T5 Lighting

[Canadian]

Originally Posted by lorenz0

I am actually planning on purchasing a par meter just to measure everything. Another big thing with t5's is what you are using to cool them. The cooler the bulbs are, the higher output your going to get.

This isn't true. If you cool a T5 lamp too much you drastically drop the output. Therefore attempting to add active cooling to a lower end T5 fixture is more complex than just blowing air over the lamps. Some lamps have cold spots at one end of the lamp and others don't - this changes the position where the air flow should be directed. The optimal operating temperature is somewhere around 115F (45 degrees C - see this reference: http://www.lighting.com/content.cfm?id=2071&page=/). Above or below that and you see degradation in lamp output and changes in ballast wattage draw --> poorer efficiency.

The biggest problem with respect to gaining even greater wide spread use of T5 lamps in reefkeeping is the general ignorance regarding output and optimizing color and PAR by changing numerous variables (reflector design, lamp choice, ballast choice, active cooling, etc.). MH tends to be the default because it has been around a long time (with good reason) and its application is fairly well understood. In North America we still don't have a good handle on what constitutes an ideal setup (hence seeing Sunlight Supply Tek lights being recommended over and over again despite their poor reflector design and lack of active cooling). And then there's that shimmer issue . . .