Made the switch to T5

[Stones]

So I decided to finally bite the bullet and make the switch from metal halide to all T5 lighting for my 90 gallon SPS reef.

After being on the ATI powermodule waiting list for countless months, I finally threw in the towel and went with a similar fixture from Sfiligoi since the waiting list was only one month long as opposed to indefinate with ATI.

Upon unpacking the fixture and installing it, it seems very comparable to the ATI powermodule. That said, there are several major differences that I have yet to find out if they will be good or bad.

The 1st would be that the Sfiligoi fixture has the active cooling fans placed on the ends of the bulbs blowing across the entire 48" length as opposed to the ATI powermodule having the fans blowing on the approximate center of the bulbs from the top of the fixture down. Both the ATI and Sfiligoi employ 1 fan per 2 bulbs.

The 2nd would be that the Sfiligoi fixture uses a glass bulb sheild instead of an acrylic shield which is used on the ATI powermodule. Although this adds extra weight to the fixture, there were bowing issues with the hot acrylic on the ATI fixtures.

The 3rd and probably most important difference is in the reflector style. The Sfiligoi fixture I purchased has reflectors very simialar to the TEK 2's released by Sun Light Supply, however, they are not TRUE individual reflectors. Each reflector actually houses 2 T5 bulbs with only a half reflector between the bulb centers. Although this allows for a wider spread of light, it probably isn't the most ideal setup for an 18" wide tank. The ATI powermodules however offer TRUE individual reflectors that are more similar to the TEK 1st gen reflectors from sunlight supply.

Additionally, the hanging kit was very easy to install and took about 20 minutes to measure and securely mount into the ceiling drywall. Very clean and "modern" look as well.

The fans also feature adjustable speed control via a variable voltage converter. Like the ATI powermodule, Sfiligoi also suggest running the fans at 4.5v, at which level they are not even audible.

Here are a few pics of the new lighting fixture. I will post a before and after full tank shot in a few weeks time to compare how things looked under my previous 2 x 250 HQI Radium 20K + 54W actinic + 54W Fiji purple to the new Sfiligoi all T5 fixture.

Top down view


Bottom view


Bulbs installed, from top to bottom they are: Aquascience 22K, Sfiligoi Pure Actinic, Aquascience 15K, Kz New Gen Coral Light, Kz Fiji purple, Aquascience 22K, Kz New Gen Coral Light, Aquascience 22K


Installed above my 90 gallon


With all T5's lit, looks even brighter than my previous metal halide setup

[Sebae again]

Very nice tank. Personally I think you ended up with the better of the two fixtures.

[Trigger Man]

Looks really nice in there. I've heard a lot of good things with the sfiligoi systems, nice to actually see one at work. Hopefully you drop us a line in a few months telling us what differences you've found in comparision to your old lighting.

[lastlight]

Does the glass shield cover the entire bottom? In pics it looks like it only covers the ends of the tubes...



That pic clearly shows single reflectors as well. Is yours not like this? Perhaps the Sfiligoi site shows the new ones with LEDs and they changed something...

Love the look that bulb combo gives you!

You chose not to mount into joists?

[Oscar]

Why the change to all T5s?

[jasond]

Nice fixture! I went with the ATI and am very happy so far, about 2 months in. I did not have to wait at all, but maybe that was just because they had the size I was looking for in stock (reefgeek). Good luck with the new light, let us know how you like it after a couple months!

[Stones]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Does the glass shield cover the entire bottom? In pics it looks like it only covers the ends of the tubes...

That picture is misleading as the unit came with a 2 piece glass shield that covers the entire bottom of the fixture.

Originally Posted by lastlight

That pic clearly shows single reflectors as well. Is yours not like this? Perhaps the Sfiligoi site shows the new ones with LEDs and they changed something...

The unit shown must be an older model or the unreleased stealths with moonlights coming out next year as the reflectors in mine are much wider but are not "true" indivudual reflectors. If you look at this picture, you can actually see through the end of the unit and see the shape of reflectors as outlined in red.

Originally Posted by lastlight

Love the look that bulb combo gives you!

I'm fairly happy with the colour generated by the bulb combo. I may have to tinker with it a bit and replace the Sfiligoi pure actinic with another Aquascience 22K as I wouldn't mind a bit bluer tint. I'll wait until these bulbs burn in and after a week or two see how it looks.

Originally Posted by lastlight

You chose not to mount into joists?

