The T5 Q&a Thread - split

[terri_ann]

Sorry guys but I'm still trying to figure out all this lighting:rolleye1: I have trouble buying light bulbs for lamps!:blown:

So corals grow by using the 420nm spectrum, which is the blue spectrum...correct?

The GE 6500 bulb is a daylight bulb? It is more yellow or more yellow and green...correct? Does it do much for coral growth? Does it do "more" for coral growth than the 420nm/ATI Blue Plus?

What does the Purple Plus/Fiji Purple do? Does it bring out certain corals' colors?

What does the AquaBlue Special do?

Thank you for understanding how dense I am with this! :facepalm:

 

[Michigan Mike]

Sorry guys but I'm still trying to figure out all this lighting:rolleye1: I have trouble buying light bulbs for lamps!:blown:

So corals grow by using the 420nm spectrum, which is the blue spectrum...correct?

The GE 6500 bulb is a daylight bulb? It is more yellow or more yellow and green...correct? Does it do much for coral growth? Does it do "more" for coral growth than the 420nm/ATI Blue Plus?

What does the Purple Plus/Fiji Purple do? Does it bring out certain corals' colors?

What does the AquaBlue Special do?

Thank you for understanding how dense I am with this! :facepalm:

420nm is more violet/UV than blue and not many bulbs are that low, mostly only actinic and 10k halides have that spectrum, yes it helps corals, but not to the extent of using it solely by itself.
Blue plus bulbs are 450-460nm (blue) and are similar to 420actinics but are much stronger and generally a much better spectrum for growth.
Both blue & actinics are used for coral flourescence.

Ge6500 & Aquablue special are also good growth bulbs because they have lots of blue spectrum and yellow & red spectrum, they are whiter looking bulbs and are beneficial for xooanthalgae also. Using a minimal number of these bulbs will help growth and keep your overall color from looking like a very blue tank, using multiples of these will make your tank look very white.
The ge6500 has high UV 380 & 420nm spikes and a higher 610nm red spectrum compared to the aquablue, I like the ge6500, although it is a little more yellow/red than the aquablue special it has a much broader spectrum and is potentially one of the best growth bulbs, it also pops your green/yellow colors in a more natural way impaired to blue & actinic flourescence.

Purple bulbs have lots of blue & red spectrum, thus creating a powerful yet very useful bulb for bringing out red/orange colors. Visually pleasing to enhance fish colors and is good to have one bulb be a purple bulb.

 

[chrisneill1987]

thoughts on this bulb combo for a sps tank
front to back
blue +
coral light
fiji pink
blue+
coral light
blue +
blue +
coral light

or would kz bulbs be better

 

[Michigan Mike]

thoughts on this bulb combo for a sps tank
front to back
blue +
coral light
fiji pink
blue+
coral light
blue +
blue +
coral light

or would kz bulbs be better

If you want a whitish/blue look its fine.

 

[terri_ann]

420nm is more violet/UV than blue and not many bulbs are that low, mostly only actinic and 10k halides have that spectrum, yes it helps corals, but not to the extent of using it solely by itself.
Blue plus bulbs are 450-460nm (blue) and are similar to 420actinics but are much stronger and generally a much better spectrum for growth.
Both blue & actinics are used for coral flourescence.

Ge6500 & Aquablue special are also good growth bulbs because they have lots of blue spectrum and yellow & red spectrum, they are whiter looking bulbs and are beneficial for xooanthalgae also. Using a minimal number of these bulbs will help growth and keep your overall color from looking like a very blue tank, using multiples of these will make your tank look very white.
The ge6500 has high UV 380 & 420nm spikes and a higher 610nm red spectrum compared to the aquablue, I like the ge6500, although it is a little more yellow/red than the aquablue special it has a much broader spectrum and is potentially one of the best growth bulbs, it also pops your green/yellow colors in a more natural way impaired to blue & actinic flourescence.

