T-5 lighting question

J

JamesJR

New member
I have an extra icecap 660 ballast lying around and was wondering if you can wire it up to use t-5 bulbs? Does this work well and do the bulbs have the same lifespan?
 
I have 3 x 80 watt 5' t5's running from my 660. Not sure if it works well yet, I have had heating issues. The t5's are supplemental lighting for my 3 x 250 mh's. They had been turning off after a few hours, but yesterday I turned my fans on the entire time they were on and they worked fine. As far as the life, the life will be shortened if you overdrive them.
 
IMO, use those awesome 660 Icecap ballasts on VHO's. They will overdrive your T5's , heating them up shortening their life and changing their color. T5's look and perform best when not overdriven. that is how they use them over in Europe. What size aquarium will you be lighting and what type of corals do you plan on having? Michael R
 
Grim, just curious, if you could choose to overdrive or not what way would you go? Have you lit Two T5's one overdriven and one not and seen the change in color of the bulb? Then there are the heat issues and bulb life issues? I do greatly resepect your opinion. Michael R
 
I can't see a difference in the color overdriven vs non overdriven. The light produced is a result of th phosphores being stimulated by the UV light produced inside the lamp. Overdriven lamps in theory might produce more blue spectrum which is a good thing. As long as you run fans so the lamps don't overheat running them on IC ballasts don't appear to cut down on the life of the lamp, at least not on the 80 watt lamps.
 
I wouldn't hesitate to overdrive on the right tank. A VHO T5 is being developed right now based on a overdriven T5 HO. At 9 months the thing still had over 90% of the original output. Try to get that result with a T12 VHO.
 
I am using a spare 55 gallon tank that I have. When I set it up last I kept it as a predominantly Sps coral tank with some maxima clams that I had. Obviously I had a different lighting situation and T-5 was not really used when I had the tank set up last (2 years ago).

I was able to keep sps on my old 30 gallon using 4X95 watt VHO lamps, but I have only seen one tank in person running solely off of t-5 and am not completely set on using them yet.

This time I am going to do it on a simpler scale, I want to keep easier sps like caps and digitata and maybe some other carefully selected sps. I will be moving into an apartment and I don't want to use metal halides, I just want to run this tank more efficiently than it was previously. So, it sounds like the ice cap ballast can't be use to run four lamps that are four foot in length a piece like you can with VHO. What do you think would be better?
 
Thanks Grim. Well, if I get the T-5s and use a good reflector, will that be better than VHO? will I be able to keep a few sps with out much fuss?
 
Oh hell yeah. 4x54 overdriven with IC reflectors will be enough light for anything you could put in a 55, SPS Clams Anemones.
 
I think I am sold on the t-5s. How long do the bulbs last before you have to change them? Part of the reason I am asking is because I heard they last longer which is really nice because I hated having to shell out over a hundred bucks for a bunch of light bulbs.
 
Grim, how would you compare 4 - 54w's with individuall reflectors driven by a 660 to the 5 light Aquactinics unit ?...have you been around one of their units yet to get an idea ?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8489333#post8489333 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The Grim Reefer
Got an Aquactinics unit on the way to test. They can't compete with an overdriven IC retro.
Click to expand...

Question. What do you mean by "overdiriven"?
 
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