The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[taowa]

Thk Dennis

I found the following from ATI web site. How's the difference from below
Blue Plus
Aquablue Special
Purple
Blue Plus
Aquablue Special
Purple
Blue Plus
Aquablue Special

Front
1 ATi Blue Plus
1 ATI Purple Plus
1 ATI Blue Plus
1 ATI Aqua Blue Special
1 ATI Blue Plus
1 ATI Coral Plus
1 ATI Blue Plus
1 ATI Blue Plus
Rear

Note the Geismein Bulbs can be susbstiuted to a limited extent but will slighly change the spectrum sonce not are a perfect match.

The Lagoon blue in place of the Aqua Blue Special
The Atinic Plus in place of the Blue Plus (but do not change more than two)
The Pink in place of the Coral plus or Purle Plus

 

[TimeConsumer]

Thk Dennis

I found the following from ATI web site. How's the difference from below
Blue Plus
Aquablue Special
Purple
Blue Plus
Aquablue Special
Purple
Blue Plus
Aquablue Special

Your combination is going to be a lot whiter than Trop's. It depends on what you are going for. If you wanted to do something in the 12k area like that I would still recommend swapping one of the Aquablue Special for another Blue Plus.

 

[Mr_N1ce]

After readingn a lot in this thread and others I finally got the combination

BACK
---
blue plus
purple plus
coral plus
blue plus
aqua blue plus
blue plus
---
FRONT

for my tank and I love it! I might get some Royal Blue LEDs as moonlight and in the morning but the color overall is amazing.
Thx for all the information here!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

After readingn a lot in this thread and others I finally got the combination

BACK
---
blue plus
purple plus
coral plus
blue plus
aqua blue plus
blue plus
---
FRONT

for my tank and I love it! I might get some Royal Blue LEDs as moonlight and in the morning but the color overall is amazing.
Thx for all the information here!

Can you please post a picture of your tank? Do you mean Aquablue special by aquablue plus? If so, I have exactly the same tube combination, but my tubes are in different order.

 

[bradw6860]

Hi there,

Need some advice for a KZ + Giesemann 8 bulb combo with an 14-16k look For my 8x 24w ATI-PM.

Many thanks!!

 

[ivon1955]

I have a few questions here. I have a 72 Bowfront with a custom built hood. I have a four bulb unit on it now and am going to replace the crap ballast that runs those with a 660 and then add a IceCap 430 w/2 more bulbs. So a total of six bulbs. Here is the layout that I am thinking. Let me know what you think. I would like to keep a few SPS toward the top and tons of Chalice/LPS and ricordia/zoas at the bottom.

Front
48"-UVL Super Actinic
48"-ATI Lagoon Blue
48"-UVL Actinic White or XM 10000K
48"-UVL Actinic White or XM 10000K
48"-ATI Lagoon Blue
48"-UVL Super Actinic
Back

Has anyone had any experience with the XM T5s? I found them on Hellolights.com and know XM has a pretty good rap with the MH scene, but had never seen anything with their T5s.

 

[TropTrea]

Your combination is going to be a lot whiter than Trop's. It depends on what you are going for. If you wanted to do something in the 12k area like that I would still recommend swapping one of the Aquablue Special for another Blue Plus.

Here are comparisons of the two spectrums. Bote the blue peak on ,ime is off the scale but I wanted to keep the scaling the same for both.

 

[TropTrea]

I have a few questions here. I have a 72 Bowfront with a custom built hood. I have a four bulb unit on it now and am going to replace the crap ballast that runs those with a 660 and then add a IceCap 430 w/2 more bulbs. So a total of six bulbs. Here is the layout that I am thinking. Let me know what you think. I would like to keep a few SPS toward the top and tons of Chalice/LPS and ricordia/zoas at the bottom.

Front
48"-UVL Super Actinic
48"-ATI Lagoon Blue
48"-UVL Actinic White or XM 10000K
48"-UVL Actinic White or XM 10000K
48"-ATI Lagoon Blue
48"-UVL Super Actinic
Back

Has anyone had any experience with the XM T5s? I found them on Hellolights.com and know XM has a pretty good rap with the MH scene, but had never seen anything with their T5s.

Well some of the labeling is wrong on the bulbs as ATI does not make a Lagoon Blue. With 2 10,000K bulbs in there I will also say that tank will be extremly bright.

