T5 Lighting

[ghurlag]

For the past month, I have been running 2 10K's and 2 420nm Super Actinics. The Actinics were used bulbs that I bought in a pinch. Today, I decided to replace one of them with a 460nm bulb, and wow! I was evidently missing a segment of the lighting spectrum, because some new colors immediately came out on my zoas. So now I have 2 10 K's and 1 420nm and 1 460 nm. I like the growth potential of the 10 K's, but things were just a little too yellow, and I was considering running 1 10K, 1 460nm and 2 460nms, but now I think I may just need to replace the 460nm (with a newer one) and everything will be good. Does anyone have any T5 primers??? I will be adding a new MH soon that will run 4-6 hours a day, with the T5's still taking front and center on the bulk of the daily lighting (I'll adjust as needed to get optimum growth and color).

[jeremyreef]

a nice combo for 4 bulbs is 2 ati blue plus, 1 fiji purple and 1 ati aquablue. it might not look good running a halide with it though.

[ghurlag]

The halide will be more for intense midday sun, for the corals and such... I haven't decided completely how I'm going to run things, but I do know that I want a MH again, although Eric's LED project has me thinking of going that route, too

[chromiumlux]

Conform to the new regal'

[chromiumlux]

The leds are really neat. ii am planning to use them over the 150 build

[marinelife]

I recommend LEDs instead of MHs

[ghurlag]

I was just looking at rapidled.com and heatsinkusa.com and it looks like, with shipping, tax, etc., I can an ample heatsink for ~$60, and a 12 LED kit for ~125. Eric, do you have any recommendations for LEDs over my 29? I have 30" of length I am working with here. I thought about running a single line of the LEDs, alternating blue and white. Do you think that would be sufficient (remember, I have the T5's)?

[marinelife]

I would maybe do a double strip of LEDs, you could get the same coverage as the MH.