ATI T5 Lighting Fixture

In talking to ReefGeek today...ATI has dropped the ball on the U.S. version of the "Sun Power". So anyone that was looking forward to those fixtures hitting our shores...don't bother!
 
hahnmeister, I think you must have misunderstood my comment about T5's as it is off topic and I can understand how you would have. I currently am over-driving T5's (ICECap 660 ballast) and I very much agree T5's are on par with MH's (pun intended). My comment was the MH/T5 combination fixtures, because they contain a MH, the bulb has to be any where from 8" to 12" depending on the reefers preference and other variables, so now in a MH/T5 combo the T5's are 8" to 12" away from the water surface, greatly dimensioning the effectiveness of the T5's (my T5's are 2" away from my water), therefore I feel that the T5's don't help the animals much but give a "pop" to the corals colors. Does that make sense?
 
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if you open up a Sylvania, VS and Osram ballast you will see that all three are made by the same company, Sylvania. All have the same part number on the PCB
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10059510#post10059510 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
dtaylor123, T5s compete with halides for output, and considering how small the reflectors are on the Sfiligoi, and how many and how large the reflector area is for the T5s, the T5s will no doubt be a major light source for the Stealth units. They will be very effective for photosynthesis as well as viewing.

You are right about the company going bankrupt though. Its been my biggest concern since they started importing through reefgeek. 'How long until they go under again?' I wonder, and screw everyone they deal with in the process like before. But this time around, Oliver is not in charge like before. This time Elke Müller is in charge of the company, so my guess would be that Elke is a better businessman. No doubt though, last time ATI went under, alot of people were left out in the cold. Its a large part of why Klaus and Claude (and some others) avoid dealing with ATI like a black sheep.

That being said, its not like the powermodul should be that effected by this too much. The ballasts are Vossloh-Schwabe, a U.S. division of Panasonic's lighting division Aromat, so its not like replacement ballasts should be hard to find. There are the fans then, but they are pretty much just regular DC computer fans with blue LEDs... whoopie. The real advantage of the ATI's seems to be the reflectors and the reflector material, along with the overall design and airflow. These things arent just going to 'break'. So even if ATI were to go kaput again, you still have a very decent unit... and its not like the warranty would cover you anyways after a few years or something if something were to kaput.

As for the reflectors on the Sfiligoi... who knows. Not doubting them, but so far, the ATI seems to be the highest output champion, except for maybe the overdriven Aquatinics. And I havent seen any data on the Sfiligoi geometry.
Click to expand...

I wonder if thats how aqualux got the ati reflectors and were able to sell thm so cheap.

that said, my ati reflectors clean up perfectly form even heavy salt spray evenafter 2.5 years of use.

no worrying about the reflector not holding up, unless they swithced vendors/ materials...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10059915#post10059915 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dtaylor123
hahnmeister, I think you must have misunderstood my comment about T5's as it is off topic and I can understand how you would have. I currently am over-driving T5's (ICECap 660 ballast) and I very much agree T5's are on par with MH's (pun intended). My comment was the MH/T5 combination fixtures, because they contain a MH, the bulb has to be any where from 8" to 12" depending on the reefers preference and other variables, so now in a MH/T5 combo the T5's are 8" to 12" away from the water surface, greatly dimensioning the effectiveness of the T5's (my T5's are 2" away from my water), therefore I feel that the T5's don't help the animals much but give a "pop" to the corals colors. Does that make sense?
Click to expand...

Well, yeah, I understand what you are saying, but my response to that is that if anything, the halides will drop off in intensity faster than the T5s. See, the halides, esp ones with small reflectors like that, will drop off in intensity much faster than the T5s. They are more concentrated up top, so in our minds we think that they must continue to be further away as well, but this isnt true. Watt for watt, T5s will penetrate deeper than halides will. Halides just make up for this with intensity usually, but given 250watts of halide vs. T5, the T5 will carry further.

As per Sanjay "If you have a point source of light, (a source is approximated by a point source if the distance of measurement is greater than 5 times the size of the source), then you can assume light follows the inverse square law.

