biecacka
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what settings do you have your Atlantik running at? Can you run it more white to mimic t5 lighting.
corey
What are some Acro's that look great under full spectrum white lighting?
- Thread starter JCOLE
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what settings do you have your Atlantik running at? Can you run it more white to mimic t5 lighting.
corey
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Pink birdnest
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Blue oregine tort
Blue matrix
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t5Nitro
Valuable Member
Hey Corey. The light isn't the same standard as the nice blanket of light of T5. I had an ATI unit on my old tank 10+ years ago. The simplicity was amazing. Turn it on and grow anything. No need for tinkering and PAR meters. The description OP gave that par is variable with these LED lights I have experienced the same with this unit. Sharp drop off in numbers as you descend the tank, and a very sharp drop off at the edges. The other descriptor where he mentions his tank just appears more bright and vibrant now where it was previously a dark looking tank id agree with. The coverage just isn't the same, even though the orphek is a lot better blanket of light than other units with puck style lights. Ultimately my 3 ft tank might need 3 of the compacts all next to each other to do decent coverage. One atlantik v4 isn't great coverage on a 3x2 tank even raised 15 inches above. I also have an OR3 bar on the back which is phenomenal. Will certainly keep this when I swap the main unit for the 8 bulb T5. excited to have a fixture that covers the full dimensions with no shading. Its also just much simpler as I've mentioned before. Plug and play with no tinkering, and you know its going to grow corals of all kinds.
Smite
2500 Club Member
1. RP UltraViolet / RR The Vihn
2. ATL Joleen
3. RR Shazam
4. ASD Doomsday
5. RR Pink Floyd
6. CB Maleficent
7. Shades of Fall
8. TGC Orange Creamsicle
9. ASD Rainbow Millepora
10. IceFire Enchinata
I recently swapped to radions, but these were some of my favorites under my spectra or have seen under MH.
2. ATL Joleen
3. RR Shazam
4. ASD Doomsday
5. RR Pink Floyd
6. CB Maleficent
7. Shades of Fall
8. TGC Orange Creamsicle
9. ASD Rainbow Millepora
10. IceFire Enchinata
I recently swapped to radions, but these were some of my favorites under my spectra or have seen under MH.
Big E
Valuable Member
Any coral that isn't a hyped turd is going to look good under 14k type lighting.
I've had dozens of people see my tanks in person and not a single one has ever said my tanks are too white.
I've had dozens of people see my tanks in person and not a single one has ever said my tanks are too white.
I have a hybrid LED and T5, to be honest I loathe the look of T5 and think they look absolutely dreadful even though I have good color. I appreciate what they do for corals but I absolutely hate it when they are on.
what I do is set my schedule for when they are on when I am usually away and when I am near the tank the most I have my LED on only.
If I were you I would buy some reefbrite or Orphek bars and have them supplement the ugly T5 and just run your T5 with the brighter white lights when you’re not around as much...
what I do is set my schedule for when they are on when I am usually away and when I am near the tank the most I have my LED on only.
If I were you I would buy some reefbrite or Orphek bars and have them supplement the ugly T5 and just run your T5 with the brighter white lights when you’re not around as much...
I just replaced my LED lighting with a 6 bulb T5 setup. It is a 50/50 mix of ATI Coral+ and Blue+. The light intensity and coverage is a night and day difference between the LED's and T5's. The shadowing is 90% eliminated with the T5's. I am getting light underneath colonies now. Also, the tank braces are no longer an issue.
What I did notice though is 75% of my corals are now brown turds. I am guessing it is because of the LED's causing a lack of spectrum, spread, and intensity. I am hoping for the best that everything starts to color up with the new lighting.
However, this is making me think that maybe some of these corals only look colorful in LED lighting and not high-intensity bulbs such as Halides and T5's. Kinda sheds some light(no pun intended) on the phrase "trick light corals".
I know of some pieces like Oregon Tort, Strawberry shortcakes, POTO, Most tables, etc that have outstanding coloring in full-spectrum lighting. This leads me to my question, what is your favorite coral for full-spectrum lighting? Pictures of said coral in your full spectrum lighting would be great!