I was actually unable to mount the light into the joists in the ceiling as they ran parallel to the tank and I would not have been able to center the fixture correctly if I had mounted into the joists. If the joist had run perpendicular to the tank that would have worked out great as the distance between joists wouldn't have mattered at all. Sfiligoi has a slick system where the hanging cables are mounted into a track on the top of the fixture and are able to slide back and forth to accomodate where the joists would line up.

Since this wasn't an option, I picked up a pack of 3/16" drywall toggle bolts that had 2.5" long toggles. Apparenlty, each one is supposed to be able to support up to 50 lbs (if drywall is 1/2" thick) so I think I'm pretty safe seeing as the fixture weights probably 25 lbs tops. Here is a pic of how the mounts look on the roof.




As for why I chose T5s over a new metal halide fixture, I had several reasons. I've seen so many beautiful tanks on the zeovit forums that have been kept soley under T5 lights and after seeing a local hobbyist's tank lit by a SLS 8 x 54 Watt Tek, I was amazed at the intensity and colour of the light given off by the fixture. Often times we had ordered the same frags on group orders and the SLS T5 fixture would have the frags coloured up much faster than my metal halide setup.

It also seems that there are so many more bulb choices and combinations with T5's as well. You can really mix and match to get your tank looking anywhere from a 10K to 22K spectrum depending on personal taste. I might have to swap out a bulb or two in my tank as right now it looks a little too white for my liking.

Electricity savings should also be signficant over my previous setup. The Sfiligoi stealth draws 432 watts as opposed to my old setup which was a 2 x 250 watt PFO HQI ballast running SE radium 20k bulbs + 2 x 54 watt actinic T5s. I always knew the bulbs were being overdriven on that ballast but I was amazed when someon on RC posted the actual wattage being drawn by the same setup as mine was ~809 watts when its was just over 500 watts when DE bulbs were used on the same ballast.

As such, I was having some heat related issues with my tank, especially in the summer. With the new Sfiligoi fixture, I'm hoping to avoid these problems and I've also been able to eliminate the 2 7" fans that I had blowing across the surface of my tank for 12 hours a day. This should then cut down on the amount of top off water going into the tank daily as well.

I know that I'm going to really miss the shimmer of the metal halides but since I've only got about 3" of sandbed behind the front pane of glass, I didn't really get the fully shimmer effect anyways.

Since I'm planning on upgrading to a much larger tank as soon as I find a house, purchasing this light will also give me a "trial run" of T5's on an SPS dominated reef so that I can more effectively decide on what lighting to use on my next tank. If this sfiligoi fixture can generate more intense colouration in my corals and keep coral growth rate similar to my previous setup, I will likely go with an all T5 setup again. This will then help me decide on what size tank to go with as I'd likey get a 60" tank and use T5s as opposed to getting a 72" tank if I were to use metal halides on the new setup.

Another reason why I decided to make the switch was basically out of curiousity. I've seen many beautiful T5 lit reefs on the net, but have only seen 1 in person. Probably 9 out of 10 SPS reefs are illuminated by metal halides or a combo of metal halides and T5/VHOs. If this fixture is able to keep up with halides and help save some money on electricity while adding less heat to the aquarium, I want to be able to share this information with other hobbyists since there is so little information posted anywhere on Sfiligoi.

[lastlight]

I'm waiting for my 8x80w so this is all great information. There's next to nothing available on them. Heck until a few days ago I thought they were WHITE lol. Most do.

The variable hanging kit sounds awesome as does full glass shield. I hope the 60" fixture also has a full shield. I plan to mount a length of board to my ceiling first so I might not take advantage of the rail system.

How do you plan to access your tank with the fixture in the way. I wonder how others with similar setups do. I can't imagine adjusting the wire connector everyday is good for it. If it gets weak somehow and lets an end fall you'd be ruined. Also, swinging the fixture and tethering it to the back of the tank would be risky I imagine.

For mine I was thinking

ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aqua Blue
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Pro Color
GE Daylight 6500K
ATI Blue Plus
ATI Aqua Blue
ATI Blue Plus

Still up in the air. I've never had a T5 before.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by Stones

As such, I was having some heat related issues with my tank, especially in the summer. With the new Sfiligoi fixture, I'm hoping to avoid these problems and I've also been able to eliminate the 2 7" fans that I had blowing across the surface of my tank for 12 hours a day. This should then cut down on the amount of top off water going into the tank daily as well.

I am having heat and top off problems as well. Next step is to hang the fixture from the ceiling and provide a bit more space between the fixture and water surface.

If I cannot resolve those before next summer then I may consider removing the hallide/T5 combo fixture and replacing with a strictly T5 fixture.