How high sould my lights be off the water?

[art_of_war]

Art do you have any hard corals ?

I do; some small acro. frags. I'm converting slowly and I'm getting rid of my bubbles, gionoporas, and even my torch, hammers and frogspawn. Those guys are BIG and I do mean BIG; and they take up too much space.

Why?

[charlie]

Prom,

I think the age old guideline of watts/gal is now a thing of the past. I have 4 T-5's (48"), all 54 watts each on my 55 gallon. They're cheaper running, have more intensity, nicer colour and the bulbs cost less than my old retro PC's (which I had to run 6 bulbs on w/ nearly 400 watts).

I agree that the thinking of watts/gallon is pretty much history. I have no experience with T5 lites, so anything I say here can probably be taken with a grain of salt. I have run MH over my systems for close to 6-7 years.

Art, how is the acclimation to the T5 lites going? If I am not mistaken, your lites are about 2-3 weeks old now, right?

[art_of_war]

I agree that the thinking of watts/gallon is pretty much history. I have no experience with T5 lites, so anything I say here can probably be taken with a grain of salt. I have run MH over my systems for close to 6-7 years.

Art, how is the acclimation to the T5 lites going? If I am not mistaken, your lites are about 2-3 weeks old now, right?

It's normal again. I'm back to running a 10 hour photosession. It's not so much my zoas but rather my capnella, colts and LPS's. Last year I changed bulbs on my PC lights and my colt started melting! Literally. It wasn't until a friend told me to cut the photosession in half and slowly increase it over a week or two.

That's alright. Colts aren't all that great anyway. I don't know why but I'm starting to not like a lot of the softies (w/ exception of zoas) and some of the LPS's. They take up too much space when they expand. Doesn't matter though, I'm changing over to SPS's.

[charlie]

Have you gotten your electric bill yet to see how much you saved?

[art_of_war]

Have you gotten your electric bill yet to see how much you saved?

Not yet...why?

[charlie]

They're cheaper running,

Just wondered.

[art_of_war]

Just wondered.

Oh...I thought you were about to tell me something different.

[charlie]

Well, you said they were cheaper to run, I was just wondering how much you were saving per bill. I have a 300 gallon tank that I plan on being an sps tank, I may want to change my 4-400w MH to T5, any info you would have would be a boost.
I guess I will have to give Mike a jingle, he at least has documented info.

[art_of_war]

Well, you said they were cheaper to run, I was just wondering how much you were saving per bill. I have a 300 gallon tank that I plan on being an sps tank, I may want to change my 4-400w MH to T5, any info you would have would be a boost.
I guess I will have to give Mike a jingle, he at least has documented info.

They are. I haven't seen my electric bill yet however it's not the only thing that is improving my electric bill. I do have a smaller skimmer and one less water pump. The skimmer only runs for about 10 hours a day. I was a little surprised at how much quieter my system ran. The loudest thing I have is the water pump and even that is buffered by my wood stand.

I like the T-5's b/c it doesn't take forever to warm/start up like MHs. But, all these small modifications including a new LCD television to replace my old CRT is also what's helping my electric bill.

I have some pictures...I'll load them up real soon.