Long shot in the no T5 zone

T

TJay

I know this area is not real keen on T5 lighting as it not well supported or discussed around town but
Has anyone on the forum tried the new URI T5 actinic?
Just curious, I am going to try some anyway
 
I don't know a lot of people that use them in our club. One person that lived in the Plano area had a tank with 12 or 16 bulbs asked me to come out and advise him what could be done with his tank. After I left, I figured he had a good working plan.

A few hours later, he put it up for sale, because he didn't want to have to buy new T5 bulbs. :shock: :shock: I couldn't believe it.

I saw Tranquil Scape was selling the T5 stuff, including bulbs. I don't know what they cost.
 
Sounds like a poorly planed system
Plenty of folks in the NOLA area used T5 successfully, and the popularity to the tek units could not exist if they were not good lights.

But I wont enter a debate on the subject, sort of like trying to discuss the merit of Kent Salt.

I will order these and see if they work out. I plan to change the lighting on the seahorse tank from pc to T5 and use T5 on the prop tank I am building.
 
@TJay wrote:
Sounds like a poorly planed system Plenty of folks in the NOLA area used T5 successfully said:
That quote speaks VOLUME. I find this pretty fascinating. I have seen fantastic set ups using T5's. I have NEVER seen fantastic setups using power compacts. I've seen ok tanks using only powercompacts.

I wish you all the luck. I know that Glenn is using T5's on one of his new tanks, but I think his set up only currently has a total of 4 bulbs.
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Coool
I only had 4 bulbs over our 90 in new orleans, and it did amazingly well considering it was under lit.

T5s are here to stay, I understand there is a T6 looming. I had read that the long awaited uri T5s were going to make a splash in the lighting scheme. I was suprised to find that they were indeed out.

I just have to try some. Recently I replaced two of the four 54 watt actinics I have over my 90 with ATI brand. They are a much better bulb than the catilina aquarium bulbs. Still the T5 has almost a muted matt look to the water versus vho actinic.

Someone on reef central said while not quite vho quality the new URI T5s had a more VHO look than others.

As soon as I get them I will post the results, I wonder what brand bulbs he runs?
 
I really like my t5's. I have heard that the new uri's ( I think UVL's now) are ok. If you get some, I would be curious to see before and after. I think that most of the people that are disappointed in them because they aren't as bright as the bight blue actinic +. When you get them in, PM me so I can come over and check out the difference. I will say, with my T5's, I have gotten some great growth. even with softies.
-Chuck
 
Chuck will do, since I just replaced two with ATI I think I will just get two of the new URI so I can compare the two.

You cant beat them for low heat bright light. And I agree my corals seemed to love them.

What are you running currently?
 
I run a 6 bulb combo.

Blueplus
Aquablue
GE Daylight
Blueplus
Aquablue
Blueplus

I do have a layer of screen between the lights and the tank because I wanted a more purple look. After seeing your results, I might have to buy the new bulbs and replace my front and back blue plus. I will have to lower some of my corals when I take away that final layer of screen. The screen is a PITA. I have had it on there since Christmas (aside for about a 6 week period).
-Chuck
 
I'm running six bulb setup on my 115. My current comfiguration is:

Front to back
Blue+
UVL Super Actinic
Aquablue Special
Blue+
UVL Super Actinic
Blue+

So far I'm not really that impressed with the UVL bulbs. The have a little different tint (more purple) than the blue+, but not near as bright. They do tend to flouresce the greens, yellows and blues more than the blue+.

My overall feeling of the T5's is that they are severely underated by a lot of the MH people. All my SPS seem to be doing well and the softies are doing well also.

I do miss the MH shimmer lines though. I think that was half the relaxation of staring at the tank. The shimmer lines hypnotized you. Now it's a little boring :(
 
@crash519 wrote:
The have a little different tint (more purple) than the blue+ said:
That sounds to be exactly what I am looking for. Mine is soooo bright.


