Lighting Guru's Need Opinions!!
 

Newb here again. I've been reading about lights forever, the more I read the more confusion ensues. I think what I want to buy are t5ho lights. Don't want to go halide. I know I need individual reflectors and personally I like colors more in the blue spectrum. Thinking one 10k and one 14k bulb. Might even go with a 4 bulb setup I'll listen to your recommendations first.

The tanks this light will go over are first a 24lx17wx12h then it will be moved to a 33 gal, 36lx12wx18h. Soooo, probably 36" fixture,or 30" if recommended by members, overlap will be fine until I get the larger tank setup. Now for the best part, stocking, yup you guessed it, SPS.

Next question where to buy, what brand. If I'm really good the SWMBO said I can make a road trip to Edmonton on the weekend.

Let the discussion begin!!!

Thanks for the help,

Brad

Hi Brad. I am by no means a Guru, but I can offer my two cents. I just recently set up my 60 Gallon (36in wide) and went the T5 route. This is the light I have:

https://diyreef.authsecure.com/shop/...a101a31460a6ab

I am really happy with it so far. I dont have any SPS right now, but from what I have read people do successfully keep SPS with T5. I like this light for the following reasons: Fans for cooling (which are fairly quiet), acrylic lens cover, looks clean, and cheaper to run than MH.

If you are going to keep strictly SPS though, I would imagine it will be suggested to go the MH route. The water shimmer MH gives is awesome, you just have to deal with heat & higher electricity cost. Either way you have a ton of options!

I would go 36in and have some overlapping till you move to your bigger tank.

Anyways thats my experience, hope that helps,

Jason

Tagging along. What light people?

if you have the patience to read through this thread, it has a couple of opinions on T5 bulb combos

Sorry, any chance I could get the 'Cliff Notes'???

ATI Powermodule :cool:

36" 4 or 6 bulb Tek light

These lights look awesome, pricey but awesome. If I was to upgrade, that would be the road I would head down!

Too bad they are a myth :P

I often here people say how much cheaper T5's are to run than MH. Is it significant? If anyones able to quantify that for me it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Nicole

Not necessarily cheaper, but a cooler, more even light distribution. The down side is that the light looks flat and unnatural IMO. My last tank was a 72G bowfront with 336W of T5 HO lighting, and I had plenty of light for SPS all the way to the bottom. That same tank would have needed 2- 250W MHs if I went that way, and I don't think I would have had the same light penetration from what I've seen of halides (I now run 400W MH)

I'm sure we've all said something like this at some point, and it's a good lesson for someone starting out. We buy something to get us started, only to to have to "upgrade" in the future to be able to get the results we want. Better to buy the good stuff first and save yourself a lot of money.

You might as well know now, this hobby is expensive! :redface:

Has anyone used the "new" Glo t5ho from Hagen. Not sure if the unit has individual reflectors or not. Not sure on the pricing either. Any comments would be appreciated.

The Tek light looks pretty sweet!!

Thanks for all the links guys. I've been reading bits and pieces of the RC one,
thanks Mark.

Brad

Sorry not to highjack, but please elaborate sir Albert

Well said Reefer Rob.

I really like my T5 and think it is a great unit (cost/looks/function), but after seeing Danny Zubot's tank, MH really does look spectacular. T5 gives you lots of options in terms of light combination, but w/o the shimmer its just not the same. However, that said, higher elec cost & heat issues are the price you pay!

I got a set of t-5s, The price is unbeatable . New waves from sunlight supply pretty much are the same as the teklights but much cheaper,(they dont have the nice black shell). I think they go for like 130 for a 4 bulb setup at golds (without bulbs). So around 230 for a whole 24 inch t-5 fixture with bulbs isn't bad. The price is a bit higher than a power compact, but I'm sure most people rather fork up the additional 50 to 100 bucks for t-5s. I personally haven't fired mine up yet but I'm sure the results are promising from what I have heard and seen.

Well, let's take a common 48" long tank. A reefer would decide to light this with either 2x250W MH or a 6x54W T5HO setup. Therefore you've got 500w of MH versus 324 watts of T5 saving you 176 watts per day assuming you had both on for the same amount of time. Over the course of a year that's over 27,000 watts of savings.

Assuming that you changed out your bulbs on a yearly basis, you'd still save with T5HO. Good name-brand MH 250W MH bulbs retail for ~$100/bulb. That's $200/year in MH bulbs. 54w T5HO bulbs run about $25/bulb x6 = $150/year in T5 bulbs.

Running an 8-bulb T5 unit would bring the electricity costs closer (432w vs. 500w) and the bulb replacement cost would pretty much be a wash.

The bonus with a T5 setup is that you'd be able to fine tune your colour temp more precisely using multiple bulbs instead of just one and you would need to add additional lighting to MH to get a dawn/dusk effect whereas that is built into any good T5HO unit.

As for which T5HO unit - I'd get one of the high-end Aquactinics units for maximum output given: 1) active cooling, 2) Icecap SLR reflectors, 3) Icecap 606 ballast (which overdrives the bulbs slightly - costing you a bit more :) )

If the Aquactinics come with come with an Icecap 660 ballast they would definitely be a good choice. Not sure what's in the Tek lights, may only be a Workhorse ballast, which won't come close to a 660. Still, if I remember correctly, the Powermodule has the most PAR of any T5 fixture. You did say you wanted to keep SPS :wink:

I picked up a couple of the GLO T5 ballasts used and have no complaints. Then again I have nothing to compare them too plus only using one of them to supplement MH and do dusk/dawn with actinics. The water proof end-caps are nice and hardwired back to the ballast. Have reflectors but weren't part of the GLO but still considering either the TEK2 or Icecap SLR as a little narrower than the one I'm using now (would allow me to add another bank of T5s in my hood). Reflectors though really don't seem an issue as if going the retro route, they just snap directly onto the bulbs and not that bad for price.

I bought the glow for my fresh water tank and it is pretty sweet, I would never have the ilusion it or any other T5ho would be able to replace MH (especialy after doing some PAR comparasons) but on a shallower tank like you are using it would work well. I would think that with your tank width two of the fixtures would be pretty good, and I would go for the 36" ones if you are planning on going to a 33 later.

Steve

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1226502

From what I could find, Aquactinic TX5 are workhorse ballasts, and the Solar Flare models have IceCap ballasts.

Seems to be a lot of happy ppl with these lights on RC as well.

Has anyone ripped apart a Tec light? I was looking at a place that sells replacment ballast for them and they are WH5's, is that what they come with?

Steve

Teklights use Workhorse ballasts. The 60" teklight retrokit I got came with a WH7 ballast.

The Aquactinics Solar Flare is right up there with the ATI for "ultimate T5" status.

If he was to go mH what could he do? A 150? 2? Combo or something?

Made it to the city tonight and got a chance to stop in and look at the Hagen glo t5 setup. I think for the price of them I'd rather spend a couple extra bucks and pick up a 4 bulb unit with individual reflectors. The price of two of those units isn't much different than a tek. Will look around more tomorrow and see what everyone has and make a decision. If any sponsors would like to pm me with some prices that would be very helpful. I'm looking for 4 bulbs 36" with individual reflectors turnkey setup not a retrofit.

Thanks
Brad