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more zoa lighting questions

GregW

GregW

I hope you guys don't mind but I'm going to start another thread on this topic going in a slightly different direction.

I'm considering starting another frag tank with just zoas and maybe a few mushrooms. The tank will be approx 4' x 2' x 1' deep. Since I'll be looking for growth and color will t5s or VHOs give me the same results as MHs? If I go with t5s how many watts and what mix should I use? Same question for VHOs if I decide to go with them.
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

I'd go with 3 110 watt UV (aka URI) VHOs...the third being the actinic one. Go with 48" in a fixture or 46.5 if you do the retro end-cap. The beauty behind these bulbs is that they have a built-in reflector in the bulb itself...one less item to worry about!

You may even be able to get away with 2 110watts given the depth of the tank...maybe one daylight and the other aquasun...

No exp with the T5s...though hope to with the next tank!
 
blange3

blange3

phil519 said:
No exp with the T5s...though hope to with the next tank!
Click to expand...

I recently setup a 30 gallon frag tank that has a little of everything in it. I had an icecap ballast handy so I decided to give T5's a try. As most of you know I'm the resident VHO only junkie, but I wanted to see what the new kids on the block are all about.

I setup to use 3x 39w T5's on the 36" long 30 gallon tank. Since growth was the focus I tried 2 6500k and 1 Blue plus bulb.

As expected color was not great. I was surprised by the growth results, however. The few SPS I have are growing well, but the softies and zoas are barely growing at all. A colt just melted away, green star polyps spend most of their time closed and the zoas aren't progressing at all. Even Kenya trees are barely opening.

I attributed most of the poor growth to it being a new tank setup. But recently I moved a frag disk of zoas from that tank to a 7 gallon minibow that had just been restarted with barely cycled Marco rock and the difference is incredible. The minibow has a single 28w dual actinic/daylight bulb.

The 30 is currently over stuffed and in need of reorganizing. After it is reworked I'll get a better idea if lighting is an issue or is it tank maintenance. I'll also be adding some LPS to the mix and will see how they fare.

The Blue Plus bulb broke and has been replaced by a UV actinic. Appearance is better, but I'm sure the par was reduced.

No where near a scientific evaluation I know, but my gut still says I like VHO's the best.
 
M

mott768

Greg,
I'd go with T5's I'd recommend at least 6 bulbs a mix of Giesemann and GE's, stay away from the ATI's they are the worst and I can't believe people still recommend then. URI's are ok T5 bulbs, they better for VHO's. The best color and growth I had was with the Giesemann and GE's and believe it or not another good bulb is Current USA 10k T5's
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

that's what I thought...

tom - you sure he needs 6 T5s for a 1' top to bottom tank? seems like a lot to me...but again I have zilch exp with T5.
 
blange3

blange3

T5's on a 1' deep tank is going to cook your shrooms.

I didn't notice the 1' the first time around. With that shallow a tank and focusing on zoas and shrooms I would go with VHO.

SPS would love the T5's on the other hand.
 
C

Carlo

I thought I'd stick my nose in on this one as I've got good experience with this over many of our frag tanks. Got 4 33L tanks with 6 T5 and 4 33L with 4 T5 lamps. I just recently moved a bunch of zoas and SPS from the 6 lamps over to the 4 lamp setups to see if growth or anything else is affected.

To early to tell but thus far I can't tell a difference as I think the light was already saturated for most corals anyway. Either way the zoas did (mushrooms too) well under the 6 lamp setup (3 10K & 3 AB).

Carlo
 
M

mott768

Guy's the light isn't going to be at the water surface, he can put the light at 8-12" above the water line if need be. It's a 24" wide tank, that's why I recommended he get 6 bulbs, for the coverage from front to back.
 
GregW

GregW

mott768 said:
Guy's the light isn't going to be at the water surface, he can put the light at 8-12" above the water line if need be. It's a 24" wide tank, that's why I recommended he get 6 bulbs, for the coverage from front to back.
Click to expand...

That's what I figured. Right now I have a 250w mh approximately 18" above the surface of the frag tank.
 
M

mott768

Ed,
I have seen them, they seem to be good bulbs but they are over priced. With the right bulb combination you can achieve the same results with the Giesemann's.

Out of all the T5 bulbs Faith sells ATI has had the most complaints, some of them are they go dim after a few months, usually around the 6 month mark the other is horrible coloring. The funny thing is Faith gets emails saying Grim recommended these bulbs...lol After too many headaches and complaints she stop selling ATI's T5 bulbs

I've seen his posts, I'd like to know what makes him a guru? has he done extensive testing on the bulbs like Sanjay did with MH's ? or is he just a hobbyist that used these bulbs and liked them and now recommends them to everyone? I'm not trying to bash him but unless he's in the business and has a credible test then to me it's just his opinion, just like me saying to stay away from them is mine. My recommendations are based on the majority of likes and dislikes, failures, returns and personal experience. Again not saying anything bad about him or anyone else ;D Remember the old saying what works for one, doesn't work for all ;)
 
Edwardw771

Edwardw771

NJRC Member
I was talking to Chris at Ice cap who is visiting Sajay today, Grim is the offical T5 tester I believe at least on RC. It would be nice to get Sajay's thoughts on each of the T5 bulbs.
 
M

mott768

Ed, is there a post or websight with his study/testing, bulb by bulb results? I'd like to check it out if there is. I remember talking to Sanjay awhile ago about T5's and he said he was going to do some studies, hopefully he still is :)

One thing I will add, when it comes to choosing color and bulbs remember that the tank is in your house and your the one that has to be happy with it. If possible go around look at different tanks with different lighting and make your judgement based on that. Don't base your decision solely on pictures, they can be fudged to make colors come out (not saying everyone does it) but in person you see it as it is. Not everyone taste is the same :)
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

reading that one thread - fijiblue made an interesting comment on how he was going to retro-fit a pair of VHO actinics - because he hated the T5 ones. ::)

anyways - back to this thread - I guess maybe my mind just didn't want to believe that a 60 gallon frag tank needed the same kind of lighting one would set up for a standard 4x2x2 120 gallon tank. But yep it makes sense...in a strange twisted way.
 
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