LEDs, T5s and MHs for zoas discussion. What are your thoughts?

reefwiser · Oct 14, 2016

Are the double halide bulbs also cool to the touch? You never want to touch a Halide bulb the oils in your fingers will mess up a bulb.An I wouldn't try it.

Do the cool halide bulbs have to be in that particular fixture with that ballast?
From my understanding its the ballast that makes the difference. Of coarse you have the reflector that plays a part in any MH bulbs performance.

A. grandis · Oct 15, 2016

reefwiser said:
Are the double halide bulbs also cool to the touch? You never want to touch a Halide bulb the oils in your fingers will mess up a bulb.An I wouldn't try it.
Do the cool halide bulbs have to be in that particular fixture with that ballast?
From my understanding its the ballast that makes the difference. Of coarse you have the reflector that plays a part in any MH bulbs performance.

Oh, no, I know we wouldn't touch the actual bulb. I was asking if the cool thing is because of the bulb.
But you just answered that the ballast is what makes the heat difference.
So maybe we could use any bulb with that ballast and it would probably run cooler.

Thanks.

Grandis.

reefwiser · Oct 15, 2016

Yes the newly developed ballast is what does the work.

A. grandis · Oct 17, 2016

This is a tank with T5s. Every time I see this type of set up I remember when I dive.
This spectrum is very similar to about 25 or 30 feet deep in clear waters.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-07/totm/index.php

Just wanted to share these pics here.
Aloha!
Grandis.

A. grandis · Oct 17, 2016

Now this one is a special one... take a look at the fixture! So nice!!
Lit by 3 X 400 watt MHs and 8 X 39 watt T5s.
Same MHs Dr. Sanjay likes!

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2009-03/totm/index.php

Aloha,
Grandis.

reefwiser · Oct 17, 2016

MH and T5.

themcnertney · Oct 17, 2016

Thought I would share...
Here is my old 55 with t5s. (Ran for a few years)

Then I upgraded to my 220 with (3) 400w MH. (Ran for a couple years)

Then I changed to (3) AI Hydra 52HD. (Ran for about ten months)

Currently I am adding (2) 24" two bulb fixtures to my Hydras. One fixture is done waiting for the other. I will post some updates and pics when the LED/T5 combo has been running for a while. Any who here is a picture I took yesterday with one T5 fixture with my Hydras...

A. grandis · Oct 17, 2016

reefwiser said:
MH and T5.

Living proof!

A. grandis · Oct 17, 2016

Dan McNertney said:
Thought I would share...
Here is my old 55 with t5s. (Ran for a few years)

Then I upgraded to my 220 with (3) 400w MH. (Ran for a couple years)

Then I changed to (3) AI Hydra 52HD. (Ran for about ten months)

Currently I am adding (2) 24" two bulb fixtures to my Hydras. One fixture is done waiting for the other. I will post some updates and pics when the LED/T5 combo has been running for a while. Any who here is a picture I took yesterday with one T5 fixture with my Hydras...

Thanks very much for sharing. I believe after a while you'll just forget about those blue shades, taking advantage of the space over the tank and remove those LEDs to put the T5s back at full power. No more shades and a beautiful natural growth pattern.
Beautiful tank by the way!!

Please feel free to share your experiences and observations to enrich this thread even more!!

Grandis.

Newb73 · Oct 17, 2016

Bar none, the fastest growing thing ive found under both kessils and hydra 52s is....zoas

A. grandis · Oct 17, 2016

Newb73 said:
Bar none, the fastest growing thing ive found under both kessils and hydra 52s is....zoas

Wow!! Can you imagine if those zoas were under Metal halides or T5s? They would explode like pests then!!

Grandis.

Newb73 · Oct 17, 2016

Notice some of my zoa frags in the background.

They all started as tiny 1 inch frags.

I have in tbe last couple years, attempted to kill them with alk swings, moving tanks, swapping lights, severe hyposalinity, very high nitrates, dropping stuff on them, too little flow, too much flow, and i even went so far as to let cyano completly cover them for weeks at a time...

Much to my dismay....they grow like wild fire!!!

Frankly...i am starting to think the only way to actually stop zoas is maybe to take them out of water and sat them on the floor...

Fwiw frogspawn and acans have proved to be nearly as hardy....

I run my hydra 52s up to a max of 55% for about 4 hours a day...the rest of the day they are under 50% and ramping down or up....just for fun...i run a cloud program that drops the intensity fdiwn to as much as 10% for as much as 1/3rd of the day.

I currently have a giant clam which loves this light...and acans up higher in the tank that are growing nicely...currently acclimating some monti. Duncans and torches, growwing new heads and a flower pot which also seema very happy.

Only coral death i can attribute to the lights was an acro i put high in the tank and turned intensity over 60%....

NanoDJS · Oct 18, 2016

Jonathan Presseau said:
What is the smallest T5 fixture you have seen?

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...6MrJMgFcPUrZMvBN5Ltw0-5H5ul3bqy1JYBoCxTfw_wcB This

A. grandis · Oct 18, 2016

Newb73 said:
Notice some of my zoa frags in the background.

They all started as tiny 1 inch frags.

I have in tbe last couple years, attempted to kill them with alk swings, moving tanks, swapping lights, severe hyposalinity, very high nitrates, dropping stuff on them, too little flow, too much flow, and i even went so far as to let cyano completly cover them for weeks at a time...

