Awesome article Shawn, I'd love to see it with some different configurations of the T5s (cause I'm T5 guy lol). Anyone here actually have a PAR meter, would be cool if we share and do some of our own PAR experiments/measurements.
Now that would be a great use for the treasury balance. An officer can hold on to it and trusted premium members can sign it in and out to borrow it.
different configurations of the T5s (cause I'm T5 guy lol).
A lot of people are. I was actually probably one of the first around to do T5 locally. I was running a reefgeek retro over 5 years ago. There was a thread about T5 vs MH a while back that was interesting. A lot of people have great success with T5, im just amazed by the people that are new to the bandwagon that think T5 is better in every way. MH and T5 both have their advantages and disadvantages. IMO one is not better than the other, its a matter of prefence. For me MH with T5 actinics works best.
Different strokes for different folks.
Art is subjective and not everybody likes Monet
+1 its amazing how much your tastes can change. i know 5 years ago i thought overgrown planted low light tanks were the ugliest things in the world and couldnt grasp why people kept them. Now, i cant wait to do one and i drool over them every time i see one.
High nutrient levels can contribute to browned out corals almost if not more than the color of the bulbs.
absolutely. i think thats the case almost 90% of the time. one thing ive found to be a little ironic is how many times ive been told that high light will fade corals. IME, this has almost never been true. If anything, ive lost color from putting corals too low in my tank, even corals that are considered to be lower light. I have valida frags and green monti caps right now that are proof of this. The cap faded quickly on me because i thought most caps are considered lower light and i put it near the bottom of my tank. After a week or so at the top of my tank its almost at full color. The valida are frags of the colony i picked up a couple of weeks ago from a local reefer. He kept it under T5 at about midpoint in his tank. The colony was brown with nice purple tips. Now the purple is extending down through the branches and the entire colony is coloring up in higher light. I plan to post some before and after pics in another month or two to show the difference.
Ento is 100% right. The lighting is hardly even a factor if your water parameters are not tight. After that, its all a matter of preference and “dialing” in your tank which, IMO, is easiest with T5. Although, i think its tough to make any tank look good with only 10K or less and no actinic supp.
[quote=“Gordonious, post:18, topic:1809”]
Huh? I agree different people have different goals, but are you defending the people that like ugly corals? [/quote]
I’m not defending anyone, Jon.
Just as with goals, people have different tastes, too. Your “ugly” might be a real jazz for someone else. But if you think it’s “a big ugly coral”, does that invalidate their taste? Or goals?
[quote=“logans_daddy, post:22, topic:1809”]
Ento is 100% right. The lighting is hardly even a factor if your water parameters are not tight. After that, its all a matter of preference and “dialing” in your tank which, IMO, is easiest with T5. Although, i think its tough to make any tank look good with only 10K or less and no actinic supp.[/quote]