My sussgestion would be
Front
1 ATI Purple Plus
2 ATI Blue Plus
3-GE 6,500K or your 10,00K bulb.
4ATI Blue Plus
5 ATI Purple Plus
6 ATI Blue Plus

 

[ivon1955]

AH, Sorry about that, I meant the D-D Giesemann Lagoon Blue. Has anyone had these new bulbs over their tanks yet? I am going for a 12-14K look mimicing a depth of 8-10 ft of water. Will this combination be able to readily support SPS growth/happiness? Also, any experience with the XM bulbs? Do you think that having 2 10000K bulbls would wash out any flourescence?

 

[TropTrea]

AH, Sorry about that, I meant the D-D Giesemann Lagoon Blue. Has anyone had these new bulbs over their tanks yet? I am going for a 12-14K look mimicing a depth of 8-10 ft of water. Will this combination be able to readily support SPS growth/happiness? Also, any experience with the XM bulbs? Do you think that having 2 10000K bulbls would wash out any flourescence?

With the combo I gave you one GE bulb will put you a little bluer than the 20K look, and one 10.000K would put you a little bluer than the 14,000K. If you went with 2 of the 10,000K it would be so oferwhelmingly white that you would need 8 more bulbs to hit the 12,000K level .

The florescense will still be there however everything around it will be so bright that the florescense will be almost undetectable with 2 10,000K bulbs.

As far as the XM T-5's I have never hearsd of them. But keep in mind that only a hand full of T-5 plants world wide and many same bulbs are sold under different brand names.

 

[ivon1955]

Thank you for your input! What do you think of this? I really want to stay a little cooler than 20000K, just a little too blue for me.
FRONT:
1.ATI Blue Plus
2.ATI Coral Plus
3.UVL 75.25 14000K
4. XM 10000K
5.ATI Coral Plus
6.ATI Blue Plus

Times will be

Blue Plus on @ 0900
Coral Plus on @ 1100
UVL/XM on @ 1300
UVL/XM off @ 1700
Coral Plus off @ 1900
Blue Plus off @ 2100

12 hrs of light with max light for 4 hrs

Also, for ballasts I was thinking of 3 IceCap 430's but found ballasts on hellolights.com that are a fraction of the cost and power two T5 lamps. I could buy three of them to one IceCap. What are your thoughts? They are not the Workhorse ballasts I provided a link just in case.

http://www.hellolights.com/2x54wt5hofluorescentballast-advance.aspx

 

[TimeConsumer]

That ballast pictured in the link is an Advance ballast, which is a good spec T5 ballast. You can find Spec T5HO ballasts for really decent prices if you shop around, I found this after 2 minutes of searching for example: http://www.prolighting.com/adict5elbace.html?gclid=CIHHmbaV77cCFWNp7AodHGkABw and http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/electrical/ballasts/Electronic-Ballast/qtp-2x54t5ho-unv-psn-quicktronic-and-professional-t5ho-psn-universal-voltage-systems?utm_source=pricegr&utm_medium=shp&utm_campaign=Electronic-Ballast-pricegr&infoParam.campaignId=WU

Just make sure whatever you buy is a Spec T5HO and not just a T5.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Please recognize that these are universal ballasts, they absolutely are not spec T5HO only ballasts, notice how they power t12 etc..

They will work though, so if you want to save money...try them, but far from the best.

I believe cooling the bulbs & ballasts correctly is more important than a universal ballast/spec ballast.

 

[TimeConsumer]

Please recognize that these are universal ballasts, they absolutely are not spec T5HO only ballasts, notice how they power t12 etc..

They will work though, so if you want to save money...try them, but far from the best.

I believe cooling the bulbs & ballasts correctly is more important than a universal ballast/spec ballast.

Sorry, I didn't look very carefully at the ballast he had linked. I does mention that it can run 39w and such T5s as well, but without the spec sheet it is tough to tell if it is a spec ballast. If you look at the first ballast I linked and check the spec sheet it shows it has a ballast factor of 1.0 when running 2x T5HO ballast, meaning it powers them at 100% of their rated output. It does say universal, but it is referring to a universal input voltage, not universal output. Same thing with the second ballast I linked: http://assets.sylvania.com/assetlookup/DAM_Asset_Display.aspx?docurl=http://assets.sylvania.com/assets/Documents/ECS430.cb948b78-d3ef-4a27-b138-17a39105a001.pdf&Title=Product%20Information%20Bulletin&NAED=49130&doctyp=Document&wdth=600&hgth=450&Desc=ECS430%20-%20QTP%20T5HO%20PSN%20Type%20CC%20PIB

Compare that to the spec sheet of a Workhorse 7 and you'll see it has a ballast factor of .80, meaning it underdrives the bulbs by 20%. Now I really want to open my Tek and tear out the Workhorses...

