t5 vs pc

[Don E]

Thanks for the reply- that's interesting. Hmm. Mind you, a 20 Tall is still not all that tall- 16 inches, I think?

I may just go back to the 2x 65.

Is anybody out there using t5's with a 20T? If so, how many, what length, and are you happy with them?

thanks

d

[StirCrazy]

I would stay with your PC's The difference between PC's and HOT5's is hardly worth looking at.. and normal T5's are not as powerfull.

Steve

[Dale]

Hi Don.

I don't have a firm opinion either way but my 75G. tank is lit by T-5's and doing well. I guess it depends on what you plan to stock.
One thing I did do was to build a rockwall using a light diffuser background for support. This allowed me to raise the rocks up and to put my highest light demanding corals on top. Both my hammer and candycanes are doing well anyways (I don't have "high" light corals). The top of the rock ridge is about 6" from the bulbs.
I have two units with 2 bulbs each:
10,000K
6700K
Actinic
Colourmax (came with the unit-when it's time I'll replace with 10,000 or 6,700)

Here's the T-5's in the canopy



and the tank from a little while ago


________
growing marijuana

[albert_dao]

HO T5's are vastly superior to PC bulbs and can, if done properly, exceed MH's in PAR output.

Look at Iwan's tank on RC and any doubts you have should dissapate.

Here's some further reading:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...hreadid=878433

[Reefer Rob]

PCs do not compare at all to T5s with the right reflector. I run 324 watts of T5 over my 72 Gal bow, and all my sps is doing great. Big difference from the 260 watts of PCs I had before (didn't have SPS then). 2 or 3 times the light and way less heat.

Rob

[StirCrazy]

Ok you guys are getting confused.. take reflectors out of the question as that is not what were talking about... a proper reflector on a 150 watt DE MHwill make it seam like it puts out more light than a 400 wat SE MH.

compare aples to aples.. a PC is actualy a T4 which is nothing more than the tube size.. oh and by the way the smaller the tube size the more intence the light is for the same given wattage.

now a 96 watt PC is a 6 foot T4 folded in half so it is 3 foot long. Because of the fold there is a little light loss in the area where the tubes block each other but downwards there should be the same light out put.

I know where there are some T5's running.. maybeI will have to take my tester down there and get some hard numbers on this. the question is how do we compare them? do we do wattages or by lenght?

watages is a little un fair as it doesn't give and acurate measurment of coverage, so I am thinking by lenght.


Steve

[Reefer Rob]

The best testers are corals themselves All the theory and testing aside, the bottom line is they work well. Some of the nicest captive reefs in the world are being kept under T5 lighting. If you know of an SPS tank being kept under PC lighting I would like to see it, so far I have not been able to find one. Before I switched to T5s I did a lot of looking around, and could find very few people who acually used them who didn't like them.

Rob