modding 150W aqualight pro to 250W

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Canadian

Is this for real? The T5 PAR measurements have been replicated numerous times on RC.

yes there were, and there were also IceCap claims that turned out to be false... problem is it is so easy to fuge readings with these sensors.. hell I can make a 100 watt light bulb put out more PAR than a 400 watt MH by only moving the sensor 1/2" there has also been a lot of debate about the way people were taking T5 readings... so no I don't put any faith in RC anymore.

Steve

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Andrew.. what exactly does that thread have to do with T5's being better than MH or not

Steve

The threads I linked to were in response to your quotes:

don't worry about the amount of PAR in the PCs OR T5s in these fixtures, compared to the MH they are nothing and only used for color.

and

My MH put out 680 Units of PAR, my 96 watt VHO super actinics put out 91 units. you think that 91 units realy did anything? remember light is not added togeather when we are talking about intensity and thoes numbers were ate 14" (6 air 8 water) so on the bottom of the tank the VHO dropped offf to 27 where the MH was still about 480. so the coral benifited from the intensity of the MH's PAR output and the VHO was basicly nothing because of the MH's intensity. now if you are only using VHO/PC/T5 then yes you need to have some broader spectrum lights to get the PAR levels and have the blue tinge

Additionally, in reference to the variability in methodology of measuring intensity: keep in mind that T5 reflectors essentially direct the light from the lamp in a wide band whereas the majority of MH reflectors concentrate the light at some point to such an extent that "surfing" for a point of higher intensity will undoubtedly lead to discovery of an extremely brightly lit point. T5 lighting is relatively uniform (with the exception of one end often being brighter due to fixture design and active cooling at the endcap) and may not produce a single point as intense as the MH but averaging the intensity by plotting it in a grid throughout the tank demonstrates that T5 certainly does more than just contribute color when combined with MH.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Canadian

may not produce a single point as intense as the MH but averaging the intensity by plotting it in a grid throughout the tank demonstrates that T5 certainly does more than just contribute color when combined with MH.

exactly! when you measure average the T5's will come up higher. But in the central areas they will not be near as intense as the MH.

On of the other problems is a lot of people are taking the measument for granted.. the standards for the MH everyone is comparing them against is a black box with no reflector. All I am saying is that I would like to do a real world measurment to see how they are. Do you have T5's for your tank you are setting up? we could test them out.

Steve

[Canadian]

Steve,

Part of my rationale for posting that last link is because you can see that 8x80W T5 produced a point in the center of tank with a PAR in excess of 600. This level of PAR is generally regarded as being photoinhibitory and certainly rivals a hot spot produced by many different MH at the same depth in the tank.

I wanted to run a 6x24W T5 ATI Powermodule over my new tank but Proline isn't supporting the distribution of them in Canada anymore so there aren't any Canadian retailers. Consequently, I contacted Reef Geek and inquired about getting one from the US and it was going to take more than 4 months to get one. I looked at getting a FaunaMarin Ultra Solaris but Fauna Marin was having heat issues with the 24" model. So essentially I was screwed and I just caved and went with a Giesemann 230 Plus (150W 13,000K HQI and 2x24W T5 AquaBlue +). Unfortunately the T5 ballast is DOA and now I'm having to wait for Giesemann to send me a replacement that I'll have to swap in.

[Okguy]

Kwirky, I'm sorry your thread got hijacked off topic. But since a lot of people have Aqualights I'm curious if you've tried to switch the PC's to T5's. I'm thinking of trying it if I get a some spare time over Christmas (and can find the parts locally) and would like to know how your upgrade went?

Thanks,

Kevin

[Chin_Lee]

Kevin
I am going to look into doing this mod (pc to T5) in the near future. I'll let you know how it goes.

[calkrog]

taggin along.. i have the 36" and i want t5's as well. i

[kwirky]

unfortunately my tank sprung a leak and I had to swap it out in an emergency. Now it's a 3' long tank and the 24" fixture won't be enough no matter how I mod it. So the upgrade won't be happening because I'm going to upgrade the fixture to a 3' long one when I have the $$.

[mseepman]

Bump...anything happening with these mods?

[kwirky]

not worth the time and effort because most of the reflector would end up being hashed up. I'm keeping the 150W because it seems to be ok for the time being for my corals.