Lets talk about T2 light

[Webmanny]

Hey guys,

I was texting with Roger today and he asked me about my DIY LED light and how he could tell from the colors of my corals that I was using LEDs. When someone of the caliber and experience Roger has asks you about your light, you listen.

At some point he mentioned that corals look lighter under LEDs than they do under Halides or T2s... That last part caught my attention. I know I will never go with Halides, but I don't mind looking into T2 lights, but what are T2 lights? I've heard of T8s, T5s and even T12 lights, but never before had I heard T2 lights.

I did some research and found a company called American Aquarium Products and found on their website the fixtures below. I also found a video on Youtube of an unboxing and testing of this light and I have to say... It looks promising.

My goal here is to see if anyone in this forum is currently using them and what their thoughts are on them. Maybe you can share your experience with these lights and how good coral growth is with them.

I'm thinking of just biting the bullet and ordering a blue and a white one for my personal testing, but I am not sure if that would be enough light for my nano tank.

Link to light

Youtube link

 

[oblio]

Interesting light, I have been thinking of adding some kind of supplemental light to remove some of the shadows my Kessils create. Your post is interesting but I would ask, why not just go with a t5 for the bulb options available to that platform.
Personally Ive been looking at the Sunblasters and there line, seems this is a pretty cheep way to add some light, and again using the t5 platform would give you many many options for bulbs. They make 18" (discontinued but still available) 24" 36" and 48" units.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dlawngarden&field-keywords=sunblaster%20t5&sprefix=sunblaster+%2Clawngarden

the t2 looks interesting for sure, thought I would share as Ive been dancing around this idea for about 2 months.

 

[rogergolf66]

Thx the the complement or respect how ever its viewed. The t2 must have been a typo on my phone during text. It should have said t5 that being said. way to do your research. U will do well in reef keeping if u just aways keep reading as much as u can and learn from many sources. It is true leds make many corals morph there colors slightly from traditional metal halides and t5 lighting. Some times the corals look better other times not so much.

 

[Webmanny]

Thx the the complement or respect how ever its viewed. The t2 must have been a typo on my phone during text. It should have said t5 that being said. way to do your research. U will do well in reef keeping if u just aways keep reading as much as u can and learn from many sources. It is true leds make many corals morph there colors slightly from traditional metal halides and t5 lighting. Some times the corals look better other times not so much.

Now this is funny. I am amazed that I was able to even find this out of a typo. LOL

Having said that. I kind of like how they look and their footprint being so small. I will however also look into something small in the area of T5 lights to see if I can find something to compliment my DIY LED.

I have to say... I love my LEDs and the sunrise and sunset effects. I also love that I can play with their intensity, but I do recognize that in some cases the addition of some T5 or T2 if I'm able to get one cheap , may produce better results.

Thanks again Roger and hope to keep learning from all of you here and one day upgrade my system to something bigger and better.

 

[Webmanny]

Interesting light, I have been thinking of adding some kind of supplemental light to remove some of the shadows my Kessils create. Your post is interesting but I would ask, why not just go with a t5 for the bulb options available to that platform.
Personally Ive been looking at the Sunblasters and there line, seems this is a pretty cheep way to add some light, and again using the t5 platform would give you many many options for bulbs. They make 18" (discontinued but still available) 24" 36" and 48" units.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dlawngarden&field-keywords=sunblaster%20t5&sprefix=sunblaster+%2Clawngarden

the t2 looks interesting for sure, thought I would share as Ive been dancing around this idea for about 2 months.

I appreciate the feedback. as it turns out I found this by total coincidence as Roger was actually recommending T5, but it came across as T2, which I did not know existed.

The only reason I like that T2, even though I agree that it has many limitations, is the small footprint it has. The tube is less that a third of the diameter of T5 tubes, but it does only come in blue and white. It would be better if they had all the options the T5 and T8 has.

We'll see. I may jump the gun and get a blue one just to see what it brings to the table and how the tank looks.

 

[rogergolf66]

do they have any spectrum graphs on the t2?

 

[Webmanny]

I found some information on it here.
http://www.americanaquariumproducts.com/Aquarium_Lighting.html#energy

You can barely make the graph, but here you go.