Purple bulbs have lots of blue & red spectrum, thus creating a powerful yet very useful bulb for bringing out red/orange colors. Visually pleasing to enhance fish colors and is good to have one bulb be a purple bulb.

Thank you SO MUCH Mike! Now THAT I understand!! :dance: I hadn't thought about UV and, what benefits xooanth-algae! Finally, things are beginning to be clear! :thumbsup:

 

[chrisneill1987]

If you want a whitish/blue look its fine.

if more blue what would you suggest, was not to keen on an actinic as was worried about loss of par

 

[Michigan Mike]

if more blue what would you suggest, was not to keen on an actinic as was worried about loss of par

Just use 2 coral plus or KZ new gen bulbs instead of 3.

Actinics will get washed out with so many bulbs.

 

[Deadcalm]

I'm looking for help on my lighting combination. It's almost perfect except I have a pink birdsnest that isn't looking as pink as I would like. When the lights are out and natural sun light hits it I can see that it's very pink. It looks washed out when my lights are on.

Here's my 8 bulb configuration (front to back)

Blue+
Purple+
Blue+
GE 6500
Blue+
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+

Thanks

 

[TropTrea]

I'm looking for help on my lighting combination. It's almost perfect except I have a pink birdsnest that isn't looking as pink as I would like. When the lights are out and natural sun light hits it I can see that it's very pink. It looks washed out when my lights are on.

Here's my 8 bulb configuration (front to back)

Blue+
Purple+
Blue+
GE 6500
Blue+
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+

Thanks

I have run into the same situation with birdsnest coral. The birdsnest has a lit of reflective red in it and in order to get it to look good you need a very strong element that is almost overpowering to the other florescent colors. The only way I got it looking good was with a lot of red light that made my other corals looked washed out.

My suggestion wou;ld first be trying a very moderate change buy moving the
GE bulb directly over the Birdsnest and putting a purple plus bulb next to the GE both ion front and behind it. This will help slightly.

The only time I had mine looking realy perfect was with a pair of GE bulbs and a pair of Purple Plus bulbs however even with 4 blue plus bulbs I had a lack of blue light to make my other corals look good and the rest of the tank started looking way too yellow compared to what I like.

This is one of those situations where coral choice as well as personal color preference will determine what bulb combination works good for you.

 

[Deadcalm]

I have run into the same situation with birdsnest coral. The birdsnest has a lit of reflective red in it and in order to get it to look good you need a very strong element that is almost overpowering to the other florescent colors. The only way I got it looking good was with a lot of red light that made my other corals looked washed out.

My suggestion wou;ld first be trying a very moderate change buy moving the
GE bulb directly over the Birdsnest and putting a purple plus bulb next to the GE both ion front and behind it. This will help slightly.

The only time I had mine looking realy perfect was with a pair of GE bulbs and a pair of Purple Plus bulbs however even with 4 blue plus bulbs I had a lack of blue light to make my other corals look good and the rest of the tank started looking way too yellow compared to what I like.

This is one of those situations where coral choice as well as personal color preference will determine what bulb combination works good for you.

Thanks and I'm glad it's not just me with the issue. Reds look great in the tank...it's just the pink.

I was thinking of trying the following:

Blue+
Coral+
Blue+
GE 6500
Purple+
Blue+
Coral+
Blue+


The birdsnest would be directly under the Purple+, but might be too white of a look then.

 

[TropTrea]

Sorry guys but I'm still trying to figure out all this lighting:rolleye1: I have trouble buying light bulbs for lamps!:blown:

So corals grow by using the 420nm spectrum, which is the blue spectrum...correct?

The GE 6500 bulb is a daylight bulb? It is more yellow or more yellow and green...correct? Does it do much for coral growth? Does it do "more" for coral growth than the 420nm/ATI Blue Plus?

What does the Purple Plus/Fiji Purple do? Does it bring out certain corals' colors?

