Ballast ?? for T-5's

K

kjord97

Premium Member
I got a question for you about T-5 Lighting ?

I am building up a 150 gal reef in my dining room. I will be building a custom canopy for it, and with the interest of T-5's being in mind, I am looking for a ballast that would run the T-5's.


My question ???

I want to run 8 54 watt T-5's on the system. I have read that 4 54watt T-5s is the same as having one 400 watt Metal Halide. Do you have a ballast that would run the 8 bulbs, or would i need to run to circuits, each with 4 bulbs apiece and have 2 ballast?

Do you sell the entire retrofit kits to install 8 T-5 54watt bulbs.

I came accross the following information, and I was wondering how correct it is?
T5 HO Fluorescent
*4-54W Bulbs Watts 216 Lumens 20,000 Lumens per Watt 92.6 Life Hours 20,000 Kilowatt Hours per year** 946 Bulb Replacement Cos$9-15 per bulb
Metal Halide Watts 400 Lumens 32,000 Lumens per Watt 80 Life Hours 20,000 Kilowatt Hours per year** 1,980 Bulb Replacement Cost$30-$40

* 4- 54W T5HO bulbs are equivalent to to one 400W HPS or MH bulb.

**Assumes bulbs are run 12 hours per day, 365 days per year.


hope someone can help me with the answers. thank you
 
I think you can do two icecaps but not sure, I think they run at 85 watts each on the icecaps. I am running 3x80 watt t5 bulbs on my icecap, I think they run at 100 watts each
 
ask Grim or Hahn (members of the board) on the recommended combo of lights or if you would be better off w/ the 6 or 8 bulb configuration. What do you want to keep?
 
stay away from the icecaps. They burn out your bulbs faster, and in all reality, dont give you all that much more light, because the bulbs run so hot.

T5s really need to be actively cooled.


FWIW, 32000 lumens does not equal 20000 lumens. Saying a 4x54w is equivalent to a 400w MH is ludicrous. A 4 bulb tek couldnt keep up with a 175 iwasaki 14k.
 
My current setup is a 48 gal bowfront with 2 *65watt power compact 10k bulbs, 1 *23 watt 10k T-5 1 *23 watt actinic T5 and 3 * 1 watt blue moon LEDS from Andy at ICECAP. I currently have 14 different kinds of ZOAS, 4 different kinds of Mushrooms, 3 finger leathers, 1 green kenya tree, 2 bubbletip anenomes, 2 types of candy canes, 1 green plate, 2 different colors of frogspawn, Green Montipora Encrusting Coral( is bright green with pink tips where it is growing), Leaf Plate Montipora Coral ( some green and some blue ) , Purple Polyped Plating Montipora ( green with bright purple polpys ). Also a couple of acropora frags. My 2 other reef tanks are 125 reef and a 29 gal reef which are keep at my in-laws house. I just purchased a 150 gal that i am going to put in my dineing room, the 150 is what i am looking to have the lights on. I will be kepping sps lps and softies.
 
Rich-

I'll agree on the heat from the IceCaps; I run a 660 on my four "Daylight" bulbs; but it's nothing that can't be handled by a simple clip-on or computer case fan.... Problem solved for under $20.

As far as light output/burning out your bulbs faster; I'd say your information is highly wrong. I think anyone here can/could cite a group of independent tests to source otherwise. Add the increased output to EOL protection, a great warranty, and added flexibility of bulb firing options, and I can't see why you wouldn't run a 660 or 430....

So, since you disagree; I'll level a line at you we used a million times doing research in school... Cite your source; Rich.... Don't just throw a blanket statement out there, give the guy some numbers...

-Andy/Oldimpala
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8904406#post8904406 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by oldimpala
Rich-

I'll agree on the heat from the IceCaps; I run a 660 on my four "Daylight" bulbs; but it's nothing that can't be handled by a simple clip-on or computer case fan.... Problem solved for under $20.

As far as light output/burning out your bulbs faster; I'd say your information is highly wrong. I think anyone here can/could cite a group of independent tests to source otherwise. Add the increased output to EOL protection, a great warranty, and added flexibility of bulb firing options, and I can't see why you wouldn't run a 660 or 430....

So, since you disagree; I'll level a line at you we used a million times doing research in school... Cite your source; Rich.... Don't just throw a blanket statement out there, give the guy some numbers...

-Andy/Oldimpala
Click to expand...

Andy, have you been measuring the PAR on your Icecap driven T5s? Go into that big T5 Q&A thread, and check Grim's par numbers as bulbs heat up. It drops substantially. Standard computer fans can't do the job on regularly driven T5s, let alone the icecap driven ones.

FWIW, The sylvania ballasts have all the same options as the icecaps, except they dont overdrive the bulbs, and dont burn them out faster.
 
