T5 Glare-off ARC vs D+D
 

As the local T5 guinea pig, I've been busily "tweaking" my lighting setup over this past year. I went from what truly sucked to what I was more or less content with. All was well in the world.

Then I acquired a set of ARC bulbs to compare with my Giesman/ATI/D+D (or whatever they're called these days) bulbs. "A challenger?"... "A cheaper challenger?"... fire-em up baby, lets see.

First things first.
Setup #1 IceCap 660 - ARC 12000K x 2
ARC "super actinic" x 2
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...x/prelight.jpg
Words can not describe how much this one sucked... but I'll try. Imagine yellow-green. Imagine seeing every molecule of algae in vivid detail, but not noticing your zoanthids. Hot (warm hot, not good hot)

Setup #2 IceCap 660 - D+D blue + (another 12K bulb)
- D+D actinic + (a blue combo bulb, not a real actinic)
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ex/mar2006.jpg
Okay, this one was better. Blue. Lost that algae enhancing feature. Reasonably good coral fluorescence. Still very very hot, and ridiculous amount of light in a 55g tank. Very difficult to keep anything that doesn't LOVE light.

Sooo. I finally bit the bullet and "downgraded" my ballast to a Workhorse7 (ie stopped overdriving).

Setup #3 WH7 - D+D blue +
D+D actinic +
(These shots are after I moved my tank. Yes, I know all the coraline algae is gone... don't rub it in.)
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ex/Geisman.jpg
Here I was more or less content. Using smaller fans. Looks pretty. Corals happy. Heck, might even try barbequeing a few mushrooms again. Then I come across another batch of ARC bulbs to compare on the WH7 ballast...

Setup #4 WH7 - ARC 10 000K
- ARC "super" actinic
I really expected this to suck...
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...C10actinic.jpg
... but it didn't. More yellow than the previous, but not bad at all. Yellows and purples in the tank "jumped out" way more. Quite nice.
On the down side, lost fluorescence in a few zoanthids, and I like a bluer look personally...

Setup # 5 WH7 - ARC 12 000K
- ARC "super" actinic
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...C12actinic.jpg
I really couldn't tell the difference between this one and #4

Setup #6 WH7 - ARC 10 000K
- ARC "Super" (yup, that's what it says on the bulb... it's another blue combo bulb. I think Ivan at AquariaCanada is calling it "actinic plus" like the D+D bulb)
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3.../ARC10blue.jpg
Well, this one was much bluer. It looked exactly like the D+D bulb setup #3 to me. Here's the kicker. I paid >$40 per bulb for the D+Ds. These ARCs are selling for $10-$15.

Setup #7 WH7 - ARC 12000K
- ARC "Super" (the blue bulb again)
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3.../ARC12blue.jpg
No big surprise, it looks the same again... still cheaper.

Setup #8 WH7 - ARC 12000K x 2
- ARC "Super" x 1
- ARC Super actinic x 1
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e3...ctinicblue.jpg

This is the one I ended up going with... for now. I have to say, they all look pretty good on the WH7 ballast, and I might switch a few bulbs around again if I get bored.


Take home messages.
-> The ARC T5 actinic is not a bright bulb. If you are overdriving, it will get lost. However, on a normally driven system, it's not bad.
-> Without doing any sort of scientific measurement, it appears the fake actinic blue bulbs (D+D "actinic"+ and ARCs "super") are distinguishable only by price.
-> Don't overdrive your T5s... if you've got excess money/testosterone, buy a bigger skimmer instead. ;)

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Cool, very in-depth comparitive study!:biggrin:

I find it interesting how some bulbs are virtually identical, while others of the same spec are vastly different. Then you go and change something like the balast and the rules you thought should apply are thrown out the window.

I may try something like this with the 400 watt ARC/Hamilton/XM bulbs I have laying around some day.

Where did you get the ARC bulbs from?

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Here's where I got mine.
http://aquariacanada.com/osCommerce/...ceb18a2d3d5c1a

Yup, I got them at the same place.