The T5 Q&a Thread - split

I'm on the same side as Mike here. Keep the Tek, the reflectors are far superior to the AquaticLife. If you want some extra power and don't mind doing a little DIY work I would open her up and ditch the workhorse ballasts for some spec T5 ballasts for about $100. While you're inside you can do the fan mod kit, which will give you active cooling and keep the fixture looking sleek for about $30. By doing that you can easily increase the output of the fixture by over 25%.

Where do you get fan mod. kit at? I was thinking bout doin that on a 24 in. 4 bulb Tek.
 
Rather than clip on fans you can get quality fans with considerable output in various sizes. Newark Electronics offers a wide selection and a good system for selecting fans. Simply measure the amount of space you have for the side mounted fans then plug that into there web site. You will get multiple selections. They can then be rated by noise level as well as air flow to narrow down your selections.

A few years ago I completly rebuilt my 8 bulb fixture and the end results was less noise than the individual fixture, as well as considerably more light. In your case you probably will not want to swap out your reflectors as I did.
 
Thanks guys. Not really interested in modifying the fixture since, well, it's way beyond anything I can honestly do. Not a big DIY guy.
 
Thanks guys. Not really interested in modifying the fixture since, well, it's way beyond anything I can honestly do. Not a big DIY guy.

Understandable. Have you thought about just bolting a couple of ReefBrite strips onto the Tek? The 48" ones have the screw hole line up directly with the screws on the front and back side of the Tek, meaning it takes just seconds to install. You'll get a little extra boost in PAR. But, you probably won't get any shimmer unless you do two XHO strips ($$$) as it takes a lot to overpower 8 T5s.
 
Understandable. Have you thought about just bolting a couple of ReefBrite strips onto the Tek? The 48" ones have the screw hole line up directly with the screws on the front and back side of the Tek, meaning it takes just seconds to install. You'll get a little extra boost in PAR. But, you probably won't get any shimmer unless you do two XHO strips ($$$) as it takes a lot to overpower 8 T5s.

That's a though. I'll check that out. I have a feeling that I'm gonna end up getting the ATI when its all said and done.
 
Understandable. Have you thought about just bolting a couple of ReefBrite strips onto the Tek? The 48" ones have the screw hole line up directly with the screws on the front and back side of the Tek, meaning it takes just seconds to install. You'll get a little extra boost in PAR. But, you probably won't get any shimmer unless you do two XHO strips ($$$) as it takes a lot to overpower 8 T5s.

not with the new LED's. But that is a different route completly. But a simple strip of 8 XM-L LED's today can put loads of sparkel into a 120 gallon tank with T-5 lighting.
 
I've got a 6x54 over my 90 with softies and macro algae. I was planning on doing either 5 blue+ and a GE 6500, or 4 blue+, GE 6500, and an actinic of some sort. Ideas? I remember reading about a month ago on here somewhere that actinics are actually pretty good for the corals.
 
I've got a 6x54 over my 90 with softies and macro algae. I was planning on doing either 5 blue+ and a GE 6500, or 4 blue+, GE 6500, and an actinic of some sort. Ideas? I remember reading about a month ago on here somewhere that actinics are actually pretty good for the corals.

Both of those combinations will be extremely deep blue and lacking in the red spectrum. Actinics are rather superfluous in most T5 combinations as the Blue+ puts out all the 420nm spectrum needed for coral growth.

I would do 4x Blue+, 1 GE 6500k, and 1 Purple Plus/Fiji Purple
 
I've got a 6x54 over my 90 with softies and macro algae. I was planning on doing either 5 blue+ and a GE 6500, or 4 blue+, GE 6500, and an actinic of some sort. Ideas? I remember reading about a month ago on here somewhere that actinics are actually pretty good for the corals.

The Blues plus a GE 6500 will give you a little cyan kick because of the strong Yellow part of the GE Spectrum. Most people combine the GE bulb with an ATI or Fuji Purple to offset this strong Yellow and get more of neutral effect from the GE bulb.

