T5's: A cautionary note

[The Grim Reefer]

The superblues do put a decent amount of PAR that I am going to guess is about equal to a Blueplus. I run 3 250 watt 14K lamps in a 6 foot fixture and 2 54 watt superblues make a noticable difference when they come on with the Halides. I imagine they would easily suppliment 175's.

 

[Codeman00]

Thats great news. From your pictures, it looks like the Superblue is a blue version of the VHO actinic..but it probably looks better in person. Over a 75 gallon tank, do you think that I'm missing out on a lot of growth running 175s and 2 T5s instead of 250s?

 

[FastUno]

"Fast Uno, I finally was able to check out the Acquuactinics. I think they're over my price limit, but thanks for the link to the Coralife fixtures. Those look pretty neat. Did you also consider the Current Outer Orbits? If not, why?"

Have never considered Orbits, especially after reading thread on some unhappy customers.



"xm 20k must be blue but you still maintain that t-5 aquablue (11,000 60 actinc 40 6500) is a good match? I probably like blue but reds and yellow, etc still pop out properly?"

I am guilty. I have not made myself clear. The AB & B+ combo is a good match for me, because I only keep my MH on for 6hrs at a time. I want to view my tank for extended hours & do not want to see a blue tank. The AB & B+ combo provide a good look when combined with XM 20K MH (they don't take away from the look), added pars (along with MH) & the ability to view tank for extended periods.


"Once you see the Helios Superblue lamps in person you may want to ditch the VHO actinics and run 6 T5's."

I heard they were good, but that good? Any pics/links?

Codeman00, oh man you have to try the 14K Hamilton 175W MH. To die for, especially with Actinic supplementation. Don't give up on your 175W'ers yet. Look I still have my 14K's & could ground ship them to you, but I would need them back when I sell the fixture. PM me if interested.

Dawn/Dusk with T5 (2 bulbs) I have not found any problems. In fact they were the same bulbs that came from my other fixture. Your 175W vs 250W question depends on a number of factors.
-What the heck are you trying to grow
-How tall is your tank
-How far will the fixtures be from the surface of tank
-How long will you leave lights on

I'll give you an example:
User1: 250W MH 20K, 1 foot from surface, 24" height tank, only leave MH on for 5 hrs.

User2: 175W MH 14K, on top of tank, 20" tank height, 8hrs/day.

User 2 will have the advantage. I think for you're case it's not about 175W bulb, it's about not finding the right bulb. Please look into the 14K Hamilton, you will not be disappointed.

 

[RedEyeReef]

"Once you see the Helios Superblue lamps in person you may want to ditch the VHO actinics and run 6 T5's."

Where can we see them?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Where can we see them?

My house

Heres a frogspawn under 1 54 watt lamp in a 125. The color is pretty close except it is more bright in person. The first 8 pics in my gallery are of the tank with 1 normally driven 54 watt superblue with no reflector.

 

[Codeman00]

Codeman00, oh man you have to try the 14K Hamilton 175W MH. To die for, especially with Actinic supplementation. Don't give up on your 175W'ers yet. Look I still have my 14K's & could ground ship them to you, but I would need them back when I sell the fixture. PM me if interested.

Dawn/Dusk with T5 (2 bulbs) I have not found any problems. In fact they were the same bulbs that came from my other fixture. Your 175W vs 250W question depends on a number of factors.
-What the heck are you trying to grow
-How tall is your tank
-How far will the fixtures be from the surface of tank
-How long will you leave lights on

I'll give you an example:
User1: 250W MH 20K, 1 foot from surface, 24" height tank, only leave MH on for 5 hrs.

User2: 175W MH 14K, on top of tank, 20" tank height, 8hrs/day.

User 2 will have the advantage. I think for you're case it's not about 175W bulb, it's about not finding the right bulb. Please look into the 14K Hamilton, you will not be disappointed.

Uno, I have a 75 gallon...20"tall. My halides are 5.5" from the surface, and my VHOs are about 4 inches. I have assorted corals..mushrooms of all colors, kenya trees, frogspawn, candy cane, toadstool, zoos, and several SPS frags (pink poci, green slimer, green digitata, orange digitata, blue tort, green/purple rim cap, orange cap, green cap). The SPS frags are at 10" deep up to the surface.

I'll leave the lights on as long as it takes to see some growth.. Its tough that I dont have a lot of experience with bulbs and growth rates. Since I have frags, i want them to grow, of course. The only ones that grow daily are the green digitata and the green slimer...the other SPS seem to remain stagnant. I have 24x flow in my tank too with a calcium reactor.

