Effect of Individual Reflectors On T5..Significant? YES!

[Horace]

Well it has been said many times that individual reflectors on T5 bulbs makes a huge difference. Well here is proof that they REALLY DO make a very large difference indeed. Here are two of my SPS corals that were not very colorful at all before I changed my reflectors. Note that I am still useing the exact same bulbs. The corals were in my tank for aprox 3 months and looked exactly like the before pictures the whole time. The time between the before and after is ONLY THREE WEEKS! Unreal if you ask me. Im sure they will only get better over the next few weeks as well. Notice the difference in Coralline growth too!!!! Check it out:

Before:


After:


Before:


After:

[jwaltman21]

Good looks. Who's T5 bulbs are you using? ATI? BTW...Love the ND line in your sig... probably the best line of the movie IMO!

- Jamie

[OUinLA]

Reflectors are everything when it comes to lighting. You're probably getting 300% more light and I wouldn't be surprised if it was even more. I'd love to know what the exposure of both sets of pics were taken with.

[Horace]

Bulbs are

3x D&D Blue+
2x Aquablue
1x Ge 6500k

Im not sure what the before were set to, but the after were both set to auto by my dig camera. I find it takes best pics on auto. Its just a basic Cannon Powershot.

[dphinsx2]

Do you have a full tank pix?

[Horace]

yes I do though you really cant tell too much from the pictures on the brightness because the camera adjusts the exposure automatically to make the picture look good. The tank was significantly brighter after upgrading to the new reflectors from 3 reflectors over 2 bulbs. The ballasts are also different, but I have no way of knowing how they compare. They are both supposedly "spec" T5 ballast, not Icecaps for overdrive.

Before new reflectors:




After:

[Aged Salt]

Hi Kurt, tell us about the brand & wattage of your T5's. Is this a retrofit or plug & play pendant type? Thnx. Bob

[Horace]

This is a complete retro built by yours truely. It is basically a peice of 1/2" plywood that is mounted inside my hood that sits on shelf pins in the front and the shelf pins in the rear are screwed into the plywood so that they work as a hinge instead of just holding the plywood up. This makes it so I can lift up the lights to get into the tank.

As for brand of lights. The are all name brand good stuffz :P. The actinic are a mix of Geisman and D&D Blue+ or Actinic+ bulbs (both have the same color). There are 3 of those. Then I have 2 Aquablue (60/40) bulbs and 1 GE 6500 Daylight bulb. They are all running on spec T5 triad ballast (2 on each ballast) so to not overdrive the bulbs. They are mounted as follows:

All 54w bulbs

Front:
Blue+ (ballast #1)
Aquablue (ballast #3)
Blue+ (ballast #1)
Ge 6500k (ballast #3)
Blue+ (ballast #2)
Aquablue (ballast #2)

They turn on in order of ballast number and the current photo period is as follows:

10:30am #1 On(pure actinic)
12:00pm #2 On
1:00pm #3 On (all on)
7:00pm #3 Off
8:00pm #2 Off (pure actinic)
10:30pm #1 Off

[gqjeff]

This setup gives very good color to the corals and also is very bright.. I have seen Kurts tank in person and its a nice budding reef. Look foreword the the progress with the T5's.

Jeff

[Horace]

Thx Jeff,

Also I would like to note that the above nice colony of Xenia is now toast. I just cant seem to keep that stuff in my tank. Never have been able . I think it may be the fact that my nutrients are pretty low. Just a guess, cant think of any other good reason.

[jwaltman21]

Kurt:

Low nutrients is the reason. Consider that a good thing!

- Jamie

[Horace]

Kurt:

Low nutrients is the reason. Consider that a good thing!

- Jamie

I figured that is what it had to be, because all of my other corals are doing just fine. That stuff just withers away in a matter of weeks in my tank . My shrooms also dont multiply fast at all. I have had 2 shrooms in there for about 8 months and all I have is two 1/4" baby shrooms after all that time. My colt and kenya tree seem to be growing substantially though. The kenya is dropping babies off pretty much all the time. I now have about 3 new conlonies growing besides the mother. My leathers also seem to be growing at a snails pace. Those normally grow fast dont they?

[CAReefer]

I found the key to keeping the xenia and other softies is iodine. 6 or 7 years ago I had problems getting these to grow until I started dosing Lugols. Then they became weeds. I'm glad to be rid of them now. I flooded the LFS market and was tossing a 5 gallon bucket worth every 3 weeks.

Marshal

[Horace]

Not that I want to start a softy farm (atleast not in this tank), What levels did you keep your iodine at? Did you use a test kit? That stuff scares me because it will kill inverts if its too highly concentrated. Hell just 6 drops of it in a 3gal is enough to kill all the inverts (not corals) off of a zoo rock. This is a typical treatment for zoo eating nudis.

[bensonwu]

Horace, Would you mind posting the picture of your DIY lighting fixture ? If possible, please also give a close-up PIC on your individual reflector? :blue: