T5's: A cautionary note

[FastUno]

merk1_99, hate to say we told you so....but we did!

luckycat, I would leave the shields on. You will lose even more par in the long run if the reflectors & bulbs get spattered with salt spray & stained. Are those end caps waterproof? Even more reason to keep them on. The Tek's give off so much more par that the shields might end up being beneficial. I did not notice a speck of difference when I placed the acrylic shield on my Tek's.

Codeman00, did you acclimate your mushrooms? This is a big relief for me to see my shrooms responding well. It seems to me that the MH provide a more reef safe gradient of light- more pars where it's need the most atop & less the deeper in the tank.

 

[merk1_99]

Hey I never argued my PC's were better. I pleaded ignorance on the whole subject. I read all 60 pages of threads. My girlfriend was not pleased since I spent 2 days reading and not paying attention to her. I was just glad to read a thread with sound scientific facts, and not random opinions which have no basis.

If I was rich UNO like you and Grim. I would go for the MH lighting. But since I live on a small reef budget I have to make the best economical decision. Which I believe T5's will give me in bulb replacement, and energy costs....

 

[Ti]

MH retro intial cost is actually lower than T5.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Rich, HA HA HA!!!

Now that is rich

 

[Codeman00]

Codeman00, did you acclimate your mushrooms? This is a big relief for me to see my shrooms responding well. It seems to me that the MH provide a more reef safe gradient of light- more pars where it's need the most atop & less the deeper in the tank.

Uno, no I did not. I'm still a little new at this reef stuff. My acclimation was just putting the mushrooms at the bottom of the tank to see what happens. Interesting that one mushroom was happy from the beginning (but he came from a shallow MH tank). I'm going to do what I can no to put all of these shields ect over my tank. If it works out that I have to, I will learn. Remember, I have only 4 T5s..and those are over 8" above the water...much less PAR than you have running them right on the tank. All of the bulbs are on for 4 hrs per day...the remaining 8 hours 2 T5s/VHO or just the VHO is on. I should be getting a frogspawn this week and will see how he responds. I'll keep posting the results here.

 

[FastUno]

Hey we have to tease someone, but I truly know what you mean.

Codeman, I know. I only ran 4 bulbs & had mushroom hostility. Try running only 2 bulbs & the 4 for only 1-2hrs, my shrooms seem to have done better when I did that.

Grim doesn't count! I don't think he has ever purchased a lighting set his whole life. I don't even think he knows how outrageous the prices are. Me on the other hand, I have plowed down at least 2G's on lights thus far. But I manage to do it the old fashion way...selling every other piece of junk I bought.

Honey....you don't REALLY need that diamond ring I bought you last Valentine's Day...do you?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

HEY!!!

I just bought new lamps and ballasts!!!

I don't mind paying for lighting. At least not until my neighbor figures out my tank is plugged into the power outlet on the side of his house

 

[Ti]

Does that mean you haven;t found out I'm plugged into yours?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Must be a hell of an extension cord if it runs all the way from Montana to Sunnyvale

 

[growyourown]

Hey Grim and Uno...

Somewhere way back in this thread I think one of you posted some charts comparing some of the T5 reflectors. Or maybe you borrrowed the data..

Any way, where might I find a comparison of say the tek retro reflectors and the IceCap Indidvidual bulb reflectors.

Also where can I find the graphs that depict the spectral analysis of different types of lighting, with different reflectors etc?

Thanks,

Glenn

 

[Ti]

Must be a hell of an extension cord if it runs all the way from Montana to Sunnyvale

It's underground.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Growyourown

There are no graphs. I measured PAR on my tank and the Ice Cap beat the tek by like 20% at 18" under the water. There is a thread called "the great T5 glarathon" with the info.

 

[FastUno]

Electricity thieves!
Stop putting evil thoughts into my head, because the way I am setup it's really doable.

This is what we posted below. Sanjay has been sent a Tek hood & bulbs, we are all eagerly awaiting his Godly results.
http://www.sunlightsupply.com/aquarium/products/t5reflectcomparo.shtml

Click on each bulb for plots
http://www.reefgeek.com/products/category_indexes/1-15_lighting_bulbs_-_t5_fluorescent.html

 

[FastUno]

I think what he saw was the T5 plots & the reflector par comparison tests.

Glarathon
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=536358&highlight=glarathon+t5

 

[merk1_99]

Hey my honey just told me not to sweat buying my lights and sump this weekend. She decided she would find a way to pay her bills herself...Why would i feel guilty about her paying her bills herself when my frogspawn, and future clams will be happy....

 

[lousybreed]

a freshwater comment

a freshwater comment

Not to change the subject but I will offer a little freshwater input. Most people swear by PC's for keeping freshwater plants. They will jam 6 to 8 55W bulbs in a 75 gallon tank. I keep asking these people why don't you drop 2 or 4 T-5's in there and be done with it? It seems like the plant people are even more hesitant to try new technology. My next high tech planted tank will only be lit by T-5. It only makes sense. Probably by the time I will be buying these they will even be cheaper. I would say that about 5% of plant people use T-5's. They seem more interested in lighting their tanks with LED's (more threads on that topic)

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Id use T6's with T5 reflectors for FW plants. They have a T6 lamp design just for that purpose, the pink one.

 

[FastUno]

lousybreed, oh man you gotta give us feedback on this. Would be great to know. I think I am gonna use my Tek's for a future fuge or possible lights for house plants. Yet tbd when I move into a larger space.

It's official now. My significant other concurs, the corals seem to be in better condition after only a few days. It's not just me imagining things, for she is brutally honest. They are exactly how I always imagined my corals to be- extended & happy looking. My cap is back to a nice dark & rich color. My shrooms are even more healthier looking than yesterday. My frogspawn, torch, GSP, & galaxia all look like they are fuller now. I really don't even care if they are not getting as many pars, cause before they all looked like they were shrugged & something was bothering them. I was jealous of reefs that I have seen in other pics of MH & or VHO systems. The corals in those reefs really looked healthy & plush, or as my cohort says, "fluffy".

 

[rdmpe]

aaaahhhhhggggggg
Would you guys please quit changing my mind? LOL

I'm looking at light systems to hang above my 72x24x24.
No Hood and No Chiller.

I'm worried that I'll get that super sweet maristar and it will heat my water too much! But two 8x39w T5 Teks may just overpower everything that I want to put in the tank... or will it ??

 

[FastUno]

Guess what? I just made a hasty decision to throw my T5's back on. I don't like the look of healthy looking protracted corals, the shimmers can go to shimmy land, & I hate the look of sparkling colors swaying in the gentle current. Much prefer the dull & shimmerless, but colorful, T5 look.


NOT!


Dude get an Aquactinic with 20K XM bulbs, wish I had gotten them sooner. Now I am happy as a clam. You can place them directly on top of your tank, no ugly hanging. No chiller either. Man I gotta post some vids for you guys, this dig camera does not capture exactly what I see.