I do miss the MH shimmer lines though. I think that was half the relaxation of staring at the tank. The shimmer lines hypnotized you. Now it's a little boring :( said:
I agree about the shimmer lines. I get some by having powerheads shooting up at the waters surface, but nothing like MH.
-Chuck
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I use the URI T5 Actinic along with a Blue Plus for my dawn/dusk. It's definetly better than the standard D&D/Giessman Pure Actinic, but not as good as the VHO.

Their Actinic White is nowhere near as good as the Aquablue though. (par, brightness both way less).

In general I think the t5 is as good an option on 3-4ft tanks. I like mine and it does a bit of a better job on my 40x15 than the one xm, 2 vho did.


PW
 
I have a six lamp setup over my 125.

Currently running:

2 ATI AquaBlue 60/40
2 Actinic 03 (I think)
2 10,000k

My new 220 gallon I'll be setting up will have an 8 lamp fixture using the 60" 80 watt lamps.
All my stuff has done great under T5's.
 
Wow and I thought there were no T5 users in town.
The only thing I never tried under T5 are clams.
Anyone keeping one?
 
@TJay wrote:
The only thing I never tried under T5 are clams. Anyone keeping one? said:
I have a clam that I'm keeping temporarily for another member.
I keep it up high and it seems to be doing well.
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I'm running a six light setup with Giesemann bulbs.
3 54W 11000K Aquablue Plus
3 54W Actinic/Blue Plus.

I've got a clam that I bought from a member that was running mh's. They told me that they didn't think you could keep a clam under T5's. I knew better from research over on RC. My personal opinion is that my T5's blew their mh's away as far as brightness and overall look. Below is a pic after being in my tank for 6 weeks. I can honestly say the clam looks better today than when I got it.

There is a thread over on RC where a guy has a FOWLR and was wanting to upgrade his lighting to T5's so that he could keep a variety of corals. A guy from Richardson chimed in and said you can't keep any corals under T5's. Of course the T5 police jumped all over him. It just goes to show that there's not a lot of knowledge in our area on T5's, but I notice that more & more are switching over to T5's. I think he might have gotten a hold of some bad sushi.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=853896&perpage=25&pagenumber=1

The guy over on RC that has the sps TOTM using T5's has had great success. The last time I checked, he was at 21 months on his bulbs.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=2bf48d6b7ada6e6a95a68c445544510e&threadid=541121

I'm completely satisfied with my T5's and wouldn't have anything else considering life of bulbs, heat, electricity usage, and the look that I like. My zoo's & ric's have just exploded under the T5's. I've got 6 or so pieces of sps that's been in my tank for around 8 weeks. I had a mont digi & pocillopora that was too close together and the mont had grown into the pocillopora and rubbed all of the tissue off in about 4 places. I separated them and within 2 weeks all of the tissue had regrown on the pocillopora and you couldn't even see where it had been damaged.

It really comes down to personal preference, but I know that T5's are grossly underrated in our area.
 
THis is the infamous T5 European tank from a guy by the name of Iwan. THe picture says it all. T5 :shock:

IWANS.jpg
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I will shoot some pics of the new T5s when I get them
Some of you may know I am researching a prop tank set up. Well today I Mcgivered a temporary solution. I had a plastic storage container 43 by 2 by 8 inches that I had planned to place under my sump until I learned about pond liner.
Well I took that thing and adapted a backpack skimmer onto it.
I found two 4 foot T5 strips that I placed the old catelina aquarium actinics into. Then used a couple of those compact PC sump lights to finish the lighting.
Now we have a temp prop system until I decide how to build the final tank.

Donna has turned into the recordia slicer lately so we needed something to hold all the cuttings.

The T5 debate will go on forever, so we will just leave that be and see what kind of luck I have
 
If you want a fixture, I would try this guy: Tek Light

This guy has pretty inexpensive lamps as well. You really get a lot of par with the tek fixtures and reflectors.
-Chuck
 
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