Much to my dismay....they grow like wild fire!!!

Frankly...i am starting to think the only way to actually stop zoas is maybe to take them put of water and sat them on the floor...

Fwiw frogspawn and acans have proved to be nearly as hardy....

I run my hydra 52s up to a max of 55% for about 4 hours a day...the rest of the day they are under 50% and ramping down or up....just for fun...i run a cloud program that drops the intensity fdiwn to as much as 10% for as much as 1/3rd of the day.

I currently have a giant clam which loves this light...and acans up higher in the tank that are growing nicely...currently acclimating some monti. Duncans and torches, growwing new heads and a flower pot which also seema very happy.

Only coral death i can attribute to the lights was an acro i put high in the tank and turned intensity over 60%....

All I have to say is: if it's working good for the tank please don't change!!

If you start to give too much or too little intensity or change some spectrum you could end up out of the sweet spot.
You probably reached the best for what you've got there. That is a good thing!!!
I'm happy for you!!! You must like the LEDs then.
Hopefully the tank will continue to thrive as is. Sometimes they grow like crazy under LEDs just to kinda crash. Knock on wood!!

If you want the zoas to be gone why don't you sell/give them away and get new rocks?
That would be better than play with the chemistry like that.

Grandis.

A. grandis · Oct 18, 2016

NanoDJS said:
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ...6MrJMgFcPUrZMvBN5Ltw0-5H5ul3bqy1JYBoCxTfw_wcB This

That is cute!!!! I want one!!
Thanks very much!
That is so great!!! LOL!!!

Grandis.

Newb73 · Oct 18, 2016

Dan McNertney said:
Thought I would share...
Here is my old 55 with t5s. (Ran for a few years)

Then I upgraded to my 220 with (3) 400w MH. (Ran for a couple years)

Then I changed to (3) AI Hydra 52HD. (Ran for about ten months)

Currently I am adding (2) 24" two bulb fixtures to my Hydras. One fixture is done waiting for the other. I will post some updates and pics when the LED/T5 combo has been running for a while. Any who here is a picture I took yesterday with one T5 fixture with my Hydras...

Not to nag but a horizontal orientation over a tank like that gives lousey coverage.

They should be oriented perpendicular.

Pardon the dust..and the bad pic (cellphone camera lens is busted)

Newb73 · Oct 18, 2016

A. grandis said:
All I have to say is: if it's working good for the tank please don't change!!

If you start to give too much or too little intensity or change some spectrum you could end up out of the sweet spot.
You probably reached the best for what you've got there. That is a good thing!!!
I'm happy for you!!! You must like the LEDs then.
Hopefully the tank will continue to thrive as is. Sometimes they grow like crazy under LEDs just to kinda crash. Knock on wood!!

If you want the zoas to be gone why don't you sell/give them away and get new rocks?
That would be better than play with the chemistry like that.

Grandis.

Happy to share...i was sort of joking about "trying to kill the zoas"....i like them....the stress they have been through was not intentionally..just bad husbandry.

At any rate, i run mine mostly in 14k, 18k, 20k all blue and deep blue modes.

Most of my light is the 18k mode but with the reds and greens turned off (red and greens only run briefly during ramp up and down).

I am not sure i have the skills to keep acro....will try again probably early next year.

They are fine for just about everything else so far...

A. grandis · Oct 18, 2016

Newb73 said:
Not to nag but a horizontal orientation over a tank like that gives lousey coverage.

They should be oriented perpendicular.

Pardon the dust..and the bad pic (cellphone camera lens is busted)

The coverage with such type of fixtures will depend on how wide the tank is. Yes.
The quality of light, basically coming from LEDs is what really counts.
The difference that the T5s do is aways very visible when added to a system like that. Even as a supplemental light (meaning more LEDs' area than T5' area over the tank). In reality the T5s become the primary source of light because of it's qualities.
If there is no more "lousy coverage" the LEDs will still be LEDs, but those shaded areas will be much less visible, of course.
That's another hard to deal thing with LED fixtures: the coverage. You'll need to buy a lot of fixtures to try to resemble a T5 or MH fixture, but it won't be quite the same, of course.

Grandis.

A. grandis · Oct 18, 2016

Newb73 said:
Happy to share...i was sort of joking about "trying to kill the zoas"....i like them....the stress they have been through was not intentionally..just bad husbandry.

At any rate, i run mine mostly in 14k, 18k, 20k all blue and deep blue modes.

Most of my light is the 18k mode but with the reds and greens turned off (red and greens only run briefly during ramp up and down).

I am not sure i have the skills to keep acro....will try again probably early next year.

They are fine for just about everything else so far...

Oh, OK, so you're not a zoa killer then!

If others can keep Acros under those lights anyone can, right? Have you tested and see what else could be wrong?
Perhaps ...
"...with alk swings, moving tanks, swapping lights, severe hyposalinity, very high nitrates, dropping stuff on them, too little flow, too much flow, and i even went so far as to let cyano completly cover them for weeks at a time..."?

Thanks for sharing the info on your LEDs. That might be of some help to others reading this...
Good luck to all the LED lovers!!

LOL!
Grandis.

reefwiser · Oct 18, 2016

Yes LED need to be mounted front to back and 6 inches a part is good. Zoa's and acan's really don't need a great amount of light to thrive in a tank. most do great with 120 par and they are not effected by shading like SPS. Once you learn about the natural reef you understand more about a corals needs.