T5's: A cautionary note

[The Grim Reefer]

I never got anything out of a blueplus like I got out of a superblue BUT I am running 48" superblues as opposed to 60" blueplus. I was really careful to include pics because my superblues were "samples" included with some 72" T5's I got to run while I upgraded my halides. I didn't want to get accused of hyping the superblue because they were freebies. My T5 actinics or Bluepluses were never in the same class as these.

I would leave the ultimate decision up to Greg (Obi-Dad) because he is running overdriven 48" T5's head to head. My 60" bluepluses may not be as good as the 48" version.

If I can score a bare 48" superblue lamp I will go ahead and pay for a 48" D&D actinic plus and run both on a WH7 normally driven and overdriven and see what happens. Damn this hoby is getting expensive.

 

[Obi-dad]

Grim, I think that is the best plan, run both brand-new bulbs on one ballast. My situation is not a true test since the blue+ bulbs are not new, and in fact are down on output (like 850 PAR at the bulb instead of 1150). One thing I noticed is that the Helios bulbs light to the very end, where my other bulbs don't.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Down to 850 in less than a year? Are you running fans on your system?

 

[Obi-dad]

I have 3 fans blowing in one end of the canopy, and the canopy is closed except for a hole on the other end. The hole is the same area as the 3 fans blowing in. I am thinking this is not enough flow and my bulbs are getting too hot. I am going to put 3 more fans in that end blowing out, that should make a lot of difference.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

What I did to my canopy was drilled 3/8" holes in the top lid, a whole bunch of them. The tank was high enough i was the only one who could see them. That really let a lot of hot air out. My canopy's back is open so I had 2 fans blowing in just to get the air moving.

Maybe you could have fans blowing in at both end and make exhaust vents across the upper rear of the canopy.

 

[merk1_99]

So if I have a Tek 39 watt 6 bulb unit....keeping LPS, zoo's mushrooms, and SPS. What is my best bulb combo? I need to change the bulbs and want to get the best par possible. Things have changed sincce I last bought bulbs....I was thinking a GE 6500, 2 actinic/blue plus, and 3 11000k aquablue specials....with a bulb config of

back to front

11000k
11000k
blue +
11000k
GE 6500
blue +

What do you think about that? If I'm confused let me know...

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I assume you are going for a more white look. If not run 3 blueplus and 2 Aquablue but with the mix you listed I would run them like this

Front


Aquablue
Blueplus
GE
Aquablue
Blueplus
Aquablue

or

Blueplus
Aquablue
GE
Blueplus
Aquablue
Aquablue

for a slightly more blue look using the same lamps. In either case I would leave the GE lamp just forward of center so it shines on the front side of the rocks but is "curtained" by a couple of other lamps to wash out the greenish hue of the lamp.

 

[rdmpe]

OK. This past weekend I swapped the ATI Blue Plus bulbs off of the maristar fixture over my display tank, and replaced with the Helios Superblues to get a more direct comparison....

Are these the 34 watt superblues? I was wondering if they are the right length to fit in the maristar fixtures. I have a 72" maristar and am considering replacing the four stock 34 watt T5 bulbs with the helios superblues if I can be sure that they'll fit.

Hey Grim - way back you and I were having a discussion back and forth about the 6' fixture options. I ended up getting an 8 month old 6' maristar fixture (I have the original receipt) with all stock bulbs, ballasts, hanging kit, etc. for $700. Pretty sweet deal IMO! Of course I promptly opened the ballasts to make some improvements, so much for the warranty...

I rewired the BW VII dual ballast to have two plugs and two switches. I want to be able to run the bulbs starting on one end and then about an hour later the middle and an hour later the other end, then off in the same order.

1 - kindof like the sun going across the sky?
2 - in the evening the lights will not reflect as much on the TV since the last bulb on will be the one furthest to the side of the TV(I will be looking at the tank of course, but some others in my house don't have such refined aesthetic sensibilities)...

 

[The Grim Reefer]

www.commodityaxis.com

E-mail them from the contact us tab and see what length the 39 watt superblue lamps are. Measure your current lamp from end to end all the way to the end of the metal caps but not the pins.

Sounds like a nice score on the Maristar

 

[FastUno]

Just a quick thing to report.
-After leaving the T5's on with the MH my orange monti now has a very rich orange color. But this coral is slightly higher than the 1/2 way mark.

-My clam at the bottom of my tank has lost some color & I should move it up.

-My blastos look a little dull too, not too much, but they were more colorful before. These are at the bottom of my tank & it's time to move them up now.

-My frogspawn was more colorful before, but is also infested with some type of white bugs. Actually it looked once like this under T5's when it was infected with the same bugs, so no surprise here.

Looks like the XM 20K's lose a lot of par over a short time. The first two months were great & now still good, but just wondering what the next few months will hold? Corals such as the monti cap, GSP, & green zoos grow faster than with the T5's only, but less than the first two months of MH/T5 usage.

I am contemplating a 14K bulb, maybe even an E-ballast with a 14k?

 

[RGibson]

FastUno i have had very good result with Ushio 175 watt 10,000 bulbs. The clams are at the bottom of the tank and have good color,corals i place all over the do well and i have used the bulbs for over two years.The tank is a 180 gal tank 24 in deep 6 foot long.

 

[Codeman00]

RGibson, thats good news. I haven't put a clam in yet, but I have been wondering how my XM175Ws will do at keeping one in my 20" deep tank. What kind of clam did you get?

Uno..interesing info. Everything in my tank is doing reall well with the switch to MH.

 

[RGibson]

Crocea, Derasa clams.Crocea clams have been in the tank for three years.Lights and good water movement make the different.The water flow is 6450 gal per hour.

 

[FastUno]

10K's would be great, but I really need the colors to pop. I don't think I would be happy with the 10K look. What is the pure whitest look on a 10K 250W SE bulb? Is it from Ushio or XM? Anything better?

I use my T5's on this fixture as another lighting set, since I only run MH for 6hrs/day. My T5 combo with a 10K I believe just wont work.

My clam is in the worst spot it can possibly be, it's at the very bottom of a 24" deep tank & at the very front of the glass, facing the front of the glass. For this reason it's really missing out on pars.

 

[The Grim Reefer]

Uno

If you are running a standard ballast you could try an HQI which will overdrive the lamps. If you are going e-ballasts and 14K try the EVC's (lamp and ballast). They really pop the colors well.

 

[Ti]

Guess I'll throw in an update for you folks.
I just slapped on 2 39W T5 SLR retro on my tank today.
I needed something to supplement.
still doing 20K XM MH.
I never knew how easily he bulbs slip out of the retrofited endcaps.

 

[FastUno]

EVC, huh? Got pics?
It really stinks that we have to buy ballasts to match the bulbs that we want (so it seems).

I have sold so many things, here is a list of corals sold & a tank update.
-torch
-many zoos
-GSP frags
-most of my purple monti cap
-kenya trees, small daughter & big mother colony
-all my xenias

 

[The Grim Reefer]

I gotta load some software on the new laptop so I can shrink pics. There are 2 pics in my gallary of frogspawn corals under the super blue T5. My halide lights them up a little better than the first pic. I'll work on the software and get a new pic up. I gotta check PAR on the lamps as well.

 

[Obi-dad]

Grim, if your laptop runs windowsxp there is a microsoft 'powertoy' that does resizing, actually adds a menu option to the right-click menu to resize, very handy.

 

[amheck]

Yep, I was just gonna say the same thing.

Really handy