aww crap... no wonder I can't sleep at night ( :

Solaris looks awesome and has great possibilities! - too rich for my blood though. Who knows, maybe LED is the future....?

Comparison is actually hard to do without using some measuring device as Steve mentioned. I believe the thread on Rc Chad mentioned, does have lots of par measures.

I will agree with Chad, that my 4 T-5,s are brighter than my two 175w halides. No disputing that. What they will measure at the tanks bottom is another question.

Then again, I,m comparing with 14K 175w bulbs. If I used the new Iwasaki 14K bulb, I would assume the halides would be brighter. So there,s the problem.

My friends 250w 14K halides is not as bright as all his T-5,s. A pair of 400w 14K,s are a bit brighter but throw a pair of 65K Iwasaki,s on and wholley mackeral.

If somebody in the Lower Mainland has a light meter and they want to take some measurements, they could measure my lowly 324 watts of T5s I have now, or wait until I set up my 180, it will have about 800 watts of T5 lighting over it. That sounds like more fun :cool:

Ok when you do this make sure it is a PAR meter not a lux or what ever meter. To bad you wern't on the Island as I do have a PAR meter.

Steve

There are a lot of factors to consider for the "best" light.

I think individual applications can be deciding factors for "the best light". Square tanks vs long/narrow tanks, deep tanks, shallow tanks, etc etc.

I think cube tanks are best lit with MH lights. T5's are good IF they're propperly reflected. And a properly cooled fixture (not the sunlight supply fixture) can get almost DOUBLE the output (can't remember the name of that 'better' branded T5 fixture). I'm really contemplating voiding my sunlight supply warranty and carving holes in the top of my 8 bulb fixture for ventilation fans. Heard you get about a 75% increase in output by running the lights cool.

about those solaris lights, I think of them as buying your fixture, AND your next 8 bulbs at the same time. That's something I rather would NOT like to do, since it can be great to experiment with a different bulb combination when you change lights. Sure you can change the colour, but you're just decreasing output with colour changes. The good thing going for the solaris fixture though is the fancy cloud effects it's computer can do.

I was pricing out the components of the solaris for a while, and those 1-2W LED's get pretty pricey once you work in the cost of their power supplies. Not very economical to DIY...

speaking of economical, MH wins as king for costs if you understand how to solder a capacitor ;)

Are you thinking of "Aquatinics" fixtures? They are getting some good reviews because they come with cooling fans and acrylic shields and their individual reflectors are all stacked in a parabolic shape so you get better mixing of light. Unfortunately, the ballasts on the aquatinics fixtures are 'hard start' and not as good as Sunlight Supply's. I know that the Sunlight Supply have been tested with fans and a par meter and that their output is better with active cooling... but I didn't think it was anywhere near 75% better! I thought it was more like 15-20%???

- Chad

I use 4 X 54 Watt T5HOs with individual parabolic reflectors, on my 55Gal display. I think the only thing I'm missing by not having Halides is "shimmer". I keep a Crocea a few inches off the bottom, and it looks great. I originally used only 2 bulbs, and when I went to 4, the Coraline on the top back of the tank actually bleached. When I get around to building the canopy it will be about 8 inches tall, low profile compared to Halides. The T5s also don't impact my Temp. as much as Halides. T5HO with a small Halide for "shimmer", IMO would be best.

I disagree with T5s or VHOs not affecting temp as much as halides. Flourescents put off a lot of heat too, it is just not as concentrated as a halide.

I think equal amounts of light = about the same amount of heat.

My halides affect my system by less then 1 degree F.

lol coraline doesn't grow in the top 8" of my own tank :) I've got a little porite frag up there now, and that's all there is for life up there. And the fixture is run ~7" from the water surface.

Agreed, my sunlight supply fixture (8 bulb 4' fixture) gave off crazy heat on my 120g. increased the temperature by 6-8 degrees without the 6", 100cfm AC fan! I think it was the light hitting the rocks, then warming the water. But it can really heat up the tank if I'm not careful. I run the fan on a timer to tweak evaporation/top-off, and I have to adjust it every once in a while.

No, not the Aquatinics, I mean the ATI fixture is the "awesome" fixture from germany. Don't know if it's available yet, but I read about somone running one on a 120-240 transformer in order to review it, and it got an output of 320 (don't know what the reading was in. PAR, lux, dunno), compared to sunlight supply's 150. Somone on the same thread tested their sunlight supply fixture after active cooling was installed in the top (3 90mm computer fans), and it increased to 250. I just can't find the damned thread! :redface: ATI cools their fixtures to a specific temperature, and the reflectors are even coated in silver!

I remember reading somewhere, too, that measuring the PAR of flourescents is difficult compared to MH because of MH being a point source, and flourescents being a spread light. advanced aquarist had a good way of measuring a spread light source by measuring it the same way they measure MH reflectors. They used this method to review the solaris fixture.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/8/review2

To get an accurate comparison you'd need to measure output from the lights at different depths in different shaped tanks and on and on and on. You'd also need to compare lights at the same power consumption and MEASURE the power usage and give results in a par/watt ratio I think you'd also need to find out how much power it takes to get the same par value from each fixture because increases in light is not linear (IE a 350watt MH will not give you twice as much light as a 175). You'd also need to use comparable quality and how the heck do you measure quality? A 400 watt Home depot MH yard light will not compare with a 400watt MH top of the line German set up and of couse a 25 watt T5 from Home depot will not comare with any of the better T5 set ups. Companies pay people big money to interpret test results to validate or support their opinions and product. Just look at the bit salt war over the years s-15 I believe. I think it's an interesting thread, being old and stubborn I still like MH but remember MH doesn't need to be on all day, a MH lamp will supply the needed light for most corals in a few hours (4-6). If I'm not mistaken (again) MH is supposed to simulate noon day sun, IE sun overhead not dawn till dusk. When I do my next tank I think I'll do the 250HQI MH for 6 hours and have PC 50/50 for 14 hours a day.

Doug