What does the AquaBlue Special do?

Thank you for understanding how dense I am with this! :facepalm:

To realy explain this we need to look at the corals we are trying to grow and understand what makes them grow. Basicly these corals contain any of several photosynthetic chemicals that convert light to protein in the corals. Different coral have different chemicals in thios group and these chemicals can even be in different ratios depending on the light the corals have been accustomed to.

The main photosynthetic compounds found in corals are:
Chlorophyll a
Major absorption peak = 417 nm
Secondary absorption Peak = 655 nm
Chlorophyll b
Major Absorption peak = 436nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 625 nm
B carorene
Major Absorption peak = 447nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 475 nm
violaxanthin
Major Absorption peak = 445nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 475 nm
Additional Significant peak = 425nm
lutein
Major Absorption peak = 452nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 485 nm
Phycoerythrin
Single Absorbtion = 590 nm
Phycocynanin
Single Absorbtion = 625 nm


If you wanted optiumium growth for just one coral then the ideal thing would be to simply provide light at the specific frequencies that it requires for growth. But we also are concerned about the visual appearance as well so then two other of lighting fall into place.

1. Visual Reflective light. This is the light that the eye sees directly. Any surface that receives light at many frequencies will absorb most of those frequencies and reflect other frequencies. The human eye is sensative to these frequencies from 350nm to 720 nm. 465 nm is considered pure blue, 535 nm is considered green and 620 in considered pure red. The human eye and brain then takes the light we sees ans transulates it for us. Therefore if we see light at say 510 nm it tells us we have a combination of blue and green and we consider it Cyan, Simularly if we see a point radiating light at both 465nm and 620 nm it tells us the light is purple while it realy sees red and blue.

2. Florescent light. For many of this it is what gives most to the beauty to corals. Florescens is where a protein in a coral aborbs light of one wave lenght and then generates light of another wave lenght. There have been well over several hundred of these chemicals found in corals. Again each coral has specific ones in different ratios. An extrem example of one of these is Kelma-Red which is found in some monitora corals. If you shined only a blue light on it at 440 nm it would transmit back to your eye light at 620 nm which would look red. Most of the frequencises that are required for florescense are the shorter wave lenghts which is why people prefer a lot of blue light to enhance the florescense but they do extend throughout and even beyound visual spectrum.

The last concept to keep in mind is that light in the ocean is not the same as light on land. The ocean has many particles in it it the reflect and abosrb the light waves. There fore the deeper you go into the ocean the less longer wave lenghts of light you will see compared to the shorter wave lenghts. This is what gives the ocean the blue look as you go deeper and even if you deep enough makes it look like night time even at noon.

Dependednt on the dept corals have adapted to the available light that they receive over hundereds and thousands of years. Therefore from deeper waters we see corals from more dependent on blue light they are compared to red light.

Mike did a good jub of describing light bulbs for you but I will add on factor and that is the color temperature that so many people mention in these threads. Color temperature refers to the color that that black iron glows at when it is heated to a set temperature in Kelvin. When you heat up iron is begins to glow around 800 degrees Kelvin this color it starts glowing in red but as the temperature increases its color glow changes untill it hits around 40,000 K when it is glowing a cyan color. the tungstine light bulbs of old glows at about 3,000K and the daylight light bulbs glow around 6,500K.

 

[LetoII]

I remember someone posting about how they added a fan to their 24" 4x24w aquatic life as well as replaced the reflectors. Does anyone have info on who did this I wanted to ask their advice. Thanks.

 

[terri_ann]

To realy explain this we need to look at the corals we are trying to grow and understand what makes them grow. Basicly these corals contain any of several photosynthetic chemicals that convert light to protein in the corals. Different coral have different chemicals in thios group and these chemicals can even be in different ratios depending on the light the corals have been accustomed to.