According to the inverse square law, the intensity of a point source of light decreases inversely as the square of the distance from it. So if you were to double the distance the light intensity would drop to 1/4 of what it was.

A MH has the light source size of about 1.5-2", whereas a 4ft FL lamp has about 4ft of light source. So to really measure a 4ft FL as a point source you would have to be about 20ft from it."

Simply put, the halides will become point sources much closer than the T5s... esp with small reflectors. Up until this point, light drop-off is minimal, and if anything, linear. After this point, where the inverse square law applies, the light drop off is much more dramatic. The T5s are a larger surface, so they will carry further.

So yeah, I get what you are saying... that some of the light from the T5s is lost due to being at a distance that they dont have to be... but if anything, its hurting the halides more.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10060151#post10060151 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
if you open up a Sylvania, VS and Osram ballast you will see that all three are made by the same company, Sylvania. All have the same part number on the PCB
Click to expand...

Im just saying they are all easily available should a replacement ballast for a powermodul be needed ever. What else could possibly go wrong with these fixtures? Its all materials really, other than the ballasts and fans... and those are the two easiest things to replace. The only other thing I could see is that over time, the SIlver coated reflectors might get corroded or something... but by the time that happens, you will most likely be far beyond warranty, and so ATI's status means little other than being able to buy a whole new unit, since the reflectors are part of the housing.
 
I dont see anything going wrong with any of the lighting fixtures I couldn't fix. Endcaps might be a problem on the Sun Power but I am sure they can be had.
 
hey grim, was wondering if ya would be able to update us? as to what the comparisions are between the major t-5 untis right now? what is best bang for buck etc? what is best overall, honorable mentions... etc etc and what is your opinion on the hellolights t-5 fixtures? fixture vs retros. as well as your opinon on the tek lights setups.

thank you,

your help is very much appreciated.
 
Right now best bang for the buck is the ATI Sun Power. It has better output through the splash shield than the Ultra Solaris with no shield and it's about 100 bucks less for a 6x39 watt unit. Both have way better output than the Tek.

The Helolight fixture looks like its just a rebadged Tek.

Aquactinics standard T5 unit is also better than the Tek but falls short of the ATI or Ultra Solaris.

Aquactinics Constellation series SHOULD be equal to or a little better than the Sun Power. They have better active cooling and better ballasts than their standard T5 units and the reflectors are the best I've tested.

The Aquactinics Solar Flare and the ATI Power Module are the 2 best fixtures output wise. I am hoping someone will get numbers off the 6x54 watt Power Module now that some are in the market now. The numbers off the 4x39 watt unit I tested seemed too good to be true but based on what I got off the Power Module and Ultra Solaris I think the PM is that good.

Retro fit wise the Ice Cap is still king. SLS screwed up on the Tek II. The reflectors are over 3" wide and still don't equal Ice Cap's. They would probably be great for supplimenting halides, the reflector should have a wider dispersion of light. Helios has a pretty nice reflector out too. they are better than the Teks but not as good as the Ice Cap.

Sfigoli has a interesting looking fixture. Hopefully someone will be able to get numbers from one of those too.
 
Reefgeek has ATI fixtures, sort of. Back log for the 110v versions. Aquarium obsessed has the Fauna Marin and I think both sell Sfigoli. Aquarium Specialties and Premium Aquatics have the Aquactinics stuff
 
Somewhat off topic, but, are TEK reflectors and SLR reflectors the same length? I have a TEK fixture and a Solar Flare, and, looking at them without taking things apart, the Tek's reflectors seem to be slightly longer. I was wondering if the SLRs in the solar flare are just made shorter just for the sake of fitting them in the solar flare, or, if the IC retrofit kit's SLRs are shorter as well.

Thanks,

Kirk
 
Kirk,

The SLRs used in the Solar Flare are the exact same reflectors that are used in the IC T5 retrofit kits.

Thank you,

Tom
Aquactinics
 
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