Table of T5 Ballasts and Outputs

DMBillies

Active member
I know there is a thread or webpage around somewhere that has a list of the different possible T5 ballasts and the resulting outputs with different light set-ups. Anyone have a link? I was using the search function, but since the shortest search term is 3 letters, you can't search t5... so I was getting a bunch of unhelpful stuff.

I'm considering rebuilding a hood for my 90 gallon. My current one has seen better days. I would like to go with a much shorter version (with a lid that flips up) so that I can get the bulbs very close to the water surface. While re-designing the hood, I was thinking about taking my current fixture from that tank, putting it on my frag tank, and installing all t5 retros.

I'm considering bulb/ballast/reflector combos and trying to get a good idea about the cost of doing the project. It's been a while since I bought a lighting system, so I'm having to re-learn a lot.
 
Wish I had a link... maybe Chris R. will.

I'm very interested to see this data, too. Specifically to see how my ballasts (VS) stack up against others and to see if I really want to upgrade to IceCaps (truth be told... I think it would be overkill... but we'll see... maybe growing SPS on the bottom of my 45 may not be too bad... but everything may bleach any higher than sand! :) ).

Brandon
 
Brandon - I really have the feeling that Icecaps would be overkill for most tanks unless you use fewer bulbs. I know I've bleached quite a few things even with my TEK fixture.

That said, there's a lot of things that I can't get to keep their colors low in the tank, so I really just want to keep a similar output to what I've got, drop the lights by about 8-10", and I think that will get me to the bottom. The problem, as always, is cost... so I need to balance advantages/disadvantages of different set-ups and I want to make sure I'm up on anything that might be different since a couple of years ago.
 
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