Blackbox LED's
T5's
Big E
Valuable Member
JCOLE,
Just to push the point further, one of my favorite T5 only setups are Krzysztof Tryc's reef tank. He used T5's only for 7-8 years years and then to the ATI powermodule hybrid. Different combos of bulbs were used over the years but still very white visually compared to the heavy blue LED tanks seen today.
I don't see any corals having trouble coloring up in this video.
Anything between 14-20k is going to look "white" so if you want to experiment with some blue/purple bulbs later or a blue LED strip that's definitely an option if you prefer more blue tinted type setup.
Just to push the point further, one of my favorite T5 only setups are Krzysztof Tryc's reef tank. He used T5's only for 7-8 years years and then to the ATI powermodule hybrid. Different combos of bulbs were used over the years but still very white visually compared to the heavy blue LED tanks seen today.
I don't see any corals having trouble coloring up in this video.
Anything between 14-20k is going to look "white" so if you want to experiment with some blue/purple bulbs later or a blue LED strip that's definitely an option if you prefer more blue tinted type setup.
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t5Nitro
Valuable Member
I went for it and ordered an 8 bulb fixture. Recommended to me 4 blue plus, 2 coral plus, 1 actinic (all ATI), and 1 geissman tropic. Will let you know how it looks.
Guessing I can suspend the light about 10 inches off the water?
My tank is 3ftx2ft. Inside to inside width is 22.5 inches. Can't wait to fill every bit of the tank with even lighting!
Guessing I can suspend the light about 10 inches off the water?
My tank is 3ftx2ft. Inside to inside width is 22.5 inches. Can't wait to fill every bit of the tank with even lighting!
I ran 6 bulb ati with a 2 bulb unit for 14 months on my 120 4" off the surface. Zero light spill and all light went into the tank.
4b+ 4c+ is what I ran with good colors.
Switched just about 2 months ago to 14k MH and the color is better, imo.
All my friends run heavy blue radion xr30 g4'.
One person runs their radions at a 14k setting and their tank looks close to Mine, with good color, imo.
Their lights are 2 feet off the surface.
The colors of 14k radion settings look better than the all blue most run, imo.
All local lfs stores run heavy all blue.
Ask them why and they will tell you its because the corals dont look as nice when the whites are on and they are here to sell corals, lol.
One lfs will let you turn the whites on to view and the corals are much different looking for sure.
t5Nitro
Valuable Member
I think the key is to pair the T5 fixture with an LED bar to get that same pop of fluorescence. Othrrwise im glad to be ridding the LEDs as I've had ATI in the past with a lot healthier tank.
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This!
OP
OP
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
I can't speak for Radions, AI's, or any other LED brands as I only owned MarsAqua black boxes which I modified the white channel to give a better spectrum.
From what I noticed over the last year is that even though all of my pieces were growing with good polyp extension and coloring they seemed to stall for some time. I was not getting the same growth compared to when I used to run Metal Halides with T12 VHO's back in the day.
@Big E said it best that the coral should give you the coloring and not the lights. That really resonated with me and it shows. My pieces popped under blue LEDs but look like brown turds under full spectrum. That is a pretty good indication that the black box lights were not providing the coral with proper health other than fluorescents.
I am getting used to the T5's and already in a couple days my Strawberry Shortcake looks like it should. I have never seen the light green with dark red polyps before. It was always muted in LED white lighting.
Looking forward to the next couple months with the T5's.
I agree though that LED's are awesome for giving corals the pop. I just feel they should be more of a cosmetic complement to the heavy lifting high intensity lighting that provides them health.
Ashish Patel
2500 Club Member
ASD millie
OP
OP
JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
My lights are currently mounted 6" above the water. I tested PAR with my Seneye and it was throwing out some impressive numbers with 6 bulbs on. I am getting around 700+ at the top of my rocks and 500+ at the sand level. With 4 bulbs I was getting around 500 PAR at the tops and 250 PAR near the sand.
Going to raise it to about 10-11" this weekend and test PAR again.
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