E5 blue pop
 

I was asked to give my thought about the E5 blue pop bulbs.

I purchased three of these from JLaquatics. 60" for my 8 bulbs ATI fixture.

My experience
- With three installed, my fixture runs much cooler
- At 60", it sags in the center. But wouldn't fall off the sockets.
- It is not as fragile as the T5. If I dropped on the floor, it won't break.
- Does not give shimmer unlike my old Radions.
- Evenly distributed, much like T5.
- SPS loved it.
- My leathers that were right underneath one of the E5s bleached within two weeks. Polyps remain retracted for months even after that particular E5 is removed. More PAR than blue+ ???
- I wouldn't use it as a stand alone. Great as supplement or dusk/dawn with Actinic or blue +. The E5 Blue Pop is much more blue than the Blue+.
- My yellow, and green corals glow under the Blue Pop.

I now only run one E5 Blue Pop bulb with seven other T5s.



Third from LEFT
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...psnuuhqwyz.jpg

Sag
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pss7jkhqvi.jpg

E5 & Actinic +
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...pspa5oqfej.jpg

Super Blue, Act +, E5 blue pop, Purple +, SB, Act +, Aquablue Special, SB.
http://i1376.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6jso9nwn.jpg

Was exactly how I felt about them except the 36" ones don't sag...

Started with 4, now running 2. Wish I'd bought one at a time...

Curious, is there a reason why you placed it 3rd in, vs 1st or in any other position?

3rd one is so I can use as dusk/dawn. If I placed it at 6th (still dusk/dawn), it will be right on top of my leather..

I have 3 of them on my 10 bulbs ati fixture, really like them , the blue is really intense.
There is no shimmer , just a nice blue , I use 1 in the middle and 2 on the third socket of each end( the ones in the 3rd socket are for dusk/dawn)...
Totally agree with first post, my fixture is only 36" so no sag....
I can see this lights working good with soft corals, my tank is all sps and have to say I use them because probably the 10 bulbs are a bit overkill. If I had an 8 bulb fixture for my sps tank will use none or maybe just 1....



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I've been kind of wondering about these so thanks for the review. In particular these "blue pop" since they're claimed to be at 450nm which makes me think they're similar to the old 454 t5's we used to be able to get (I would run 454 plus actinics for my dusk and dawn).

I'm not sure I understand though why you decided to go with fewer in the end? Are they just too bright otherwise? In the first picture where it says "third from left" is it actually on? (Because it looks darker than the t5's)

Thanks!

Yes. All the lights were on in the image. I only run one in the end because it is too blue for my liking. It would probably balance well if you run less blue bulbs.

if you have a 60" light, you can PM me if you want to try out one of my extra bulb.

'Euroquatics E5X LED Lamps Will Be 25% Brighter'
https://reefbuilders.com/2016/11/21/...e-25-brighter/
I was recently looking at converting from T5 this boxing day but look whats been released today....

Whats the general consensus on this stuff? 3 yr. warranty, longer life, now molded properly behind a lens... Stuff is starting to look darn pretty good.

Anyways, thoughts on color combo going at 2 ATI powermodules (8 bulbs per lamp)? Im thinking:
8 blue pop
4 blue daylight
4 daylight

I've just gone from being mildly disappointed with these to being totally disappointed.

What a joke.

Already an upgrade 6 months after?

Come on...

So what do you dislike about the E5's? And what do you think of the upgraded tube?

honestly, 25% brighter would be awesome.

The cloudy light diffuser was stupid from the get go as far as I'm concerned.

Simplified, it says in the reefbuilders article that the E5's are basically an led that acts like a T5 whereas the E5X's are more an LED that fit's into a T5.

I can't support a company that works this way though.

They would have known full well at launch that these better versions were in development, I am sure my sentiments regarding this product were widespread but they were too far into production before they got the feedback they needed to make these changes.

So I won't be buying them unless they offer some kind of a trade in rebate.

BUT based on that article, it would seem the E5x's will address the issues I had with the E5's.

brighter and more LED pop.

Not sure what the issue is.

I think it's a good sign that they listened to their customer and are making a better product. We see this all the time in several other industries. Samsung and LG are selling TV's today that they know full well are going to be replaced with something better in 3 months from now. TV's that will fix things that consumers are complaining about right now. Tablets, smartphones, laptops all have a lifespan of less than 1 year before the shiny new model comes out.

The consumer demands progress. What's the alternative? Refuse to improve the design because not enough time has past? Let the competition beat them to the punch? They aren't going to recall it as it's not defective, it's just not living up to expectations.

In reality they could have offered both models with the E5X being the step up. I suspect by discontinuing the E5 they can count on volume being higher on the E5X so price will be closer to the original.

They've alreasy said pricing will be the same, says the the article posted above.

What TV's are you talking about that are outdated in 3 or 4 months?

The last big technology curve I was aware of was 4k/uhd but as far as I know, that technology was on the horizon for years and you still have the option of buying standard HD TV's for less?

The alternative is to offer a trade in, as I mentioned above, or to let customers know when you put the soon to be outdated "new" product to market, let customers know the upgrade is coming...like what would happen with your TV analogy....Knowing full well that your product would be getting a major upgrade/overhaul within a year is completely different and IMO, predatory.

4k, UHD, Smart Tv's...even HD when it was new was a very gradual roll out and phase out.

It's just an example, but....

If you buy an LED Tv today, it will be discontinued in January and the new one will probably land in march. It won't be a radical new technology, just an improvement on existing LED tech. Improvements based on customer feedback and refining the engineering going into the technology. They won't offer you a trade in on the new one just because it performs better. Even if it's defective you don't get to trade it in, it's repaired. And the price of the new tv won't be the same, it will be much cheaper!

New technology is always in the works. A product lifecycle will vary based on a number of factors, but if a company always waited to launch because something better is coming they'd never sell anything. Something better is always coming.

Maybe i'm missing the point? Far as i know, the E5 isn't defective, just underwhelming?

Not a great analogy at all.

The big difference is that you KNOW the next TV is coming, you KNOW your iphone is going to be outdated.

People salivate over the next best thing.

If I had known these were coming in less than a year (as the company surely did) I would not have bought, the company knew that and acted accordingly.

I get what you're trying to say, maybe you'd feel different if you had been the one to drop a few hundred on these...maybe not.

As for me, I'm not satisfied and feel the company did a terrible job in informing their customers knowing full well the product they had been hyping for months as a game changer would be outdated within a year.

Semantics, right?

Overall, if you're not satisfied with the product you're probably not going to buy anything from that company again. We vote with our dollars. I think we can both agree on that.:cool: