*Reef Breeders Photon v2 and T5 installation, testing, and review*

[Ron Reefman]

Turns out he only has 1 Hydra 26, not 2. So I'm back to looking for a good, small, clean and modern looking led to light behind my Photon V2. Too bad BML has left the market. I guess I do some looking at some led strip fixtures.

 

[jason2459]

That sucks. Reefbrite XHOs look nice with black aluminum.

 

[jason2459]

My one branching sps that survived a big Alk spike last year is now coloring up after going very pale with my previous lights.

 

[jason2459]

Oh and if anyone can ID what kind that is by those horrible pictures I wouldn't mind knowing.

As well as this thing. It's green is coming back too. No idea what it is. The polyp extensions have always been white.

 

[jason2459]

Been almost 2 months now since moving to the Photon v2s and T5 strips down the middle and I couldn't be happier so far. I haven't modified my lighting schedule at all from what I last posted above.

It seems everything really likes it. Even the fish. 10pm is still my favorite look and feel. Very relaxing and seems to have put all my mated fish into a frisky mood too. My clown pair, anthia trio, and chromis pair all go into mating rituals.

My corals seem to ve really taking off. My one really pale green sps of some kind has gown and much greener now. My fiji leather is getting very yellow and also seems to have grown. And my one coral I have no idea what it is has been very slow to encrust until now and taking off.

 

[jason2459]

I just bumped up today most all channels from 11am to 9pm. 9am, 10am, 10pm, and 11pm were not changed.*


Reds up 1%

Green didn't touch

Cool blue, white, royal blue, and violet up 2%*

I'll keep it there for a couple months again to see any reactions.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Hi Jason, I fired up the Sun Blaster Nano t5 over the from of my tank today.

Pros:
With the t5 at the very front edge of my tank the shadows under rock ledges did get moved back... some.

It appears to be a very nicely made fixture with a really nice reflector/shade.

Cons:
The bulb is way to warm white for my taste... almost yellow. It came with a 6500K bulb, so I guess I'll be looking to get a 10,000K or 20,000K bulb and try it again.

My Photon V2 has a reasonable amount of shimmer and the single t5 just about completely wipes it out.

 

[jason2459]

That's awesome. I just love the coloration of T5 and really helps complement the LEDs. To me it's like T5's alone are to flat and LEDs alone are to sharp. They blend together very well. I also like that a T5 bulb has a wide spectral range but LEDs are better suited to tweaking for looks as they have a narrow light band. Again, another great complement of two different kinds of light sources.

Edit: and another complementing feature is how wide/spread the light from a T5 is and BRS did one video showing how that T5 light bouncing off the tank's glass actually helps even out the PAR from top to bottom which to me means will get more light "under" corals. But LEDS being more focused penetrate deeper.

Just all around a good combination I think.

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

Ron took the plunge!

 

[Ron Reefman]

That's awesome. I just love the coloration of T5 and really helps complement the LEDs. To me it's like T5's alone are to flat and LEDs alone are to sharp. They blend together very well. I also like that a T5 bulb has a wide spectral range but LEDs are better suited to tweaking for looks as they have a narrow light band. Again, another great complement of two different kinds of light sources.

Edit: and another complementing feature is how wide/spread the light from a T5 is and BRS did one video showing how that T5 light bouncing off the tank's glass actually helps even out the PAR from top to bottom which to me means will get more light "under" corals. But LEDS being more focused penetrate deeper.

Just all around a good combination I think.

I found the BRS video to be very deceptive.:hammer: They compared a point source led (Eco Tech Radion) to a multiple bulb t5. I think the led fixtures with the leds spread out in an array (like the Reef Breeder Photon) do a MUCH better job of spreading/bouncing light around than point source leds like the Radion or even worse, the pendants like the Kessil. No, it's not as good as a multi bulb t5, but it's way better than a point source. But point source leds have the advantage of much less, if any, disco effect compared to led arrays. Pick your poison!

My new t5 did a much better job of reducing the shadows in my tank with a pendant led fixture than it did in the tank with the Photon V2.

Ron took the plunge!

Yes I have... but I'm just getting started.:beer: I'll post pics in my build thread soon.

