What the heck is a T-5 bulb?
 

All this talk of T5 bulbs (in MY blue gorg thread :smile: ) seems to have a lot of following.
Are they any good? How much are they? How long do they last? Can I have a reef tank without SPS? If so, are these bulbs a viable option? Is there normal vs. HO bulbs? What about ballasts? Oh, so many questions....

Re: What the heck is a T-5 bulb?
 

But no matter if we decide they are good or not, they sure worked for the guy with the pictured tank. Right?

Bob, they most certainly did. I think he might even have some SPS under them! I'm told that there are HO versions of the tubes though....can anyone confirm this?

Brad, I am just reading about them on Sunlight Supply,s webpage. Someone asked if they had a dealer in Canada on your other thread.

That of course would be Jayson at Saltwater Connection. Our Bluewaves are Sunlight Supply equipment. I have no idea about the availability of T5 bulbs though.

Not to much info on Perrys site. Would like to see some kind of cost info for comparison ot halide equipment. Also the cost of the electronic ballast they use, end caps and reflectors.

I figure I would need two banks of 3ft. bulbs for my tank. I would assume at least 4 bulbs per bank. So I would like to find out what that would cost, compared with my 3-400w halides.

I disagree bulbs driven on the correct ballast need changing every year. I have read several reports on vho systems run by Icecap, lasting several years. The initial drop off is intensity related only and can be compensated for by enough lights to start with.

Mike Miles is running all vho on his 120. Some are the units I was running before. I can say for one think, his tank is super looking nearing a year for the bulbs. I remember he never wanted to remove the pair of 400w Radiums and use the vho, but had a problem with heat and the reason we switched. You could not persuade him to go back to halides now. We will see the difference when switching bulbs. I can say thats not going to be for awile yet.

The whole point being, I think alternative light sources are worth exploring. I sometimes get tired of getting soaked for halide bulbs, esp ones that cant even make a year or the ones that do, look like someone peed in my tank. :lol:

Hear, hear, or as Teevee would say clap, clap. :BIG:

I don;t ever recall anyone saying you needed MH at all. I have cycled througth all the lighting myself (except for T5) and my preference is AB MH pluss URI VHO Actinic.

Now befor Bob gets his nickers in a knot, I did love the look of the PC's and VHO. and even all 3 when I had the 175 watt MH on there. and everything lives under all 3 types of lights. what did I get out of this.. about 2000.00 I never needed to spend if I would have went MH to start with. Heck I have a acro and some digitata living under a couple 55watt PC's right now as a test and so fare they are doing good.

but when I sqitched to the HQI MH set up my growth trippled and my colors got more intense. so I will not say you need MH to keep any coral, but I will say you might need MH to give the corals the best possable enviorment we can. After all is it right to keep a living creature in conditions that are below what we have the ability to offer?

Would you buy a dog and keep it in the closet and never let it out? no you wouldent.. and why wouldent you? because it is in your capability to take the dog for walks or to let it play in a back yard ect..

I am not saying that we should leave the coral in the ocean, that would be crazy, but I am saying that if we buy a coral or what ever we should not do so unless we are prepared to give it the best we can afford.

Steve

Back to my original post though about seeing the comparason between VHO and T5. I would like to see this because they can both be driven off a WH ballast and it is a viable bulb swap for me to try when my VHO's are dead. they are a year old now and as of yesterday only show a 3% loss in intensity so I don;t think I will be swapping them soon, but.. my bottom tank needs some better lighting I think.. the two 55 watt PC's are tired, so I might give the T5's a try. so if anyone knows of a canadian store selling them let me know and I will be a guinny pig.

Steve

The only thing I want to add here is that I do prefer the look of MH lighting as in the ripple effect. I don't like the cost of running them. On my little 50 I would need two 175W lights, and I am not prepared to pay the cost of running them.

I also recall Brad complaining in another post that one of his Acros grows too fast. Therefore, I would propose looking for a happy medium by giving them a little less light so that one does not run out of real estate so quickly.
:Fade-col:

Bob, out of curiosity what are you running for lighting on that tank?

Steve

The 50 has a Coralife 2 x 96W PC fixture. One tube is 10000K, and the other is a 96W Actinic. The fixture has been in use since the end of October. I run the 10000K most of the day. The actinic at this time comes on at 4:30 PM . So it runs a few hours with both tubes, then later the 1000K goes out, and we finish the day until about 9:00 pm with only the Actinic.

The tank contains only softies, Mushrooms, two types of Xenia, zooanthids, Green Star Polyps, Cabbage Coral, Caulastrea, and Torch Corals. To date it is doing well. :eek: