Arcadia T-5 LED replacement..Excellent!!!

[brutuscz]

I recently purchased a new Arcadia T-5 LED replacement bulb...the blue actinic. It is excellent!! I added it to my 6 bulb T-5 aquaticlife unit over my 90gal tank. I only added one of these, and I now have glitter lines. Not a lot of glitter lines, but some. The LED blue actinic really makes colors pop!! I am tempted to add another, but I am very happy with this one for now. I switched from LED's to T-5's because I was not a fan of all the hot spots and less than stellar growth. But, with this bulb, I feel I have the best of both worlds.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Where did you end up picking it up? I remember seeing them at MACNA and was initially intrigued with them, said Hydor was bringing them to the US (some decent looking tanks too) but I could find nothing on any of it on their website.

 

[brutuscz]

Found it on Amazon. There is another brand doing something similar, but the price was higher. So, I went with this. The other brand attempts to diffuse the light, so it looks more like a T-5 than an LED. This brand does not do that...straight LED.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Yeah, Euroquatics or something sells the "E5" bulb, the downside is that it is necessary to use a reflector for it, the upside is by using a reflector you get a wide spread of light that's more event (but no glitter lines).

Both of them kind of caught my eye, I do wonder the actual light output of them and how it compares to a T5HO bulb. I remember the one I saw at MACNA they had facing the aisle so it basically blinded me just looking at it, and I really didn't want to look at it long.

Edit: Not Hydor... Kordon is bringing to the US.

 

[brutuscz]

I have not seen the par values for this bulb yet?? I am also curious.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Well according to the Kordon website it says twice the LUX, twice the PAR, but who knows what they're comparing to, are they comparing to a bare bulb vs LED bulb? or are they comparing to a quality t5 reflector which can nearly triple the output (IIRC).