T-5's on an Aquapod

[lamajo25]

Has anyone changed from the power compact that are in the Nano Cubes and Aquapod's to T-5 lighting? If so do you have any advise? Or do you have any ideas?

[lReef lKeeper]

do they even make T5's that small yet ?? if they do i may look into some for my 29g tanks. i think the shortest thay make right now is 24" or 36".

[lamajo25]

I know the Aquapod is 20" across the top. It's not looking good. Angie and I got to talking this morning and we were thinking about T-5's because I really want to do an anemone. But we are thinking that there may not be enough lighting with jus thte PC lights that are built in. If anyone has heard about someone doing this I would be greatly appreciative. My only other option is MH lighting. Don't quite have the $$$ for that.

[lReef lKeeper]

the smallest VHO or T5 i can find in F&S magazines is 24". on a small tank like this PC's would probably be fine.BTW ... i have an anemone and pink skunk clown fish under 1 powerglo strip light, in a 29gal tank and both seem to be happy and growing. absolutely no bad affects from lack of lighting.

[dakar]

Another option might be what is been named a 96w Quad PC, they are roughly 18" long x 4" wide. Worked great over a 20" wide 10g tank.

[iVgOnMaD]

I have used the Compact Fluorescent lights that they sell at builder supply stores like Home Depot. They look like a tube that got twisted into an icecream cone shape. Many different spectrums to pick from, usually in the ranges of 2000k - 6500k (I use 4x27w 6500k and 2x40w 3000k).You can cram up to 12 of these suckers in 30inx12in hood and still have space for some tubes in there. The best part about these is that they are self ballasted and all you have to do is add as many sockets as you need to the hood.

I was told that intensity is far more important than the actual spectrum so there is not an ABSOLUTE need to provide the 10,000k, 15,000k or 20,000k lights. You are probably better off cramming as many of the 6500k C.F. lights into your hood to get a super-intense ammount of light in there. You could also add a couple of the 2750k bulbs to widen your spectrum.

It works for me.

[dakar]

I was told that intensity is far more important than the actual spectrum so there is not an ABSOLUTE need to provide the 10,000k, 15,000k or 20,000k lights. You are probably better off cramming as many of the 6500k C.F. lights into your hood to get a super-intense ammount of light in there. You could also add a couple of the 2750k bulbs to widen your spectrum.

It works for me.

Might I ask who told you as such? I feel the need to interject here and clarify things a little... Intensity is important, but mostly for the effect of getting the light to your animals. A rule of thumb is that most lights loose 50% of it's intesity at 19" of salt water. Color temp's are more critical than your post suggests. That doesn't mean that things will NOT work for you, but they may not work for others. Some have had great success with using Mercury Vapor lamps rated as low as 4000K, others are only able to grow algae with them. There has been a lot of research and discussion about this matter here, but it's always open for more discussion!

[lamajo25]

Okay, I guess this may be a beaten horse question but I have to know. Every time I've seen a light spectrum graph, they say that 5000K is daylight at noon. The daylight light of my Aquapod is 6500K and if I recall correctly the Actinic light is 10000K but don't quote me on that portion. Now why do is it necessary to have a 10000K to 20000K light if you also utilize actinic lighting? I've noticed that most of the actinic's are somewhere around 10000K. This question arrizes because you can get the ballasted screwin flourescent lights at anywhere from 4000K to 6500K. Check www.1000bulbs.com . I looked because this was possibly a way I was going to go just utilized the 48" light fixture to put two actinic lights as on top of about 4 85 watt screw ins. They have up to 150w but I didn't think that I needed one that big since their light output is higher than that of their actual wattage.

[iVgOnMaD]

Good point.

[dakar]

Natural seawater filters out the lower wavelengths to a point that once it passes 15 meters or so the result is very little of the red end of the spectrum making penetrating and the results are more of the higher wavelengths reaching the animals which we covet so closely. We've got a number of rather lengthy discussions on this topic compelte with charts and stuff, burined in the database somewhere... I'll dig up a link to the thread for those wanting to read and post it here.

[dakar]

Here's one of the lighting threads I'd mentioned, I know there are a number more like it;
http://www.captivereefing.com/showthread.php?t=1119

[perpetual98]

The problem with the curley-q bulbs is that probably more than half of their light isn't even directed into the water. The benefit of T5 lighting, while it doesn't have as high of a wattage is that you can get awesome reflectors for them with will get most of the light directed to where you want it, even moreso than with PC bulbs.

To be honest, you could probably get a halide retro'd into yoru canopy for less than you think, especially if you're at any level handy. Keep watching ebay for 70W or 150W ballasts, or even the classified at nano-reef.com. I'm sure there's also some discussion of the Aquapods over there too.

Eric

[lamajo25]

I guess my question is getting obscured. The question is more so, if you have Actinic lighting along with the daylight type, say 150w screwin that are 5000K, why have the MH lighting that creates even more blue spectrum.

Here's what I mean. Here's an actinic light that has the blue spectrum that the corals adapt to more. Now if 5000K is the same intensity as the sun at 12noon on any given day pending there is no clouds, why is a 10000K with even more actinic lighting (because I've seen them built that way most of the time) better?


A highly efficient source of long wave ultraviolet radiation






Actinic "03" Fluorescent Tubes
* Make your aquarium stand out with brilliant, color-enhancing lighting
* Standard watt fluorescent tubes
* Customer favorite


A highly efficient source of long wave ultraviolet radiation. The spectral energy distribution emitted by this bulb, 420 nm (same as actinic 03), closely aligns with that of the blue chlorophyll adsorption peak utilized in photosynthesis, so it's very desirable for use with invertebrates and plants. 180

[lamajo25]

Okay sorry, had to run a friend home because her husband was in a car accident (He's fine thank you).

