SPS Tanks Owners : For how many months you keep your T5 bulbs ?

[biggles]

My T5's are all about 20 months old.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

First.... Thank you very much for all the answers.

Second....about the quoted paragraph I think I didn't explain well how my hood is. The Red Sea Max 250 is an AIO tank with a fully enclosed hood. The T5 are in that enclosed hood and have an acrylic cover under them. So the T5 are in like "a sealed box". I copied the below paragraph from a review about the RSM 250.

T5 .....Cooling is via two fans on the left of the hood that draw in air and there's a further two exhaust fans on the right. Given that the vents are larger than the fan ports this arrangement looks to work quite efficiently as neither set of fans are being forced to work against each other.......

If I place the t5 side with the label at the left, where the air goes IN...will that be active cooling ?.

Thanks !!
Daniel

Hi Daniel,

If I understood you right, the purpose of the fans is to keep the ballasts cool, which is essentially how ATI works. However, the main difference is that T5 tubes in Red Sea do not have any contact with any air. The tubes are essentially in a sealed unit. If that is the case, then this arrangement is not active cooling as it is difficult to regulate internal temperature of the sealed section. If the ambient temperature over the cooling point is over 35C over a prolonged period of time, then the longevity of the tubes will be shortened significantly. They are likely to look brighter compared to a cooled T5, but they will lose their brightness more quickly than a cooled tube.

Moreover, independently of the above, the red sea hood has another shortcoming. That is that the set of T5 tubes are supported by a single large reflector. Compared to individual, polished and parabolic reflectors utilised by ATI, this arrangement may not be the most efficient way emitting photons.

Thanks

Bulent

 

[samchag]

change em out every 8 months on the dot

 

[nemodan]

Hi Daniel,

If I understood you right, the purpose of the fans is to keep the ballasts cool, which is essentially how ATI works. However, the main difference is that T5 tubes in Red Sea do not have any contact with any air. The tubes are essentially in a sealed unit. If that is the case, then this arrangement is not active cooling as it is difficult to regulate internal temperature of the sealed section. If the ambient temperature over the cooling point is over 35C over a prolonged period of time, then the longevity of the tubes will be shortened significantly. They are likely to look brighter compared to a cooled T5, but they will lose their brightness more quickly than a cooled tube.

Moreover, independently of the above, the red sea hood has another shortcoming. That is that the set of T5 tubes are supported by a single large reflector. Compared to individual, polished and parabolic reflectors utilised by ATI, this arrangement may not be the most efficient way emitting photons.

Thanks

Bulent

Thank you sooo much for yor explanation !!!

I think I am in the middle of the ATI system. The air that is moved from left to right is inside the "T5 BOX" . So the T5 are being cooled from left to right. But they do not have independent reflectors.

Ok.. I belive that from all the postings here, I cam move from 6 months to eight months without any big issues to my SPS. Then I can change 2 tubes per week. That puts another 3 weeks to the last pair. 8 months later I can repeat the same scheme and in the same order.

THANK YOU ALL !!!!

Daniel

 

[Denadai]

I think you should change the bulbs when you see that your corals are not growing or losing color

Best regards

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Oh dear that does not sound good, I'll see if I can find them

I can help you with that. Please have a look at the following posts before making up your mind:

The posts No:5200-5234 in this thread.

The posts No: 224-229 in this thread.

The posts No: 538-545 in lunar's tank thread.

Note that as Krzysztof said in his tank thread, it is quite possible that PacSun changed the specification of their tubes and that they possibly last a lot longer now. There is only one way to find out isn't there? Let us know how you get on if you decide to buy some. They are good tubes from the spectrum point of view.

FWIW, I buy my ATI tubes directly from a German online retailer. A blue+ costs only 12 Euro + (9.9 Euro delivery).

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Thank you sooo much for yor explanation !!!

I think I am in the middle of the ATI system. The air that is moved from left to right is inside the "T5 BOX" . So the T5 are being cooled from left to right. But they do not have independent reflectors.

Daniel

That's great.

It is worth noting that even if a T5 unit is actively cooled it does not always guarantee that you achieve 35C over the cooling spots. For example, ATI's fans are regulated by a DC adaptor with varying voltage settings. Unless you select the right voltage you can still run your tubes too hot or too cold. In either case, the tubes will not run efficiently. I once carried out an experiment to find out the optimum voltage setting in normal my fish room (ambient temperatures usually vary between 17C-24C during the year).

:beer:

 

[MrSandman]

Nobody has mentioned it but you would also expect the photo period to make a difference too. To the OP, how many hours a day are you running the T5's and how about your friend?

 

[nemodan]

Nobody has mentioned it but you would also expect the photo period to make a difference too. To the OP, how many hours a day are you running the T5's and how about your friend?

This is an Excellent point !!!!

I will see my friend today and will ask him.

My T5s goes ON at 10:30 AM and OFF at 8:30 PM. That is a TOTAL of 10 hours.

Cheers
Daniel