[FLChris]

Hello all,

I was fortunate to receive a 24" aquatic life t5 4 bulb lights for a local reefer and had a question about. I currently have a 20 gallon long (30x12x12) mixed reef with cheap light which is doing good and was wondering if the aquatic life t5 would work? The plan would be to hang the lights about 10" to 12" of the water. Would I have the coverage and the par to run the 24" on a 20 gallon long?

Thank u for the input
Chris

 

[hackshobby]

HEY CHRIS......long time!

What is the 'cheap light' that you now have? Anything but a t5 I would say jump all over it! I love these things, and Corals love these things. Plus since it's a 4-bulb you can fine tune it to your particular likes. I run mine between 18" and 12"....I have (2) 4' 8-bulb units, and switch each lamp out 6 months apart, thus the 2 different heights. The older bulbs I drop down the 6" to assist PAR. Though the drop is rather insignificant at the 6 month mark. At 1 year the ATI's showed no apparent drop in PAR, so pushed it to 18 months, and saw a little drop......thus I started rotating bulbs out at that point, and lowering the 'oldest' bulbs down. I find NO REASON to go with the 'old rule of every 6 months replacing them'. Bulb quality has gone up incredibly......and it was BRS that got me going that route with an experiment they did with various bulbs. And quality bulbs like the ATI's began being experimented with out past the 12 month mark with no issues, and a question mark to deter the hate mail was offered out past THAT.
Good luck with it.
Hack

 

[FLChris]

That for the great information hack. The lights I have are the aquaknight v2 which arent bad lights at all, but you can really beat almost free and brand new 24" aquatic life t5 lights. My big thing was coverage for the fixture and tank size. The bulbs I was looking at brs was ATI coral plus, purple and actinic.

 

[hackshobby]

Sorry, got distracted. With a 4-bulb 24" t5 setup Chris I think you'd be pretty safe keeping anything you could dream f in your tank. Have you access to a PAR meter. THAT would be my only thought/suggestion is what your levels would be compared to what you now have, and will have. I have our fixtures hanging from pretty chains so I have the option of raising/lowering to achieve the PAR I want. If you don't, and your lfs doesn't loan/rent them, I could help you out with mine. Useless things till Ya need one, then there priceless. I probably only use our's twice a year with our bulb replacements.
Hack