Adding more lighting to tank

[dolfan]

I've been running my 90g reef tank for about the last 3 years with a 36" Current USA Orbit Marine LED with pretty good success. I have a great looking large frogspawn , a RBTA doing well, a colony of various mushrooms in another section and some small zoe frags working well, but I'm thinking to add more corals.

I have some good ballasts from a DIY build of my previous Power Compact lighting that I used to run before LED. My thought was to maybe add to my LED with a 39 watt/36" T5 fixture to add more lighting. My initial thought is to put this alongside my LED and let the LED run full light period with ramp up and down, but then have this additional T5 come on for peak daylight for maybe 3-5 hours only.

My questions are these:

1. Does this plan make sense to add more light without a full retrofit of all my lighting?
2. Should this PC ballast power a T5? The ballast was running 2 96w PC bulbs as I recall
3. Will an additional 39w T5 make a difference so that I can add corals that may have more light requirements?

 

[jcook54]

1. It make total sense and a lot of folks have T5 additions to their LED fixtures or vice versa (LEDs added to T5 fixture).
2. I would get a new ballast for the T5s. Please note that what we call T5s are typically T5 High Output (HO). You don't see many T5 Normal Output (NO) bulbs anywhere but if you're looking for information on outputs while comparing the needs of T5 bulbs to the PC ballasts that you have, make sure the comparison is with T5HO bulbs.
3. It will certainly make a difference in the quality of the and with the right bulbs could add some to the overall PAR. But it you're already got an RBTA and a euphyllia sp. that's doing well, I'd guess you'd be fine to try some lower light SPS, especially if you add the T5s.

The more time I spend in this wonderful hobby, the less important straight PAR values seem to mean. I used to think if I could only get my lights over 300 PAR, I could grow seriously sick colored sticks. So I got the lights and very, very little changed. I'm finding out there are a lot of factors and light intensity is just one of the many. Specifically, what kind of corals would you like to try? I've seen a lot of really nice acro colonies grown in 225 PAR systems. Sorry, I've gotten way off topic, you've got a great idea and my personal favorite type of light is a T5/LED Combo like you're talking about.

 

[dolfan]

Thanks for the great info. I'll check the specs on my ballasts to see if I can reuse them as they are just sitting idle now and would like to put them to good use.

 

[hiimsean]

Is your 90g only a 36” tank?

 

[dolfan]

No, my tank is a standard 90g, 48" long All-Glass/Aqueon. I have the 36" LED centered and the light has been fin this way. I have a large colony of mushrooms all the way on one end and they seem very happy there with that lighting even on the end. I'll try to post a picture if I can find one.

 

[hiimsean]

I’d go for 48” T5s then. You can get a retro kit for relatively inexpensive.

 

[dolfan]

I'm trying to use an existing ballast and not purchase an entirely new fixture.