very slow sunrise and sunset, plus quickly cycle cloud coverage, and 2 hours super intense peak. I figured somewhere in there, I would surely hit the sweet spot for any of my corals without burning them. Been doing this for last 10 months or so. Sps are happy and I still had to move some LPS in more shaded areas. Mushrooms are just surviving...probably still too much light for them.

 

Just borrowed the club's par meter, would be interesting to get some readings. Unfortunately, we're not getting any clear sunny noon days anytime soon to calibrate it to the sun. The manual mentioned up to 5% drift per year.

 

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

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I do miss the shimmer of leds! But after 2 days with t5's everything in my tank is so happy!! I had a piece of wild pink lemonade sps that was brown and was fading quick. It's now starting to turn pink again! I am so much happier with these lights. I don't think I will ever go back to leds again

 

sent from a Samsung note 4

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