mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Im very interested to hear how the frag tank responds to the change in lighting:thumbsup:
Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
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Im very interested to hear how the frag tank responds to the change in lighting:thumbsup:
MrineLfRlz
Active member
The tank is doing fantastic, but it was a long work week for me so I haven't been participating as much.
A bunch is going on though:
1) I finally got my hands on two Euroquatics "E5" Led tubes, the "Blue Pop" variety. Im giving these a trial run. They put off a very nice royal blue thats a shade deeper than the Blue plus.
You can see the tube, third from the left:
Well since ive for sure decided to go with the 8 bulb t5 fixture instead of the 6 i might just try these out after you give your experience with them please keep us informed, also were did you find them?
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
I've seen how T5 gives great color and uses less energy than MH's, but the bulb life and cost to replace was not a large enough incentive to get away from my Radion's. Hopefully, these E5 LED bulbs work well and give the best of both worlds. At that point I can justify moving from my Radions to a T5 set up.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks guys, I'm keeping an eye out for wild colonies these days, stuff that will give the tank aome real pop.
So far so good with the LED tubes, they are $59 for the three footer, which is a little more than twice the cost of a regular bulb. Marine Depot Carries these.
They have Blue Pop, Cool daylight, Warm daylight and Daylight right now. I'm more interested in the future colors they are working on when it comes to the other colors than blue - Blue Daylight and Marine Pink. I'd like to be able to switch over the Flubber tank to all E5 and perhaps some of the SPS tank as well.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
In the long run I only care about how the corals do, so if I end up recommending these bulbs they will have to really perform. I like the Blue Pop so far, but they are only 2 of 14 bulbs at the moment.
If you were able to replace all the T5s with E5s you would use 40% less electricity with the same coverage. That's about what I expect when comparing truly equivalent LED and traditional systems. I think people obsess about the electricity savings too much at any rate. You will get at least 3 years use(warranty period) and as many as 8 years use with the tubes, so that is a much more significant savings when you see how many bulb replacements you avoid.
maxxII
Super Housemonkey!
I didnt phrase that very well....you're correct. The main cost savings for me would be in bulb replacement costs. With all my systems up and running I was spending $250 every year on replacing MH bulbs. Consolidating and transitioning to Radions has saved me considerable money and the Radions paid for themselves in 3 years....mostly due to bulb replacement costs.
Again, your system looks great and I look forward to seeing your long term results with these bulbs.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks for the compliment and Ill let you know what I see. Im interested in trying out the other flavors of tubes(for scientific purposes, of course
)I think I was less than clear with what I was saying in my earlier post. Basically the corals and their health and color are #1 priority for me, so I won't take a solution that works "almost as well" as the T5s. Then again I'm certifiable when it comes to SPS corals. What many people would feel are "good" results under LED systems are just not good enough for me. To me, worrying about 300 bucks worth of bulbs a year is not worthwhile when I spent more than that in coral in the last week. Not everyone is in that position though.
If you were able to pay for the Radions with the savings in bulb replacement costs and you were able to keep the same Radions over your tank for three years, that's awesome - a lot of people can't resist the upgrade bug and it totally kills the "savings" aspect of the LED option.
To me, these tubes have the potential to be the true game changer - basically for the price of two T5 bulbs you can get a bulb that won't need to be replaced for up to 8 years, and is fully warrantied for 3 years. I can swap out one bulb at a time rather than having to buy a super expensive fixture, and I know the coverage will be there. Now I just need to see if they work.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks Josh! That piece is an Indo Maricultured mini-colony, so I don't have a name for it. There were several pieces of the same type that AquaSD had, so Im guessing its a regular "Product" from the mariculture farms.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Thanks, there were a lot to choose from today
I'm loving the mini colonies that they have been getting lately.
afernandez
Never Quit!!
I like the theme ! Hahaha
Nice pick ups!
How can we possibly say no to dragons !
You guys in California are lucky!
Nice pick ups!
How can we possibly say no to dragons !
You guys in California are lucky!
they look awesome!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
They look like Royal blue to me, deeper bluer, more purple than a blue plus by far. The spec sheets say they use a combo of 450 and 460nm diodes:
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