The main photosynthetic compounds found in corals are:
Chlorophyll a
Major absorption peak = 417 nm
Secondary absorption Peak = 655 nm
Chlorophyll b
Major Absorption peak = 436nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 625 nm
B carorene
Major Absorption peak = 447nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 475 nm
violaxanthin
Major Absorption peak = 445nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 475 nm
Additional Significant peak = 425nm
lutein
Major Absorption peak = 452nm
Secondary Absorption Peak = 485 nm
Phycoerythrin
Single Absorbtion = 590 nm
Phycocynanin
Single Absorbtion = 625 nm


If you wanted optiumium growth for just one coral then the ideal thing would be to simply provide light at the specific frequencies that it requires for growth. But we also are concerned about the visual appearance as well so then two other of lighting fall into place.

1. Visual Reflective light. This is the light that the eye sees directly. Any surface that receives light at many frequencies will absorb most of those frequencies and reflect other frequencies. The human eye is sensative to these frequencies from 350nm to 720 nm. 465 nm is considered pure blue, 535 nm is considered green and 620 in considered pure red. The human eye and brain then takes the light we sees ans transulates it for us. Therefore if we see light at say 510 nm it tells us we have a combination of blue and green and we consider it Cyan, Simularly if we see a point radiating light at both 465nm and 620 nm it tells us the light is purple while it realy sees red and blue.

2. Florescent light. For many of this it is what gives most to the beauty to corals. Florescens is where a protein in a coral aborbs light of one wave lenght and then generates light of another wave lenght. There have been well over several hundred of these chemicals found in corals. Again each coral has specific ones in different ratios. An extrem example of one of these is Kelma-Red which is found in some monitora corals. If you shined only a blue light on it at 440 nm it would transmit back to your eye light at 620 nm which would look red. Most of the frequencises that are required for florescense are the shorter wave lenghts which is why people prefer a lot of blue light to enhance the florescense but they do extend throughout and even beyound visual spectrum.

The last concept to keep in mind is that light in the ocean is not the same as light on land. The ocean has many particles in it it the reflect and abosrb the light waves. There fore the deeper you go into the ocean the less longer wave lenghts of light you will see compared to the shorter wave lenghts. This is what gives the ocean the blue look as you go deeper and even if you deep enough makes it look like night time even at noon.

Dependednt on the dept corals have adapted to the available light that they receive over hundereds and thousands of years. Therefore from deeper waters we see corals from more dependent on blue light they are compared to red light.

Mike did a good jub of describing light bulbs for you but I will add on factor and that is the color temperature that so many people mention in these threads. Color temperature refers to the color that that black iron glows at when it is heated to a set temperature in Kelvin. When you heat up iron is begins to glow around 800 degrees Kelvin this color it starts glowing in red but as the temperature increases its color glow changes untill it hits around 40,000 K when it is glowing a cyan color. the tungstine light bulbs of old glows at about 3,000K and the daylight light bulbs glow around 6,500K.

Oh my Dennis, Thank You!! No wonder I have had trouble understanding lighting. There are so many things involved which I didn't realize! You and Mike have given me/us so much information to process and consider, I know it is going to take me a few re-readings and further processing. I'm sure once I have had the time to process all this, things will become clearer and easier :thumbsup:

Thank you again for taking the time to share allthis with me/us! Folks like you and Mike who share their knowledge with others are, well, just precious and deserve many Kudos!!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[1SlickFish]

I will never get to the end of this so I will post my question before I go to bed.

Finding a 72" unit on my budget and in my area is next to impossible but I found one. I picked up a 12 x 39w 6 row unit and not an 8 row unit. I was going to retro fit it with 60" bulbs which gives me 2 options. Option 1 is to remove the middle end caps, adjust the two outer end caps closer in and run 6 80w single ballasts (allows me to reduce electricity and a step down lighting effect) in a crappy current reflector, or, (option 2), take the 48" ice cap reflectors, put them together to make 60" and retro fit 4 bulbs with the ice cap reflectors.

