5ft tank lighting for lps

SchyffS

SchyffS

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My future tank dimensions r 1.5x0.8x0.7 with a water level of 600mm. I would like to know what is the min and max lumens required. Also 3 options, namely t5 or mh or combination of both with t5 as the main source of lighting.
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Yip.I saw and like. I was hoping 4 a more scientific answer to how the different t5 kelvin rated bulbs are combined in order to get growth and also to achieve a natural looking water color. Avoiding the yellow water colour from wrong t5 combinations.
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SchyffS said:
My future tank dimensions r 1.5x0.8x0.7 with a water level of 600mm. I would like to know what is the min and max lumens required. Also 3 options, namely t5 or mh or combination of both with t5 as the main source of lighting.
Posted via Mobile Device
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Hi SchyffS, ;)

Firstly, you need to decide what sort of corals you going to keep, Softies, LPS, SPS, Or mixed? this can change things.

Generally, I would say 2x 150W Mh or 8x 54W T5 would be OK. If T5 used I would use maybe 5 white 3 blue, but this would depend on the brand of bulbs used. If you liked, you could increase this to 10x T5, that would be very nice. I remember when I ran T5's, I had 8x 54W on my 1.4(L)x600(W)x550(H), it was awesome, so 10 on yours would be good, even for SPS I recon.

If you go MH, 2x 150W and 2x 39w blue/white, would be fine, If you really wanted to go full SPS then you could convert to 2x 250W.

Mh give a nice "shimmer" effect on the corals that you don't really get with T5's, also the other advantage of Mh is space, I remember when I had my T5 over my tank, I always battle to get into it as it basically covered the tank, where Mh would leave you with some open space to work.
 
Hi lighty, my preference is t5, I have two units commbined total of 8 t5. I wana keep lps and softies
. Your choice of 5 white and 3 blue would make a total of 32500lm. What is the lm for my tank?
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SchyffS said:
Yip.I saw and like. I was hoping 4 a more scientific answer to how the different t5 kelvin rated bulbs are combined in order to get growth and also to achieve a natural looking water color. Avoiding the yellow water colour from wrong t5 combinations.
Posted via Mobile Device
Click to expand...

Basically, a lower K rating has more PAR rating, PAR is what the corals use to grow.

The sun is about 6500K (yellow), with very good PAR, but if you put 6500K over your tank it would look like someone "peed" in your tank and wouldn't look very nice. Most reefers aim to have 14000K light over their tank, and looks good. Most people have a mixure of bulbs to achieve this, reallt personal preferance.

Some reefers run 6500K bulbs on there tank when its now being viewed, and switch over to high K rated bulbs when they are going to view, but this can have some ill effects like algae groth too!
 
SchyffS said:
Hi lighty, my preference is t5, I have two units commbined total of 8 t5. I wana keep lps and softies
. Your choice of 5 white and 3 blue would make a total of 32500lm. What is the lm for my tank?
Posted via Mobile Device
Click to expand...


For LPS and Softies 8 T5 would be perfect. To be honest I've never bothered calculating the lm, Just choose bulbs that will give you a nice colour, When I ran my T5's I found the ATI Aquablue special a good bulb to be mixed with.
 
Okay, so I gather that 2/3 of the total light must be of a low PAR. That is 6500k and the rest high PAR of 14000k even higher. The total lm amount I calculated based on another thread here at MASA. Another question, how high above the water surface should the unit be located?
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SchyffS said:
Okay, so I gather that 2/3 of the total light must be of a low PAR. That is 6500k and the rest high PAR of 14000k even higher. The total lm amount I calculated based on another thread here at MASA. Another question, how high above the water surface should the unit be located?
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No, K is not = to PAR! The lower the K rating the more PAR that light will produce, the higher the K rating lower the PAR is.

eg: a 6500K (yellow) light has more PAR than a 14000K (Bright white / blue) light.

I would say 10 to 15cm above the water level should be fine.
 
Yes, I got my lines crossed there. Perfect, thanks for the advise. Just to summarise, 5 white(6500k) high PAR and 3 blue(+14000k) lower PAR.
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I can't you pal, I'm not very familiar with t8 capability. I'll bet the other MASA guru's can help.
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T8's are not good enough, they are kind of weak.
 
xtreme said:
And what about T8? It's more common here than T5's
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Nope, T5 and MH are more common. T8's are mostly used on freshwater setups and FOWLR or by a newbie keeping mixed reef setups that was given the wrong advice and sold the wrong stuff by a money hungry LFS.
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SchyffS said:
Yes, I got my lines crossed there. Perfect, thanks for the advise. Just to summarise, 5 white(6500k) high PAR and 3 blue(+14000k) lower PAR.Posted via Mobile Device
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I would rather go with 4 or 5 10000k bulbs and the rest coral blue and actinics.
6500k is a bit too much favoured by algae.
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That was my initial thinking, if the water parameters are perfect then. Algae bloom should be non existent?
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SchyffS said:
Yes, I got my lines crossed there. Perfect, thanks for the advise. Just to summarise, 5 white(6500k) high PAR and 3 blue(+14000k) lower PAR.
Posted via Mobile Device
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No, not 5x 6500K, it would look yellow all the time then.

5x 10000K and 3x 16000K,

Maybe another 2x 6500K on the side to run when no one is viewing, just like a boost, but you'll have to watch for that algae.
 
Tobes said:
I would rather go with 4 or 5 10000k bulbs and the rest coral blue and actinics.
6500k is a bit too much favoured by algae.
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Okay, so there is consesus here just as lighty also recomended.
Can you expand on the kelvin rating for:
1. coral blue
2. actinics
 
As far as I know you buy actinic as actinic and coral blue as coral blue - I never looked at there k ratings. Ask your supplier to fill you in on what brand he can supply you and what specs they are ;)
 
Tobes said:
As far as I know you buy actinic as actinic and coral blue as coral blue - I never looked at there k ratings. Ask your supplier to fill you in on what brand he can supply you and what specs they are ;)
Click to expand...

I found this discussions and info in thread 12
[url]http://www.marineaquariumsa.com/showthread.php?t=12185[/URL]

8800k = white = 4700lm
10000k = blue/white = 3800lm
14000k = blue = 3000lm
20000k = blue = 1600lm
pure actinic = blue/purple = 900lm

Is there any specific sequence that the individual bulbs should lit in order to simulate sunlight cycle of a normal day.
I would have blue and white placed in sequence, what photoperiod should best suit the tank for softies and lps. I am thinking of the following period:
blue no1 = 8am - 7:30pm
white no1 = 8:30am - 2:30pm
blue no2 = 9am - 8pm
white no2 = 9:30am - 3:30pm
blue no3 = 10am - 8:30pm
white no3 = 10:30am - 4:30pm
blue no4 = 11am - 9pm
white no4 = 11:30am - 5:30pm

my light unit enables me to put a timer on each individual t5 bulb, so i can really play with the timing. Oh it also has moonlights build into the unit.

What do you suggest?
 
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