LED and T5 combo lighting schedule/recommendations.....

[Mal11224]

wanted to start this thread to get some ideas from you all who are using LED +T5 lighting for your reef and to get some information or recommendations on the following:
1. What is a typical lighting schedule for both lights. I just installed today a 36" 39 W T5 and have it set to come on at 11am and off at 5pm. My LED is an AP700, which I have set on a 12 hour light period 9am-9pm. I am not using any special ATI bulbs or anything like that. Just a 10K day and a blue actinic both HO.

2. I reset the max intensity of my AP700 to 40% from 55%. I am going to do a PAR test today but want to get ideas as to how people set their lights. Hopefully the PAR test will help me dial it in.

3. Last question... since my AP700 can produce various spectrums, i am wondering if I would benefit more by having, let's say, 2 ATI Blue Plus bulbs as opposed to the 10K and actinic mix.

I appreciate any feedback and hope that this will help others with similar questions.

 

[madweazl]

Is this a completely new setup? I had been running a pair of A360WEs over my tank for the past year and added a pair of T5s about a month ago. I started the T5s at three or four hours per day and started increasing the photo-period by an hour every week or two. The T5s (Coral+/Blue+) are now on for eight hours and the LEDs have remained on their 12 photo-period (ramps from off to 55% intensity and back down to off). Only positive affects on the tank observed.

 

[Mal11224]

Is this a completely new setup? I had been running a pair of A360WEs over my tank for the past year and added a pair of T5s about a month ago. I started the T5s at three or four hours per day and started increasing the photo-period by an hour every week or two. The T5s (Coral+/Blue+) are now on for eight hours and the LEDs have remained on their 12 photo-period (ramps from off to 55% intensity and back down to off). Only positive affects on the tank observed.

Thanks for the response. Tank is about 7 months old. I started with 2 A160 lights and was not seeing any growth. I replaced them with an A700 and growth has been great, but I was noticing shadowing especially in my branching SPS corals. So I noticed that a not of people were doing an LED/T5 combo and wanted to give it a try. Just using 2 bulbs, mainly actinic. ATI blue plus and purple. The PAR readings that I'm getting are pretty good.
Currently, I have the T5s running for 4 hours. 12-4pm. And LEDs are on for 12 hours.
So, it sounds like your LED photo period chart would look like a triangle. Is that correct. Ramps up to its peak at 55% and starts to ramp back down?

 

[madweazl]

Thanks for the response. Tank is about 7 months old. I started with 2 A160 lights and was not seeing any growth. I replaced them with an A700 and growth has been great, but I was noticing shadowing especially in my branching SPS corals. So I noticed that a not of people were doing an LED/T5 combo and wanted to give it a try. Just using 2 bulbs, mainly actinic. ATI blue plus and purple. The PAR readings that I'm getting are pretty good.
Currently, I have the T5s running for 4 hours. 12-4pm. And LEDs are on for 12 hours.
So, it sounds like your LED photo period chart would look like a triangle. Is that correct. Ramps up to its peak at 55% and starts to ramp back down?

Correct, they're on a parabola from 11% (lowest they go on my controller before shutting off) to a max of 55% and back down to 11%. Color is on two hour ramps from zero (which may actually be 11% too, I cant recall now) to 70% for the first and last two hours of the photo-period. I have no idea how the 70% color of the 360s correspond to that of the AP700.

 

[Mal11224]

Correct, they're on a parabola from 11% (lowest they go on my controller before shutting off) to a max of 55% and back down to 11%. Color is on two hour ramps from zero (which may actually be 11% too, I cant recall now) to 70% for the first and last two hours of the photo-period. I have no idea how the 70% color of the 360s correspond to that of the AP700.

Gotcha. Thanks. With the AP700, the spectrum is controlled by a color wheel. You can add as many points as you want to gradually change the color. sounds like a good idea.

 

[madweazl]

Gotcha. Thanks. With the AP700, the spectrum is controlled by a color wheel. You can add as many points as you want to gradually change the color. sounds like a good idea.

One of the reasons I like the 360s is because you cant tailor the individual colors much; is there a similar setting for the 700?

 

[Mal11224]

One of the reasons I like the 360s is because you cant tailor the individual colors much; is there a similar setting for the 700?

You can incorporate saved colors in a manual setting. It's pretty cool. I really just use blues and very little reds. I also use weather patterns and affects like clouds and rainbows. I love the light. Was thinking about getting the A360s at one point. It was a toss up. Went with the AP700s.

 

[CindyKz]

I just switched from 6bulb T5 over a 75 gal tank to an ATI Powermodule (4 T5, 2 LED) so my schedule is opposite both of yours as I gradually incorporate the LEDs. My T5's turn on at 10am (2 coral+, 2 blue+), hit 100% at noon, then start to dim back down at 7pm to shut off at 9pm. The LEDs are pretty low, ramp from 2% (moonlight) to 20% at I think noon at peak at 30% at 1pm, ramping back down at 6pm.

So far my corals are fine, I'm even starting to see growth where it had previously stagnated. I'm getting a little brown diatom-type stuff on my sandbed though. I'm not sure what to make of that...too intense, wrong spectrum, or both. There is a lot of white in the coral+ bulbs so I turned it down in the LEDs to see if that helps.

ETA: As I read this I realized on my old schedule I had my "blues" on from 10-12 and 1900-2100...The tank is getting a LOT longer duration intense white light then it was. That's probably where my little algae bloom is coming from....

 

[Xclusive Reef]

I just switched from 6bulb T5 over a 75 gal tank to an ATI Powermodule (4 T5, 2 LED) so my schedule is opposite both of yours as I gradually incorporate the LEDs. My T5's turn on at 10am (2 coral+, 2 blue+), hit 100% at noon, then start to dim back down at 7pm to shut off at 9pm. The LEDs are pretty low, ramp from 2% (moonlight) to 20% at I think noon at peak at 30% at 1pm, ramping back down at 6pm.

So far my corals are fine, I'm even starting to see growth where it had previously stagnated. I'm getting a little brown diatom-type stuff on my sandbed though. I'm not sure what to make of that...too intense, wrong spectrum, or both. There is a lot of white in the coral+ bulbs so I turned it down in the LEDs to see if that helps.

ETA: As I read this I realized on my old schedule I had my "blues" on from 10-12 and 1900-2100...The tank is getting a LOT longer duration intense white light then it was. That's probably where my little algae bloom is

I just switched from 6bulb T5 over a 75 gal tank to an ATI Powermodule (4 T5, 2 LED) so my schedule is opposite both of yours as I gradually incorporate the LEDs. My T5's turn on at 10am (2 coral+, 2 blue+), hit 100% at noon, then start to dim back down at 7pm to shut off at 9pm. The LEDs are pretty low, ramp from 2% (moonlight) to 20% at I think noon at peak at 30% at 1pm, ramping back down at 6pm.

So far my corals are fine, I'm even starting to see growth where it had previously stagnated. I'm getting a little brown diatom-type stuff on my sandbed though. I'm not sure what to make of that...too intense, wrong spectrum, or both. There is a lot of white in the coral+ bulbs so I turned it down in the LEDs to see if that helps.

ETA: As I read this I realized on my old schedule I had my "blues" on from 10-12 and 1900-2100...The tank is getting a LOT longer duration intense white light then it was. That's probably where my little algae bloom is coming from....

Are you using the dimmae t5? How many t5 you have and what leds? If you using leds