Enough T5 or waste?

[GOSKN5]

So I am running two RR t247 on my 120. I have a corallife two bulb t5, it's just the thin non HO type. When I turn it on I can see a noticeable difference in the shadows etc. It also fills in a few dark spots on the edges nicely.

Is this doing any good coral wise? Or just a waste of energy?

Also can I run ATI or similar bulbs in it or so they need to be the lower wattage ones?

Just trying to use what's available, but can get a retro or fixture. Thanks.

 

[james983]

The Coralife units will not put out much par so they generally are not used for keeping corals. They do however put out light which help asthetically in that they illuminate the dark areas of your tank, so you could use it.

However, if you really want to keep corals you would be best served buying a quality 6 or 8 bulb T5 fixture. Or of course you can look into LEDs which vary in sizes and features.

You can run any type T5 bulbs in any T5 fixture but the wattage is determined by the bulb length. 24"=24 watts, 36"=39 watts, 48"=54 watts, 60"=80 watts.

Good luck

 

[hybridazn]

It will be fine to supplement your leds. I would upgrade to ati bulbs with the color of your choosing. A lot of ppl find using t5s along with leds work well with clothes only coloring up coral but also increase in growth

 

[james983]

Didn't realize the RR t247 were LEDs as I am a T5 guy.

In that case I would agree with hybrid.

 

[hybridazn]

Didn't realize the RR t247 were LEDs as I am a T5 guy.

In that case I would agree with hybrid.

I believe they meant to write OR (ocean revive) not RR

 

[GOSKN5]

Yes sorry..phone changed it..yea the majority of the lighting is from the LEDs... I just want to supliment and fill in some shadows.. which the fixture does to my eye...

I just wasn't sure that since this is just a regular output light.. not HO would it have any benefit at all other than aesthetics? Is there enough par at all to supliment? I'm assuming if it lights up an area, and the bulbs are good it's giving some benefit..

 

[GOSKN5]

This is not a corallife HO fixture as I said it's basically a strip light like this..

Again it was given to me so I tried it thinkng it wouldn't make any noticeable difference and it actually accomplished exactly what I was hoping for aesthetically... but I would like the benefit of coloring the corals and growth etc... so I am guessing this is too under powered to supliment my LEDS with any real results?

 

[james983]

As I understand it, the reason many LED users supplement with t5s is mostly for aesthetics. The real lighting muscle comes from the LEDs. But if you have many shadows maybe you need to add another LED unit?

I would post more info about your tank and what type corals you plan on keeping.

 

[FarmerTy]

The bulb you have really is not going to do much more than for aesthetics, but that seems like it may do what you need it to do anyways, fill in shadows.

If you use a T5 HO fixture, you'll get the shadow filling and also add significant par as well to your system. It's not just for aesthetics as the T5 HO's pack a punch of their own.

Here's my setup with the OR T247 with T5 HO supplementation. The T5s up front could light the front of my tank by themselves with enough useable par for most corals.

By the way, if you swap all your 10k, red, and green diodes to warm white diodes (3.5k), you'll get a color spectrum very similar to a MH. I did this for 5 fixtures for under $35 and it was the first time I ever soldered. Super easy.