T5's: A cautionary note

[The Grim Reefer]

Horkn,
Hit the contact us tab on the www.commodityaxis.com website and call or e-mail them. They haven't been able to keep the things in stock long enough to list them on the site yet. I guess the locals are grabbing them up. They will be getting more in a month or so. I don't know if any of the other sites will have those lamps yet.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Yep, Grim is still holding out on us.

So... If I hang two of the 8x36" TEK fixtures over my 72x24x24 will I have more light than I can use? I think that the way they are wired I would be running four per wall plug unless I re-wire it (which probably wouldn't be too difficult). So will I create a nuclear winter inside my tank?

That setup would be fine. You can always add an actinic or two if you think the light is too much. You can also raise them up a bit. I'drather get too many than not enought. Each ballast runs 2 lamps so you could always pull the lamps for one of the ballasts and go with 6 in each one. It is a tiny bit harder to get to 8 from 6.

 

[tjay]

Ok so Grim have you switched back to T5 instead of MH?
I love the metal halides but man I am having one heck of an algae problem and I never had algae problems before going MH.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I just have the T5's on while I upgrade the halides. By the way tjay, what kind of lighting did you take the pic in your avitar under?

 

[tjay]

That is two 54 watt CA daylights and two 54 watt CA actinics. I like the color of the actinics I will try and get a pic tonight. They do not flourece like yours though.

Right now I am just really discusted with the algae, I worked so hard to earn MH and was so excited to get it installed. Heck I love the look of them But man that algae is terrible.
All my params are dead on with the exception of calc a little low.

I am just wondering if 20K bulbs are more likely to create algae than a 15K or 10K bulb

 

[tjay]

If you had to buy new MH bulbs and you could supplement with 4 T5 actinincs ( maybe even some of those super blues ) if I can get them
What bulbs would you use?

 

[The Grim Reefer]

SE or DE lamps? With these blues I think I would want a bright white lamp. I am going to try the EVC 14K's. Are you running a fuge of any kind? that might help with your algae problem.

My Ricordas are the same thing you have. If I could figure out where I put my friggn camera I'd post a good pic.

 

[tjay]

I have some blues too, that rock has what appears to be a coco worm growing out one end. Pink looking fan worm with two heads and a rock tube.
Was a nice pickup for 17.00

I have SE lamps on a 250W Advance Magnetic M58 they are probe start, I dont see to many 14-15K that will work with that ballast.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I was talking about the blue lamps I have. My ricordas are the same thing you have. Don't know what I did with the stupid camera.

Here's a cruddy shot I took last night and tried to sharpen up. The colors are about right

 

[tjay]

Ok some comparisons
The first series are different things in the tank with MH, T5 2 and 2
T5 actinics.

And the tank, the actinics are hard to shoot, still more purple here than in real life.

 

[water`bug]

Originally posted by tjay That is two 54 watt CA daylights and two 54 watt CA actinics.

My dear Sir "TJay" made a little boo-boo replying to your question.

I took the pic of His avitar under the MH's.

Have a great weekend!

donna in New Orleans

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I got a better pic of the frogspawn today. Pretty close to the "actual" color.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I just measured the PAR on the lamp. just over 1200 on contact. That is close to what the overdriven blueplus does.

 

[rdmpe]

TJAY - what bulbs do you have on with that middle set of T5 pictures?

 

[Aaron]

Grim,
What is your current setup? Are you using only T5s?
I was using the older Helios HO T5 fixtures and the colors were fantastic, but the life sucked. Typically the ballast died before the bulb, go figure.

Anyway, I'm redoing my 29 (currently has 250MH which is way too much) and I'm thinking I'm going to do two T5s and a 70w MH.

Also, the submirsible blue lights foster and smith... is that what your picture was of? If that is the case, I'm look for those... please send a link!

 

[chevell]

6000 usable hours for VHO

6000 usable hours for VHO

Chevell:

I am a converted T5 user, and went from 440w VHO to 216w T5s, and I can say that the T5s are much, much brighter.

Everyone is entitle to their opinions, of course, but 75000 lux (T5) compared to 22000 lux (VHO) pretty well says it all. Why did I make the switch? Everything was growing well in my tank, but I have a deeper tank and wanted the diversity and choices that brighter lighting would give me.

Heat issues? Just made the swap and saw no difference.

Price? Bulbs are the similar in price, but swapping out VHOs every 6 months as opposed to 12 months for T5s means that my T5 setup is already saving me money....which will give me more $ to buy more toys!

Thats well over a year at 12 hours a day and brighter is not always better.

 

[chevell]

yes indeed they are brighter

yes indeed they are brighter

My thoughts exactly.

Even many MH systems are cheaper to set up and run once you get up 8 VHOs...

You can get some real deals on MH when you look.

Chevell - I just don't see it - the evidence and majority of pricing I can find on line seems to be against you.

For the wattage consumed they are way brighter in fact. I can compaire this to my lfs using over 600 watts on a halide based system and that tank is'nt even half as bright as my 520 "usage" watt VHO system, not to mention the fact that I only run 4 bulbs most of the day which is only using 260 watts over a 150 gallon 30 inch deep tank.If you look at the two tanks it's very obvious which one is brighter in fact I can't even run all 8 bulbs at the same time so they are ramped up and down each day with all 8 bulbs on for only a very short time. I get 6000 usable hours from each bulb just as the manufacturer claims. And I get those bulbs for 20 bucks each,pretty cheap to run my system from where I stand.

 

[tjay]

TJAY - what bulbs do you have on with that middle set of T5 pictures?

Catilina Aquarium 4 bulbs 54 watt 2 daylight two actinics

 

[rdmpe]

I wonder how accurate the colors are on my monitor. Personally I like the MH colors better in those pictures...

 

[tjay]

The metal Halide have much better color, no doubt about it. I plan to drop the daylight T5s when I get the tank used to the MH. Right now I can not burn them more than a couple hours a day because it is creating a redslime bloom.
I have been told that is because I was running them about 5 hours a day right off the bat. Too much from what I understand. So I am now using two hours a day for a week and then start moving it up.