And yes, I have to agree that properly cooling bulbs, as well as the quality of reflectors is far more important in lamp output as opposed to the ballast used. But if you're going to buy ballasts anyways, might as well get the right ones if they fit in the budget. And getting them for $28 a piece is a pretty sweet deal.

EDIT: I found the part number for the ballast on Hellolights and it's not an Advance ballast, it's a Universal Triad AccuStart. A very good ballast with a high PF. You can see the Spec sheet here: http://1000bulbs.com/pdf/universal%20b254punv-d.pdf. The main difference between that ballast and the ones I linked (besides price) is the higher PF, which shouldn't affect you unless you run a a few hundred of them, and it is rated for operation up to 75c as opposed to 70c, also not something you should be concerned with. The Ballast factor and ballast efficacy are the same, and those are by far the most important parts.

 

[Michigan Mike]

Here are Osram spec ballast spec sheet, so you want something similar to this in a spec ballast.http://www.alconlighting.com/specsheets/Sylvania/38203875.pdf

 

[Mr_N1ce]

Can you please post a picture of your tank? Do you mean Aquablue special by aquablue plus? If so, I have exactly the same tube combination, but my tubes are in different order.

Hi

here's a picture of my tank. I mixed up the position of the coral plus, thats corrected now. The 'Aqua blue plus' was supposed to be a Aqua blue special of course:

BACK
---
coral plus
blue plus
purple plus
blue plus
aqua blue special
blue plus
---
FRONT

 

[TimeConsumer]

Here are Osram spec ballast spec sheet, so you want something similar to this in a spec ballast.http://www.alconlighting.com/specsheets/Sylvania/38203875.pdf

Exactly, it's the same spec sheet for the same model ballast I had linked in my second option. For the OP these Sylvania ballasts are a great deal as compared to the $50 hellolights ballast or the IceCap ballast. You can also look into getting one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Sylvania-51480-QHE4X54T5-Fluorescent-Ballast/dp/B004I39DSU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371657672&sr=8-1&keywords=sylvania+qhe+4x54 to power 4 of the bulbs. It's still a spec T5 ballast, but it is a high efficiency ballast and provides a BEF of about .9 while still giving a BF of 1.0. Best part about it is that you power 4 bulbs for $38!

This conversation has fully convinced me to replace the Workhorse ballasts in my Tek, I never bothered to look into the prices of these beyond aquarium retailers, it's a lot cheaper than I thought.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hi

here's a picture of my tank. I mixed up the position of the coral plus, thats corrected now. The 'Aqua blue plus' was supposed to be a Aqua blue special of course:

BACK
---
coral plus
blue plus
purple plus
blue plus
aqua blue special
blue plus
---
FRONT

Thanks very much. I like your tank and the light effect.

My light combination is as follows:

BACK
---
coral plus
blue plus
aqua blue special
blue plus
KZ Fiji purple (instead of purple plus)
blue plus
---
FRONT

 

[ivon1955]

So riddle me this, how is IceCap still in business by charging the ungodly amount they do for these ballasts, what are the up-sides to using/spending that kind of money? Thank you for all the input as well. I will be ordering three 2x54W Sylvania's for $90, seems like a great alternative to all others geared toward Reefers...can someone try to convince me otherwise?

 

[TimeConsumer]

So riddle me this, how is IceCap still in business by charging the ungodly amount they do for these ballasts, what are the up-sides to using/spending that kind of money? Thank you for all the input as well. I will be ordering three 2x54W Sylvania's for $90, seems like a great alternative to all others geared toward Reefers...can someone try to convince me otherwise?

The Icecap is still a nice ballast, particularly if you want to run VHO T12s. When running T5 it will overdrive them and it will put out more light than a spec ballast. However it does this at a cost of reduced efficiency, reduced bulb life, altered spectrum, and added heat. Still a good product, but at a high cost.