T5 VS. Metal Halide

hahn very nice tank by the way i am setting up a new tank its
60"x48"x30" i would like to go all t5s going to wait for the ati reflectors to come out was going to run 5 ic 660s and 15 60" bulbs. what do u think? what bulbs would you go with and do u think that will be enough light? 90% sps and clams seems like u and grim are the t5s gurus....thanks
 
Not aware of anyone that is planning on carrying the ATI rflectors at this point. You might check with reefgeek.

I would run 48" lamps anyway, they span 60" pretty well. Ice Cap retrofits would be the only way to fly over a 30" tall tank. I would run 16 lamps.
 
ATI= Aqualux. Bettr than Tek, ablut even with the IC up to 20~22" And then the IC gains an advantage. The ATI's are really wide though, just over 3".
 
4

The 54 watt stuff is less expensive, you can get Ice Cap reflectors and the 54 watt lamps burn quit a bit brighter when overdriven than the 80 watt lamps.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8832299#post8832299 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hahnmeister
And that Tek isnt the ideal for T5s either... at 6 months I bet there is about 10% loss from all of those aquablue bulbs, if not more. Im suspocious of them losing output rather fast.

none the less, that is a wicked output for the Iwasaki. I wonder if they will make a 250 of that bulb.
Click to expand...

Naw, they dont make a 250 yet. That was set up in opposition to Grim's study where he compared a pretty crappy MH setup to a tek light, and the tek won.


My point wasnt about specifics. My point was that 90% of the people posting about T5s have absolutely no frigging idea what theyre talking about, and it needs to stop.

Hahn, Grim, keep talking. Everyone else, if you dont own a par meter, or dont have access to one, dont make claims about intensity, etc, because you're just making stuff up, and spreading misinformation.
 
I must agree that it is what you to grow that should make the determination of going with hides, or T-5's.

The trueth is you do get more output per watt on T-5's provided you have an effecient reflector. The other big fact is that the T-5's are not a point source so you will get a more equaly distributed quantity of light and deeper penetration.

On the negative side of T-5's is that all corals do not flourish at the same lighing levels. With T-5's you cannot put lower light requiring plants on the bottom and higher light demanding bulbs on top and keep everyone happy.

So the real decission should be what type of corals you want to keep. If you are happy with all your corals requiring simular light ranges then T-5's are definatly the choice. But if want to mix corals with considerably different light demands then Metal Hides would be the first choice.

Then another possible option especially on larger tanks would be to mix the two varieties.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8834865#post8834865 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley
Naw, they dont make a 250 yet. That was set up in opposition to Grim's study where he compared a pretty crappy MH setup to a tek light, and the tek won.


My point wasnt about specifics. My point was that 90% of the people posting about T5s have absolutely no frigging idea what theyre talking about, and it needs to stop.

Hahn, Grim, keep talking. Everyone else, if you dont own a par meter, or dont have access to one, dont make claims about intensity, etc, because you're just making stuff up, and spreading misinformation.
Click to expand...

I have never compared a Tek fixture to halides, just the retros.
The guy who compared the Iwasaki wasn't in opposition to anything, he was just posting results. I think his results are accurate. It was good to see what the difference was in decent halides and a top of the line set up, the Lumenarc style reflectors are great. My halides weren't "crappy".
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8834922#post8834922 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TropTrea
I must agree that it is what you to grow that should make the determination of going with hides, or T-5's.

The trueth is you do get more output per watt on T-5's provided you have an effecient reflector. The other big fact is that the T-5's are not a point source so you will get a more equaly distributed quantity of light and deeper penetration.

On the negative side of T-5's is that all corals do not flourish at the same lighing levels. With T-5's you cannot put lower light requiring plants on the bottom and higher light demanding bulbs on top and keep everyone happy.

So the real decission should be what type of corals you want to keep. If you are happy with all your corals requiring simular light ranges then T-5's are definatly the choice. But if want to mix corals with considerably different light demands then Metal Hides would be the first choice.

