Is my lighting overkill?

Aeb1419 · Sep 11, 2021

I have a reefer 250. Planning on getting a 24 in t5 hybrid fixture (4 bulbs) and 2 reefi uno units. Is this too much? Will have a mixed reef tank with an emphasis on trying sps for the first time.

For those of you that have hybrids, how exactly do you blend the spectrums of noth the t5 and leds? Do you go heavier blue on leds or t5s? Or do you set your leds accordingly and just add t5 bulbs colors of your choosing and appeal?

Ron Reefman · Sep 11, 2021

It's only 'too much' if you use it all at full power at the same time.

The t5's are either on or off. If you want to run them most of the time, make them provide more of the blue as that is the more important spectrum. You can adjust the leds intensity up and down and change the overall spectrum. Of course the 2 Reef Fi leds could do all the lighting if you wanted.

You would probably be smart to test your lighting with a PAR meter since you will have the ability to have too much intensity if you run the t5s and the leds at higher levels. Be careful.

Aeb1419 · Sep 11, 2021

Ron Reefman said:
It's only 'too much' if you use it all at full power at the same time.

The t5's are either on or off. If you want to run them most of the time, make them provide more of the blue as that is the more important spectrum. You can adjust the leds intensity up and down and change the overall spectrum. Of course the 2 Reef Fi leds could do all the lighting if you wanted.

You would probably be smart to test your lighting with a PAR meter since you will have the ability to have too much intensity if you run the t5s and the leds at higher levels. Be careful.

Thanka for the advice. Do people with hy rids urually turn on t5s for only a couple of hours?

Ron Reefman · Sep 12, 2021

Aeb1419 said:
Thanks for the advice. Do people with hybrids usually turn on t5s for only a couple of hours?

I think if you asked 10 people with hybrid lighting similar to yours about how they run them... you'd get 15 different answers!

There is no right or wrong here. The key is to get a 6 to 8 hour 'midday' of high intensity (lots of blue and some white light) so the coral's zooxanthellae can get all the photosynthesis done that it can. Zooxanthellae typically take an hour of high PAR to get photosynthesis started and then will run 4 to 6 hours before shutting down (even if there is still enough light). It's a genetic clock established by hundreds of generations of time in the ocean getting 6 to 8 hours of enough sunlight for photosynthesis.

What kind of lighting you use (t5, led or both) during sunrise and sunset isn't very important to the coral or the zooxanthellae. And whether that sunrise and sunset is more white light or more blue spectrum is not very important either. It's really more about what you want the tank to look like for your enjoyment.

Some people don't do any sunrise or sunset at all. Some only do an hour. Some, like me, who have leds that are easy to ramp up and down, do long sunrise and sunset. I start lighting low at 7am. I reach a midday 'peak' at 10am and run the same peak through 4pm. And my sunset ramps down from 4pm until 10 pm. My sunrise and sunset are way more blue as I like the corals and anemones that 'fluoresce' and therefore my tank looks like a 1960's hippy poster under a black light!