[Funky_Fish14]

T5's are a smaller(thinner) fluorescent bulb(T5, T8, T12, etc.. are the thickness of the bulb) designed to last longer periods of time and be very bright without emiting much heat(waste heat). They were originally designed for factories/wherehousese but they somehow found their way into the SW market. HO T5's(Like Tek or Ar something, lol Aru, Ari? cant remember, anyways) are supposed to last 18-24 months, however the only shorter ones are the actinic T5's which I think are around 12 months.

On RC, there was a thread, some guys were talking about how they were running MH systems, and then they switched to T5 systems, and had deep tanks(24"). They were having problems with light loving corals that used to be doing good, but they were getting too much light(some even at the bottom of the tank), and they had to shade some of them, or move the top ones down. T5's from what some people say stimulate growth at similar rates to MH(but I guess there is no way to completely accurately test what give better growth rates because every system is different).

I know a few people who used NO T5's. What they said was that the bulbs seemed to switch spectrums, and one of the guys I talked to said that after 12 months, with his T5's, he was having to scrape his glass free of algae every day. I've heard nothing good about the NO's, but people seem happy with the HO's. Also, the nice thing is people are having sucess keeping acros under low W of T5. (3-4 24" bulbs, cant remeber their wattage but they total around 60-90W for 3 or 4). I am planning on doing a propagation tank in the future. Its going to be 72" x 30" x 12-14"H, im planning on running a 6 or 8 bulb T5 fixture over it. From everything I've heard and peoples experience Im expecting to get good growth from it, lots of light.

Not many people really compare them to PC or Fluorescent anymore, normally the comparisons are made to MH, which to me would be a good sign that the light these things provide is good.

Chris