Active cooling and T5

[Stones]

Originally Posted by parkinsn

If its a 20% increase in lighting your looking for i dont think your going to see it without a PAR meter or even get more that about 2-4% increase by droping the temp a few degrees.

I wish I had a PAR meter to see what the results will be like for my fixture as you are correct, any difference in light intensity will likely be undetectible to the naked eye. I do have results that TheGrimReefer posted on RC shortly after T5s were introduced to the aqurium trade.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...hreadid=933795

He saw an increase in PAR over 20% from using fans to not using fans in his retro canopy when taking PAR measurements on his sandbed.

I'm not too sure where the 2-4% increase in intensity figure came from but Grim's tests with a PAR meter in an aquarium setting clearly indicate that using active cooling increases light output much more significantly than that.