T5 tube for SPS

[speakerphone]

How many T5 tube is advisable for a sps tank? The height of the tank is 30"

I am using the famous ATI tube, does ballast also play a part? Must I change to a german ballast to bring out the total effectiveness of the good tube?

I am changing skimmer soon, backside very itchy into SPS.

[speakerphone]

How often do you guy change the T5 tube?

[sherman]

6 months

[vt_snowman87]

6 tubes will be alright, i uses 8 tubes.. no problems with sps so far..

it is more advisable to use good ballast for good tubes, so as to fully utilise the expensive tubes.. the china ones just don't make the cut.. in my opinion.. hope that helps..

[Morpheous]

As long its an electronic ballast, not the conventional coil ballast, it should not matter that much when talking about heat generation and the flickering of tubes during start-up. Just an equipment converting electricity to a suitable amount to drive the light tube.

The main factors are the tube used which generate the quality and spectrum of light and the quality/maintenance of reflectors which channels the amount of wasted light back into your aquarium.

Just my 2 cents worth of knowledge. Hope it helps...

[boxerz]

Take note that the reflectors must be of individual reflectors otherwise there is no point getting a T5.

[minsmarine]

30" is quite deep for T5 without considering tubes' distance from the water surface. And I hope you will not be placing SPSs at the bottom of the tank.

For the sake of comparing;

I used 8 tubes for 18" depth and 18" wide. Tubes were just 3" from water surface, on for 16 hours a day, housed in individual reflectors. Most of my SPSs were near to the top.

Hope it's help you.

[moron_clown]

30" is quite deep for T5 without considering tubes' distance from the water surface. And I hope you will not be placing SPSs at the bottom of the tank.

For the sake of comparing;

I used 8 tubes for 18" depth and 18" wide. Tubes were just 3" from water surface, on for 16 hours a day, housed in individual reflectors. Most of my SPSs were near to the top.

Hope it's help you.

Yo bro! welcome back to reefing, havent sen u for a while.

Actually i also heard that i cant keep sps more than 18 inches from the light, but i've got maricultured sps now on the sandbed (26inches from light) and they're doing great! it depends on species and the light set itself too. i'm using ATI sunpower 6X39 + ATI retrofit 4X39. The reflector and cooling system of the Sunpower helped inreased par substantially IMO.

[cowgum]

How many T5 tube is advisable for a sps tank? The height of the tank is 30"

I am using the famous ATI tube, does ballast also play a part? Must I change to a german ballast to bring out the total effectiveness of the good tube?

I am changing skimmer soon, backside very itchy into SPS.

8 tubes would be similiar to MH 250W. Your tank is slightly deep so placing at the top will be safer.

The color of tube is another important consideration. go for tubes that has higher par not just for the asthetics of the tank

Considering the cost the the tubes, a good ballast is a small price to pay for a long term investment.