The reason I say more actinic, is most of the 10000K and higher lights lean more towards the blue spectrum anyway. Now if you are adding Actinic lighting, which obviously is very blue light spectrum, why would you choose to have a large wattage blue spectrum light. I know that those lights don't put out much red spectrum, or am I missing something.

That's why I look at it as a daylight 5000K light or just above that would be better along with the Actinic lights. Now why do they say you have to have a 400w light for anything deeper than 22 inches? I aske that because very obviously you need the higher wattage to penetrate deeper into the water. I understand that. But why wouldn't you choose a lower K light to exhibit the other color spectrums of light, more so when you are using actinic lighting also, to give more of a full light spectrum? A daylight 5000K or 6500K light would give off the red spectrum because it is closer to daylight in color spectrum than a 10000K which is closer to the blue spectrum.

And sorry the other thread didn't explain anything to me. I didn't understand it very well.

The only other thing that I can put in is you can get a good reflector that would utilize as much light as you can out of those screw in if you looked hard enough or you had a good imagination to make one.

[iVgOnMaD]

look, i think you are more informed than you think. You are right, if you already have the actinic ble p.c. running in there you dont ned to provide the metal halides that produce the same lighting spectrum. Unless, your tank is very deep, and the fluorescent lighting doesnt have enough intensity to reach the bottom of the tank, then mh bulbs would be a must. Also, it is not necessary to provide the 10,000k, 20,000k bulbs, you can go with all 6500k bulbs, but thanks to science we know that corals benefit from the blue side of the spectrum so it is more of a performance light, kinda like a way to give your corals a boost.

[lamajo25]

Okay, now the clarity shows. I wasn't sure why everyone was recomending MH all the time when it was more clear to me about the Actinic light. Sorry.

[iVgOnMaD]

dont be, i make questions and then more questions and then more. Thats how you learn before making mistakes

[lamajo25]

Instead of starting another thread I have another question. I was looking in a Petsolutions.com magazine and found some lighting that I think may work for what I'm doing. It's a T-12 VHO light. It doesn't say it has to have a special ballast or anything like different end caps. I have an All Glass 48" flourescent lighting fixture that holds two lamps. The ballast that came with it says it can be used for T-8 to T-12 lighting. Do you think it would work for the VHO?

Here's a link to one of the bulbs
http://www.petsolutions.com/Coralife+White+Actinic+Bulbs-I-96354001-I-C-40001727-C-.aspx

And here's a link to the page
http://www.petsolutions.com/VHO+Lighting-C-40001727-C-.aspx

Now there is a ballast at the bottom of this page but I haven't seen where I need that specific ballast.

[dakar]

Can you get the brand and model # of the ballast you have? A pic would be great too. It's possible it will fire the single T12.

Otherwise something like a WorkHorse 5 ballast would fire it with no problem.

[lamajo25]

E-Bay is the greatest thing on Earth!! I was looking around and have been for some time because I want to upgrade out of the Aquapod into the 95g that I have. I was looking around and found a 260w PC Lighting Unit. It is coming with two 10000k Superdaylight and two 460nm Actinic's. Now the great thing. This is why E-Bay is the greatest thing on Earth, $150.00. Amazing Huh. Anyway, should get it within the week as it's coming from Sacramento, CA. Will be getting ready to move things around in about a week or two, depending on days off. But thanks for the great information on the lighting though. We may turn the Aquapod into a SeaHorse tank. Just depends. :woohoobig:

[jojo22]

CONGATS ON THE FIND!!!!! I would look at the depth of the aquapod to be sure it is deep enough for ponies. I'm very far from being another Davidp but I think he said ponies need at least 18 inch depth not includeing sandbed.

[lamajo25]

If I recall correctly It's 22" tall for the tank area. I've seen in LFS's the 12g Aquapod and NanoCube with sea horses in it. I'll double check but I think it should be okay.

[seahorsedreams]

Your tank needs to be 3 times the uncurled tail length of the seahorses. How hot does your aquapod run currently? In the summer months?

[lamajo25]

During the summer I had a problem with it getting pretty hot. Up to 82 at one time. I realized that it was because the exhaust fan for the lighting wasn't sufficient. I modified the fan by putting a much larger one on and it stays down below 78 99% of the time.

[seahorsedreams]

Hold on to your seat. It's now recommended that you keep seahorses between 72 - 74. There is an increased incidence of bacterial infections when you start to go higher. I'm not saying they can't live in hotter or that people don't succesfully keep them hotter but the lower the temp the lower numbers that wind up with infections.

[lamajo25]

I've thought about moving the pod because it's right next to a window. We are going to be getting rid of our two fresh water tanks, hopefully soon, and I'll try the temp from there. The external fan has helped increasingly. Plus I am considering raising the lid off of the top of the tank itself so that it can vent a bit better. It doesn't vent right now and that's probably a huge reason why it gets so hot. It will be some time before I can get it going since I have to put some more money into the large tank but it'll be in time.

[seahorsedreams]

Just be careful with putting seahorses ina tank that naturally runs hot. In the summer you will get a spike unless you have great AC. This was my first year without central AC (Moved from Texas to California) and that week long heat wave took out one of my horses. It was only hot a couple of days before we got the chiller but it was too late. I consider myself somewhat experienced with seahorses.... have had them for many years..... and I couldn't lick the heat issue.