northbay-reefer
New member
Jeremy make it so number one
... seriously though, I think you are right and that is why Kessil haven't reply to my email yet ... lol...
Led bulb replacement for T5 fixture
- Thread starter GiantBen
- Start date
Jeremy make it so number one
... seriously though, I think you are right and that is why Kessil haven't reply to my email yet ... lol...
coralfarmer
Aquarist
Ben, I think a lot of the people in the club are very focused on SPS corals. From my experience I have found that with metal halides I have been able to produce better color and growth of my SPS actually all of my corals. In my opinion High Output t5's just don't give you the same intensity as the metal halide lights. I've seen and had many beautiful reef tanks just with fluorescent T5's, T12's or even T8's. I tend to use the fluorescent bulbs for supplemental lighting like actinic or just for blending. I do use them in my kitchen and bathroom. I am sure the there are thousands of reef keepers out there that have exclusively fluorescent bulbs above their tanks and get better growth and color out of their SPS corals than I do with my metal halides. So just take what I say with a grain of salt. I just was pointing out that this is probably the reason you feel that the club members don't like T5's a lot of us have had great success with the use of metal halides. Oh yeah the biggest reason to go halides is the shimmer, No shimmer with fluorescents!! That alone should make you a convert.(Did any of this make sense??)
Grant W
New member
That has been one of my main concerns re my new frag tank. Will an all t5 setup give adequate performance compared to my big tub in the living room? I have always used t5s as supplemental lighting and not for the look but for the light temp and how it effects coral coloration,the 420- 460 nm range combined with the big punch of halides.
We've been hearing for years that LED's are going to be perfected and replace halide lighting. You would think if a company like kessil thinks their lights are the answer they would be more aggressive in getting their product to market. Besides the R&D costs it can't cost that much to do some wide spread betta(reduced price) testing.
or maybe the demand is so high for this product they don't need to. Yah Right!
or maybe the demand is so high for this product they don't need to. Yah Right!
coralfarmer
Aquarist
Bob I don't know about any of that. But what i do know is that they have been working with a lot of the LFS in the bay area letting them test the lights and getting feed back from them. They where one of the sponsors of BAYMAC a couple of weeks ago. And they have been very helpful with any questions that i have had.
James, yes this all makes sense. I hope your toilet and kitchen sink don't brown out on you. Shimmer is the one thing that I was thinking T5 could not replace from halide (although LED can replace it).
I'll be interested to see how it works out. It's a tough comparison to try and make. Your halide reflectors are top of the line if I remember correctly. The Tek light is a very good T5 rig and should have pretty nice reflectors. I was telling Steve I had an ATI fixture, and he said he feels the Sunlight Supply fixtures are right there with them. It is also tough because the 4-bulb fixture is only drawing 96W. A more fair comparison with a 150W halide might be a 6 bulb fixture.
Enough rambling from me.
northbay-reefer
New member
I am talking to Kessil, so stay tuned 
FreshReefer
New member
Good luck with this. I looked at the Kessil unit on the biocube at Ceasars. It looked incredible. The shimmer was great. That being said, I agree with Thysrof, there needs to be more documented, side by side comparisons of metal halide and LED.
Especially since their technology is different than what most other DIY setups are using. LED's are complicated and quality in construction is very important. All LED's even from the same bin are not created equal.
I would be willing to see if one of our lighting engineers would help us review these if Kessil is willing to work with the club.
Our company application uses led's as lighting for a camera. We use cree and nichia in production but have tested many others.
Especially since their technology is different than what most other DIY setups are using. LED's are complicated and quality in construction is very important. All LED's even from the same bin are not created equal.
I would be willing to see if one of our lighting engineers would help us review these if Kessil is willing to work with the club.
Our company application uses led's as lighting for a camera. We use cree and nichia in production but have tested many others.
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