The "Glow" is gone in my tank...

NewEnglishMutt · Nov 16, 2014

So I'm looking at the pictures of everyones tanks, beautiful. I have some awesome corals, and they're doing GREAT! However my tank doesn't have that ****** blue glow to it that I see so often, mine just looks... well... blah by comparison. However my coarls are happy, and growing, thriving actually, several of them have actually doubled in size or better just within the past 3 months. the ones that haven't doubled have grown well and seem very happy. I just don't have that glow about my tank... I feel like it was more blue when I first set it up, and now it almost looks like the rest of the livingroom, the fixtures glow blue but the tank doesn't. I am completely aware that my lighting fixtures are kindof cheap, but they do seem to do the job well as far as my corals seem to care. Any ideas that won't break my Christmas budget, I can't afford to drop cash into the tank this time of year. My lighting fixtures are: Two 36" Odyssea Quad T5, with 2 acantic blubs, 1 true blue bulb amd 1 10,000k bulb in each fixture. The blue LED moonlights built into the fixtures are dead and their wiring is dead too, I'm going to buy separate moonlighting soon. But the moonlights can be lift for another thread unless someone really wats to tell me a good way to do that cheap. Should I replace the 10,000k bulbs with Blues or acantics? the bulbs are only like 6 months old, and the fixture itself glows blue when everything is on, just not the tank... Could it be my water needing something? I could do for a water change soon, although I think my corals would disagree, but I just don't see that being the real problem with the lack or "Glow" in my tank. TIA for any help.

3 months ago...

about a month ago... I can upload another pic tomorrow of it currently... its even less than the second pic here...

DFW · Nov 16, 2014

Use ATI bulbs - maybe 4 blue plus, 2 coral plus, and 2 purple plus. And since you like to lay your lights on top of your tank, get a ReefBrite blue LED unit the length of your tank. It has a built in reflector, and an acrylic splash shield, and a very nice color, too.

that Reef Guy · Nov 16, 2014

Those Pictures are all Taken with All Blue LED.

If you do not have All Blue LED you will never get those Colors.

I use Kessil A150 Deep Ocean Blue 20K Actinic and all my Corals Glow like in the Pics.

I Highly Recommend it.

NewEnglishMutt · Nov 16, 2014

Someday I'd like to upgrade to LED units, I like having 2 separate fixtures for ease of tank maintenance so I can work on one side at a time without making the tank dark. So basically what I'm hearing is that I won't get that glow with T5 fixtures and bulbs? I have been considering making a DIY LED fixture to run the length of the tank behind the T5 fixtures, was thinking of using blue 5050 LED strips. Again not replacing my T5s just in addition to them.

Joel · Nov 16, 2014

Get a reef bright led it's all blu and not bad price best way to go I have 3 24" stripes on a 93 cube you can see my corals glow from the street outside haha

Joel · Nov 16, 2014

You have a 6' tank right they make one that will go your whole length plus they aid in coral growth.

DFW · Nov 16, 2014

NewEnglishMutt said:
Someday I'd like to upgrade to LED units, I like having 2 separate fixtures for ease of tank maintenance so I can work on one side at a time without making the tank dark. So basically what I'm hearing is that I won't get that glow with T5 fixtures and bulbs? I have been considering making a DIY LED fixture to run the length of the tank behind the T5 fixtures, was thinking of using blue 5050 LED strips. Again not replacing my T5s just in addition to them.

I think that you are on the right track! Royal blue LEDs along with T5s works very nice! That is what I do! I would rather have the LEDs in front, or in the middle than in the back, but whatever works, I guess.

NewEnglishMutt · Nov 16, 2014

DFW said:
I think that you are on the right track! Royal blue LEDs along with T5s works very nice! That is what I do! I would rather have the LEDs in front, or in the middle than in the back, but whatever works, I guess.

Now that I look at the power requirements for the 5050 led strips I think I'll just wore a strip right into my T5 fixture using the original LED moonlight power supply that came with the fixtures. And put the strips inside the fixture so that they are in the center or the tank instead of front or back, then just leave them on full time to act as moon lights. My only concern is that the T5 bulbs produce too much heat and will destroy the strips...

DFW · Nov 16, 2014

RapidLED has supplies. I have one strip with 14 3 watt LEDs run by a Meanwell 35-700 driver. They are on a 36 inch long heatsink and do not need any fans for cooling. They might need a fan if on a 24 inch heat sink. They are not enclosed in a fixture though, just hung in the canopy. These are too bright to use for moonlights, but are what you need if you want any growth, and color pop from them, unless you get the dimming driver setup.

NewEnglishMutt · Nov 17, 2014

DFW said:
RapidLED has supplies. I have one strip with 14 3 watt LEDs run by a Meanwell 35-700 driver. They are on a 36 inch long heatsink and do not need any fans for cooling. They might need a fan if on a 24 inch heat sink. They are not enclosed in a fixture though, just hung in the canopy. These are too bright to use for moonlights, but are what you need if you want any growth, and color pop from them, unless you get the dimming driver setup.

I don't have a canopy so I would need a fixture

Eienna · Nov 17, 2014

How long ago did you get the bulbs you have? They need to be switched out every 6 months or so.

NewEnglishMutt · Nov 17, 2014

I thought it was every 12 months

The Kahnasaur · Nov 17, 2014

I use a quad T5 fixture as well. The 10k bulb you're using is great for coral growth but is killing the blue color that you're looking for. Also, the actinics will make your corals "pop" but would give you more of the color you are looking for if they were also blue. Like it was suggested above, go with ATI Blue+ bulbs and you'll get a much nicer blue glow. I just switched to 2 Blue+, 1 Coral+, and 1 Purple. I plan to replace the Purple with another Blue+ as my combo still isn't as blue as I'd like. Be careful switching though, as your actinics aren't providing much PAR(if any) so switching them out will increase your PAR significantly. Your corals all appear to be low in your tank though, so I don't think you'd run into any danger of burning anything if your switched them both at the same time. Blue LEDs will be far bluer but changing your T5 combo make a big difference.

wangspeed · Nov 17, 2014

Love my T5s and LED combo. Like others are saying, 2 blue plus, 1 purple plus, one coral plus looks very nice with royal blue LED addition. I use 21 LED USA. Great bang for the buck. Reef Brites are overpriced for what you get. A strip that is not easily dimmable.

Waters · Nov 17, 2014

Totally on a different subject, but I would get a dark blue background in place to hide the cables and bring out the color of everything in the tank. Believe it or not it makes a huge difference when the light is reflecting off of a dark background.

Tankboy · Nov 17, 2014

Try a REEFBRITE blue led strip. ??!

DFW · Nov 17, 2014

Tankboy said:
Try a REEFBRITE blue led strip. ??!

When I suggested that I was referring to the Tech LED. He has his lights laying right on the tank, and these are fairly water proof, and have a nice color, too, and can also be laid right on top of the tank. They are a little pricey, but are easy, and compatible to what he is doing.

http://www.reefbrite.com/reefbrite-tech-led/

NewEnglishMutt · Nov 24, 2014

Got my LED strips in today, I'll install them sometime this week. With some research though I realized that the fullness of my tank was actually a yellowing of the water. I hooked up a phosban 150 full of activated carbon today, hopefully it will do the job. I'm glad I caught it before it got too bad. Makes sense since just a couple months ago my tank had a nice blue glow to it and I just replaced my a acantic bulbs and it didn't make any difference.

NewEnglishMutt · Nov 24, 2014

Back to the lights though after switching them out I'm running 1 10k bulb, 2 acantics, and a blue plus in each of my side by side quad T5 fixtures. Anyone see a flaw in that setup?