Maybe the t5 on the front will stay, but it absolutely needs a 10,000K or 20,000K bulb! The 6500K is way too warm... almost yellow! The add on of the t5 to the V2 fixture doesn't look too bad, but I still don't have a nice clean way to attach the t5 to the V2. Remember, it's not in a canopy so it has to look good. Logan at Reef Breeders told me that in mid May he should have led strips (only blue for now) that are designed to clip onto the V2. I intend to add 2 of them to the back side of the V2. So I end up with whiter t5 in front, mixed V2 in the middle and blue led strips in the back. My goal is to try and make the tank appear deeper (front to back) that it really is. Trying to replicate the look you get when you look off into the distance while underwater out in the ocean. The further away things are, the bluer they look.

 

[Ssteve]

Does the t5 fixture you have take a regular 48"/54w bulb? Why not just pick up something proven like a ati coral+ bulb for it?

 

[Ron Reefman]

Does the t5 fixture you have take a regular 48"/54w bulb? Why not just pick up something proven like a ati coral+ bulb for it?

That's what I tried to do today, but my favorite LFS didn't have any. So I'll be shopping at Petco on Sunday! SunBlaster does sell 10,000K and 20,000K bulbs, but I thing the ATI Coral + will do the job.

Now I can't wait for Reef Breeders to get the 2' long all blue led strips into stock so I hang them off the back of the V2!

 

[jason2459]

I bet you'd like the coral+ and blue+ combo. If you want a lot more blue then two blue+

 

[Ron Reefman]

I'll probably try both, but I'm only adding a 1 bulb t5 fixture. Now all I need is an LFS with inventory!

 

[Ssteve]

BRS ships free regardless of the price, just order one up.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Well, I went to Petco and got a Coralife 10,000K t5 and put it in my Nano fixture and to my eye's it's still way to warm of a white. Not as bad as the 6500K, but if I can't get it better I probably won't use it at all. I see if I can find an ATI Coral Plus or a Blue Plus. My last hope is Sun Blaster has a 20,000K bulb.

 

[Ssteve]

Why are you pupping in so much work tracking a bulb down? Just order up a coral+ from brs for $20

 

[jason2459]

If looking for blue blue then the blue plus is the better choice. I like the colors of the coral plus and is a combination of several of their bulbs shifting the look away from blue.

 

[Ron Reefman]

I got a Giesemann Aquablue+ and a Bio Tek Marine 20,000K & UV led/t5 retro fit bulb. IMHO the Aquablue+ is better to my eye than the Coralife 10,000K. But I'm still not happy with the look (more about the 'look' below). The Bio Tek blue is more blue and might work better at the back of the tank than at the front.

I set the Nano fixture at the very front edge of the tank and tipped it back about 30 degrees so there was almost no light spill out the front of the tank. Frankly, I expected to see shadows look less dark and be moved further under the overhangs. It wasn't even close to what I had hoped for.

At this point I have a fixture, 3 t5 bulbs and an led/t5 retro fit bulb that have cost me over $200 and I'm way less than impressed. I'm beginning to think I would be better off buying a 2nd Photon V2 and have full color control and intensity control. And I don't consider myself to be all that picky about the color in the tank.

I'm going to try the Bio Tek bulb at the back of the tank were I wanted a more blue look anyway and see how that looks. I'll also do PAR reading for the t5 bulbs and the Bio Tek bulb.

But so far my overall opinion of adding a t5 to an good led fixture is, it's not worth the investment. It reduces the shimmer a lot and in my case it's just 1 bulb. The front of the tank looks flat or low contrast compared to the look with just leds which is more contrast and sparkle. The shadows were reduced some, but way less than I was hoping for and certainly not worth the expense IMHO. After reading so many others who have gone led/t5 hybrid, I was looking for a lot more than I got. And the losses of shimmer and the flat look of the colors leave me wanting better. I'm probably more an led only guy now than I was before.

 

[jason2459]

I'm surprised you bought a 10k bulb when wanting a blue look. But everything is in the eye of the beholder. I don't think a single t5 bulb would be strong enough to penitrate the shadows like you would've liked. Another Photon v2 or add in the aquasanrise would be good too and give more coverage. Then again in the end you may end up finding yourself a single fixture led kind of guy. lol


I'm certainly in love with the T5 and LED hybrid. But I do like the T5s straight overhead compared to on the outsides. Hard to do that with a standard fixture setup.