As far as the Atinic bulb is concerned its usefulness is very debatable over the Blue Plus bulbs. When used in a Dawn to Dusk it does pop the florescent colors more however when you looking at coral growth most people relie more on the Blue Plus.
 

Nope but I did look at the post and would say I'd like to see more info. I do like the Power spectrum they are advertising. They also mention 500 lumns per foot compared to 400 lumns per foot compared to T-5's, which I wonder about the actual power they are using. Most LED's today are just under 100 lumns per watt, so if you compare that to a 54 watt T-5 Bulb it would be at 54 watts you would have 5,400 lumns from these LED's. But that is 1,350 lumns per foot. So I'm assuming that the wattage is must lower in the range of 20 Watts for a 4 foot lenght. If they are using 54 Watts they are not using the latest LED technology but technology roughly 5 years old.

But without them actualy listing Wattage we are making assumtions and you know what they say about the meaning of the word ASSUME. I wish they put out more specifications on them.
 
The Blues plus a GE 6500 will give you a little cyan kick because of the strong Yellow part of the GE Spectrum. Most people combine the GE bulb with an ATI or Fuji Purple to offset this strong Yellow and get more of neutral effect from the GE bulb.

As far as the Atinic bulb is concerned its usefulness is very debatable over the Blue Plus bulbs. When used in a Dawn to Dusk it does pop the florescent colors more however when you looking at coral growth most people relie more on the Blue Plus.

Are you saying it will promote cyano growth?
 
Nope but I did look at the post and would say I'd like to see more info. I do like the Power spectrum they are advertising. They also mention 500 lumns per foot compared to 400 lumns per foot compared to T-5's, which I wonder about the actual power they are using. Most LED's today are just under 100 lumns per watt, so if you compare that to a 54 watt T-5 Bulb it would be at 54 watts you would have 5,400 lumns from these LED's. But that is 1,350 lumns per foot. So I'm assuming that the wattage is must lower in the range of 20 Watts for a 4 foot lenght. If they are using 54 Watts they are not using the latest LED technology but technology roughly 5 years old.

But without them actualy listing Wattage we are making assumtions and you know what they say about the meaning of the word ASSUME. I wish they put out more specifications on them.

My guess is that they never really took off since they were introduced in 2011. I know there was an Ice Cap T5 fixture that used them also, Tried finding info on that and never could.
 
Nope but I did look at the post and would say I'd like to see more info. I do like the Power spectrum they are advertising. They also mention 500 lumns per foot compared to 400 lumns per foot compared to T-5's, which I wonder about the actual power they are using. Most LED's today are just under 100 lumns per watt, so if you compare that to a 54 watt T-5 Bulb it would be at 54 watts you would have 5,400 lumns from these LED's. But that is 1,350 lumns per foot. So I'm assuming that the wattage is must lower in the range of 20 Watts for a 4 foot lenght. If they are using 54 Watts they are not using the latest LED technology but technology roughly 5 years old.

But without them actualy listing Wattage we are making assumtions and you know what they say about the meaning of the word ASSUME. I wish they put out more specifications on them.

thanks for the detailed explanation

im trying to find a full royal blue LED tube, purely for viewing pleasure
 
thanks for the detailed explanation

im trying to find a full royal blue LED tube, purely for viewing pleasure

There's tons of those bulbs on aliexpress but for the price (didn't look at the link) I wasn't willing to gamble . Lot of things on that site are a gamble as is though. I seen a store though that had some similar led tubes inside their fixtures that were bright and looked just like a t8 size. Obviously they were white but they were in a standard fixture for sure..
 
Are you saying it will promote cyano growth?

No The GE and the Aqua Blues will not promote Cyan Algea growth. The peak wavelenght that Cyan Algea likes is 680 nm which is considered deep red. Even the Purple plus with a strong red element to its spectrum does not push cyan algea growth unless it is used in excess. If you were running 3 Purple Plus bulbs in a 6 bulb fixture then there is the possibility.

The GE is strong in the part of the spectrum we normaly consider Yellow to Yellow Green. Whith the addition of the Blue Plus the dominat color is moved more to the bule Green part of the spectrum commonly called Aqua Blue or Cyan like Mike said.
 
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