Then another possible option especially on larger tanks would be to mix the two varieties.
Click to expand...

Zactly!!!

Someone (Hahnmeister I think) recently posted a pic of his tank with PAR readings taken in various spots using T5's and a halide and it was pretty clear that the halide would be way better if you want to mix corals from different depths in the same level of the tank.
 
I used EVC 14k's, A hamilton 10K and some unbranded 10K's that were better than the hamiltons by a little more than 10%.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8819096#post8819096 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dhoch
Also my last 2 cents statement: if you are getting actinic supplements get VHO rather than T5... a URI VHO actinic bulb will give you more of the POP than ANY T5 actinic bulb (and thats not just my opinion, but also the opinion of URI, and a couple of other vendors like IceCAP that I have talked to about this in Houston last year)...

Dave
Click to expand...

Dave, Even with the latest wave of T5 actinics you feel that this statement still stands ? I am not challenging, but am asking as we are in the process of setting up lighting for our new tank.

What would you say the coverage is on this bulb ? (X' by X' area) assuming either a 48" or 60", in they come in that length.

Thanks :)

edit : Didn't URI just release a T5 actinic ?
 
Hang on one second here. Par readings are not 100% of the picture. You can take a 3,000K bulb and get a higher PAR rating than with a 6,500K bulb. However the energey from the 3,000K bulb is concentrated in the 700+ nm range which is not nearly as effecient for the use of a majority of corals compared to the 6,500K range. So PAR ratings in themselves can be very misleading unless you have the actual emmission spectrium and know how to evaluate it for each specific coral you desire to keep.

Now if you want to realy get technical and eliminate in put then you would be better off only loking at those individuals who have acurate spectrium analyzers. Looking at hobbiests I will say that you find very few who can justify the investment in a peice of equipment that expensiv e.

The only sources I have seen for spectrum plots are either Sanjay's MH plots, and others that were produced by bulb manufacturers. Personaly after have worked for a bulb manufacturer I put limited faith into there plots.

Dennis


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8834865#post8834865 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by RichConley


Hahn, Grim, keep talking. Everyone else, if you dont own a par meter, or dont have access to one, dont make claims about intensity, etc, because you're just making stuff up, and spreading misinformation.
Click to expand...
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8840696#post8840696 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TropTrea
Hang on one second here. Par readings are not 100% of the picture. You can take a 3,000K bulb and get a higher PAR rating than with a 6,500K bulb. However the energey from the 3,000K bulb is concentrated in the 700+ nm range which is not nearly as effecient for the use of a majority of corals compared to the 6,500K range. So PAR ratings in themselves can be very misleading unless you have the actual emmission spectrium and know how to evaluate it for each specific coral you desire to keep.

Now if you want to realy get technical and eliminate in put then you would be better off only loking at those individuals who have acurate spectrium analyzers. Looking at hobbiests I will say that you find very few who can justify the investment in a peice of equipment that expensiv e.

The only sources I have seen for spectrum plots are either Sanjay's MH plots, and others that were produced by bulb manufacturers. Personaly after have worked for a bulb manufacturer I put limited faith into there plots.

Dennis
Click to expand...

You are close here BUT a PAR meter measures light from 400 to 700nm so a lamp providing spectrum out of that range wouldn't produce a very high number.

PUR is a good measurement within PAR. Basically light in the green/yellow (550 to 620nm) spectrum is sort of like the junk food of Photosynthesis. It is nice as far as color rendering but does little for coral growth.
 
Grim i just got my T5 fixture, how do i place my bulbs that i got with it. In what order should they go? Thanks.
 
You will probably want to put blue/actinics in the first and last slot for dusk/dawn, those are usually on one circuit.
 
Now one last question, how do i put the bulbs in with out them breaking? I am kinda scared to put them in so how do i do it?
 
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