revisiting my review 6 months later...
old review: 4.5/5
new review: 4/5
Not much for trouble since i got it. I ran it without any actinics the entire time until a few weeks ago, and I think that's the reason for browning most of my coral. T5's are great because you can get any colour you want, because you can just change the ratio of the bulbs. This is a catch 22, though, because it's not easy to find the exact bulb combination you want IN STOCK at the LFS. True, I could order online, but I don't really want to deal with shipping insurance for broken tubes.
I had a slight problem ONCE with one of the ballasts not firing up. I had to unplug it and plug it back in. never had it happen since.
I would give it a 4.0/5 now, instead of a 4.5/5 because it's not actively cooled, and it doesn't ballance properly when hung from the ceiling. The ballancing issue was a slieght problem when I first got it, but to have to deal with it all the time since then, it's annoying.
As for it's performance, for my 24" deep tank, it's great for what I keep. I keep softies and most of my LPS at the bottom, as they'd bleach at the top. I'm going to try some SPS this summer, and we'll see how it goes for them.
I don't know if this fixture's quite enough for somone keeping only SPS. If one could get the fixture used, then it'd be worth it to swap the ballasts to ice caps (to overdrive the bulbs), and to cut holes in the top to actively cool it. then it'd be a kick ass unit for SPS. It's efficiency would go out the window, though, as it'd be consuming the same power as a similar PAR'd MH unit, but you'd have EXACTLY the colour you want.
Basically, this unit exceeds my needs ATM, until I get some SPS. It's been changed to a 4/5 because I think for those that keep SPS, it might be what they need, it might not. Has the potential to be a PAR beast though with some modifications