I've just heard how low the par is with the Hamilton 250W bulb...and that no one see growth. There aren't any studies yet with the 175W versions that I know of. I'd love to try them out though...its just not feasible to buy new bulbs just to see what the colors look like. I'll PM you.

Did you ever use T5s with the Hamilton 14K? It might be worth a try for me since everything is here and I might gain a PAR advantage with them.

 

[eatgoodfood]

all i have to say is WOW... i just spent a couple hours reading through a good portion of this thread. and needless to say, im lost

Im long past the point of replacing my pc's which currently are 2x96w 1 actinic and 1 10k. Which have been running for oveer a year.

I plan on upgrading my lighting and have been doing quite a bit of research regaurding my different options, and havnt found any difinitive answers.

My tank is a 40g 36lx18wx17h currently houses nothing but some hitch hiker mushrroms which are taking over and some unknown hitchhiker sps.

The tank has been up for almost 2 yrs id say and i want to start keeping some corals.

As for what id like to keep, i want mostly softies and lps, but i would also like to keep a clam or 2 and maybe some sps in the upper portions of the tank.

Im really at a loss for what my best bet lighting wise might be, im looking for the more money concious answer, seeing as how tight my budget is.

What i origionally was thinking was 2 150w 10kmh with 2 t5 actinics or blues to supplement.

That may be total over kill, the completely wrong direction for what im doing, and as for pricing im unsure... i have done a little shopping, but no bargain shopping yet. But i would be more willing to opt for the less costly solution.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated


Thanks
Andrew

 

[The Grim Reefer]

A couple of 14K 150 watt halides would be good. Just get actinic PC's to use for Dusk/dawn and you will be good.

 

[eatgoodfood]

Thanx for the quick response, any suggestions as to where to look for deals? and any lesser expensive brand recomendaions?

Thanx
Andrew

 

[FastUno]

Codeman, did you try looking for the Aqua Connect, they are suppose to be one of the best 14K 175W bulbs. Both in terms of color & growth, but they are a little hard to find from what I hear.

I have not seen that bulb in person, but I hear it's better than the Hamilton 14K. I have seen the Hamilton bulbs, it's hard for me to picture anything better than that.

I tried T5 Actinics with the Hamiltons & it brought out colors more, but nothing in terms of more light/brightness. The AB & B+ I have on now makes my tank really brighter, so I have no worries with the 20K bulb. I have also heard many report little growth with the 20K XM bulbs, but in my case I am getting more growth than before. Maybe it has something to do with my fixtures being on top of the tank?

 

[Codeman00]

Aquaconnect 14K $95 per bulb. Ouch!

 

[Codeman00]

Grim, what was the website to order the Helios Superblue bulbs? Its wayyy back in this thread.

 

[johns]

did you try looking for the Aqua Connect, they are suppose to be one of the best 14K 175W bulbs. Both in terms of color & growth, but they are a little hard to find from what I hear.

Look for Phoenix 14k bulbs. They are cheaper and probably a bit easier to find. If you do some searches you will find that they have been tested and appear to be an identical bulb to the Aquaconnect. These are the bulbs I am using in my Maristar and they are quite nice. I have never used a Hamilton as a comparison.

The Phoenix 14k I am using is HQI, however. I guess I'm not sure if they make a SE 175W.

 

[Obi-dad]

Commodity Axis has the Helios Superblues - very cool bulbs.

 

[FastUno]

Yea, I don't think Phoenix makes a 175W SE.
That was one of the reasons why I decided on 250W, bulb selection!

 

[jnb]

me too! :rollface: :mixed: its all your fault

Yea, I don't think Phoenix makes a 175W SE.
That was one of the reasons why I decided on 250W, bulb selection!

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Thanx for the quick response, any suggestions as to where to look for deals? and any lesser expensive brand recomendaions?

Thanx
Andrew

Check out hellolights and aquariumlight.com from the sponsors page.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Commodity Axis has the Helios Superblues - very cool bulbs.

I think you still need to use the contact information from the site to call or e-mail them the order. The lamps weren't listed last time I checked.

I think this thread needs to be renamed 'The Neverending T5 Thread of Eye Strain Hell".

 

[Codeman00]

Yeah I emailed them and it took a few hrs for them to reply with about 50% of the info I requested. I sent another email and its been another few hours and no response. I can't believe they don't have a phone number.

They said their bulbs are 47" and I thought the ATIs were 46.5"...did anyone have any problems with the different length in their fixture or retro? I know there was a long discussion about that too, many pages back.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

The longer lamp will be an issue unless you are running a retro and can respace the endcaps. Let me see if I can find out the skinny on the standard length lamps. I will post back once I hear anything.