Going for Max color and growth (not illumination)

[Skibum]

So, I'm planning on building a new hood with some MH fixtures+LED in the near future, however I'm not there yet. In the meantime, I purchased some Giesemann Tropic Thunder 6500K T5's. I've also purchased some GE 6500k bulbs. Both sets are 39 Watts. The T5's are replacing a 14k KZs and 10K. All of this is in an Aquaillumination fixture so 4 T5 total. My current lighting is as follows:

1XRadion Gen 4 30 Pro
1XRadion Gen 4 15 Pro
2xGE 6500K bulbs 39 Watts
2xGiesemann 6500K bulbs 39 Watts

Schedule:

AB+ Running at max starting at 1:58 p.m to about 6:30 p.m. T5's go from 1:00 p.m to 7:00 p.m

I'm looking to tweak lights for maximum growth without pushing the LED's too far (don't want to burn corals. I'm about 400 Par in the middle of the tank and 250 at the bottom corners. Growth has been pretty good on most of my acros. Sorry for the super blue pics, I can't take good pics lol.

 

[SeaDweller]

extend your photo period another 1 hour or so and turn the whites up, dropping the blues to compensate. Or leave the blues alone and just turn up the whites.

 

[Skibum]

extend your photo period another 1 hour or so and turn the whites up, dropping the blues to compensate. Or leave the blues alone and just turn up the whites.

What does your schedule look like?

-Tom

 

[SeaDweller]

What does your schedule look like?

-Tom

Hey Tom, I don’t use T5, I run four Photon V2+ over my tank and this is my schedule. I’ve noticed considerably more growth by adding more white/full spectrum lighting.

They’re 13” from my water line and the spread is great.

 

[SeaDweller]

I should note, I do have a ton of fish that I feed heavily, 4-5x/day, and have some green film algae/algae growing in lower flow areas, but I don't try to decrease my whites or photo period or lessening my feedings because the growth is crazy for me.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

I run all t5

4 blue +, 2 coral +, 1 ati actinic, 1 giesseman tropic

2 blue + from 12 pm - 10pm

Then all bulbs from 1:30 pm to 8:30 pm

My tank is only the 7 months old or so with 6 acro frags so I can't comment on its effectiveness yet. (First time using t5)

I'd be curious if you upped your lightning schedule another hour if you noticed more alk consumption or even potentially less as well. I won't be able to tell in till my tank and corals mature.

 

[Skibum]

I've had decent growth, but I would prefer it to be more robust and even, hence the 4x 6500 k. I turn off the T5's completely and then I'm left with most blues to see what colors I have rendered. I run a fairly high nutrient load as well. I feed 3x daily, have 9 fish in a RS250. No3 is around 5-10 and Po4 is around 1.2-1.6. Alk I run 180 PPM (10 dkh).

 

[Skibum]

I'm also upping my lighting schedule (1 hour) I'm going to increase whites gradually however as I just got a bunch of new acro frags that I'm acclimating.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Roger that definitely let me know how that turns out. Im very interested in tuning for maximum growth. Your p04 is really above 1ppm?

 

[Skibum]

Roger that definitely let me know how that turns out. Im very interested in tuning for maximum growth. Your p04 is really above 1ppm?

ppb (it's the Hanna ULR) Last reading 56*.003066 = .171

Sorry, that last post was a typo

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Roger that. I figured but wanted to confirm. I'm having trouble keeping mine above zero on the hanna reader at the moment.

 

[Skibum]

I'd love to have lower p04 but I don't think it's that big of a deal honestly. I have two urchins who really keep it in check. Not sure if it really affects growth as I have read, (skeletal formation). As long as you have fish and you feed you will have Po4 unless you have lots and lots of mature colonies.

 

[SeaDweller]

I'd love to have lower p04 but I don't think it's that big of a deal honestly. I have two urchins who really keep it in check. Not sure if it really affects growth as I have read, (skeletal formation). As long as you have fish and you feed you will have Po4 unless you have lots and lots of mature colonies.

Don’t sweat it.

 

[tqpolo]

Your light settings shown is not AB+.

 

[Skibum]

Started out that way, I modified since the original template.