From what I was reading, T-5 bulbs are made to run at hotter temps, and actually have a better performance and 92.5 degrees.

Rich quoted FWIW, 32000 lumens does not equal 20000 lumens. Saying a 4x54w is equivalent to a 400w MH is ludicrous. A 4 bulb tek couldnt keep up with a 175 iwasaki 14k

If you do your research on Lumens and how they work, you will see that 4 *54watt T-5's have a higher light output than a 400watt metal halide. In the chart above i showed how a T5 has a lumens per watt of 92.5 and a metal halide has only 80 lumens per watt. That would make the t-5 have a higher light output.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8904453#post8904453 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley
Standard computer fans can't do the job on regularly driven T5s, let alone the icecap driven ones.

FWIW, The sylvania ballasts have all the same options as the icecaps, except they dont overdrive the bulbs, and dont burn them out faster.
Click to expand...

so where are the sources?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8904568#post8904568 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kjord97
From what I was reading, T-5 bulbs are made to run at hotter temps, and actually have a better performance and 92.5 degrees.

Rich quoted FWIW, 32000 lumens does not equal 20000 lumens. Saying a 4x54w is equivalent to a 400w MH is ludicrous. A 4 bulb tek couldnt keep up with a 175 iwasaki 14k

If you do your research on Lumens and how they work, you will see that 4 *54watt T-5's have a higher light output than a 400watt metal halide. In the chart above i showed how a T5 has a lumens per watt of 92.5 and a metal halide has only 80 lumens per watt. That would make the t-5 have a higher light output.
Click to expand...

No, that would make the T5s more efficient, not higher output. Lumens per watt is not total output, its efficiency, the total lumens is the total output. Dont accuse me of not doing my research when you dont understand that simple concept.


Seriously, point to your sources that say a 4 bulb T5 fixture has more par than a 400w MH, and I'll show you the big thread from Kentrob( I think it was him) complete with par measurements of a 175w Iwasaki smashing a 4 bulb tek.


92.5' is not hot as far as bulbs go. If you're running icecaps, and no fans, you're most likely up over 120'. 92.5 IS cool.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8904954#post8904954 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kjord97
this link has the chart i am looking at the bottom of the page.

http://www.specialty-lights.com/plant-grow-faq3.html
Click to expand...

Thats an advertisement.



Stop being so lazy and do a search if you want sources. (I can't, I wont pay). Grim posted readings of a whole bunch of T5 fixtures, and what they run at as far as temperature, and how temperature affects bulb life, and bulb output.


Tek fixtures running Icecaps ran REALLY REALLY hot.
 
Rich, I sometimes agree with you and sometimes don't. But why would you refuse to drop $20 to support a place you spend so much time at?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8905703#post8905703 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by badpacket
Rich, I sometimes agree with you and sometimes don't. But why would you refuse to drop $20 to support a place you spend so much time at?
Click to expand...

Its not the $20, its part of the principle. Essentially, you're paying $20 for the search function. I believe that the search function is of most use to people who dont know reefing, and its a bad idea, IMO, to make them pay for something if they dont even know if it'll be useful.

Also, the way the agreement is written, it just gives you higher priority to the search function, and does not guarantee access. Theres nothing to keep them from adding another tier of members if the servers get even more overloaded.

Honestly, if they made the search function free, I'd probably pay for a membership.
 
But, as a software engineer you should be able too look at the mechanics of this site, the #users, the server h/w, and bandwidth requirements, etc, and know that this has too cost some $$. I really doubt they are running it on several old P3/P4 servers running FreeBSD. What is the feature that causes the most load on the system, someone reading front page articles, manually stepping through the forums, or doing an SQL query of the entire n million posts?

The main feature of RC is not just the community, but also the stored wealth available. If searching were free, and I remember IIRC several years ago when it was, then there is very little reason for anyone too join, outside of good nature or bragging rights. I'm sure there is a fair amount of $$ coming in from sponsors, however without at least some restraint placed upon growth, free would mean constant increased outlays in hardware, etc.

RC still gives people access to information if they want too search for it manually.
Just my $0.03 worth.
 
I'm not sure about all the ballast controversy and MH vs T5.

You should be able to keep LPS and softies with 8 bulb set up on your tank and probably with a 6 bulb. Aquactinics and reefgeek have fixtures with fans. As referred to above, T5's do best when around 90-92 degrees and need a fan to keep them at or about that temp. I have looked and followed Grim's postings and YES, the light meter does indicate a decrease in T5 light output at higher temps. Both vendors listed above have units or retros with fan's avaliable. Talk to them, they know their products as well or better than most of us do.

T5's are less expensive to operate and maintain than a good quality Mh set up. With proper bulb and reflector selection you can grow anything you want with them.
 
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