Which would be the better choice on a 72"x18"24"tall tank?

Also, I have 3 rows of 460nm actinic's and 3 rows of Current 10k's. To me it is just at that point of turning blue but still has the hint of orange/red/ I am thinking i want to go one step bluer and stay there. Any idea what color bulb I would be looking at? I am trying to stay away from mixing colors. If i have to supplement anything, i would probably do it with LED's, if anything, but, again, trying to stay away from mixing colors.

One last thing. I was reading where Grim Reefer said "overdriving 80w bulbs like a 54w bulb makes the 80w bulb give out less PAR than if the 80w bulb was run on a normal ballast.". Does anyone know about this phenomenon? And, if so, can you run a 80w bulb at all and get better light out of it? If yes, how much more should it be over driven before you start getting a loss in return?

Thanks in advance

 

[TimeConsumer]

First off, have you already purchased the 12x39w 72" fixture you mentioned?

I'm a little confused by your two retrofit options. Option 1 is pretty straightforward, move the endcaps around and turn a 12x39w into a 6x80w. I don't quite understand what you mean for option 2. Are you planning on doing the exact same thing as option 1, except four of the bulbs will get icecap reflectors and the remaining 2 bulbs keep the current reflectors? If so, that's a much better option.

For your bulbs, you may have lost me there too. You say you don't want to "mix colors". I assume you mean you don't want to use several different bulb types (like you are now with the 460nm and 10k). Is there any reason why? If you absolutely had to have all of the same bulb I would use all ATI Coral Plus bulbs, but it's not ideal. One of the best combinations around is 4x Blue Plus, 1 Purple Plus, and 1 GE 6500k.

Finally, do you have a link to the full post that contains Grims statement? I prefer to have the full context. As far as I can tell it seems he is comparing overdriving a 48" 54w T5 to run at 80w using an Icecap ballast to overdriving a 60" 80w T5 using a ballast with a higher ballast factor. It may be true that it puts out less par when a 60" bulb is run above 80w. Regardless, I think it is better to run a bulb at its spec wattage to maximize lifespan and optimum bulb spectrum, so it is a non-issue. Besides you will be hard-pressed to find an 80w T5 ballast with a ballast factor above 1.

 

[1SlickFish]

Yes, I already bought the unit. I figured if I didnt like it, at $100 I could easily sell it back out to a fresh water user worst case scenario.

Yes, option 2 would be more time consuming, but, I would get another piece of rectangular metal, redrill the holes to mount the end caps with perfect spacing so the icecap reflectors would be butted against each other, then, take that drilled piece of bar metal and drill two mounting holes for it. I would then attach it to the existing bracket in the housing. I would then add 3 clips on the t5's to keep the reflectors spaced evenly above the light.

As for the same color bulbs... As in nature, the sea doesn't get a blast of full light for 10 hours.Obviously it ramps up and then down. I want to keep the same color in the tank on ramp up and ramp down. I will take look over growth, but, plants still need to stay healthy. I also like a fairly bright tank (at high noon of course, cant do that with one bulb) but do not like yellow or dark blue spectrum so trying to find my middle.

I will try to find the quote of grims but it is too buried to find it as of this writing, but, he said......... whew, just found it, top of page 5 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=724967&page=5 "Normally driven 80 watt T5's are brighter than the 54 watt lamps, when you overdrive them the opposite is true.".

If so, how far can/should we overdrive 80w t5's before we start losing out on watts/PAR gains?

Also, Grim said he is done with T5's. Whats he up to know, lol?

 

[1SlickFish]

Yes, I already bought the unit. I figured if I didnt like it, at $100 I could easily sell it back out to a fresh water user worst case scenario.

Yes, option 2 would be more time consuming, but, I would get another piece of rectangular metal, redrill the holes to mount the end caps with perfect spacing so the icecap reflectors would be butted against each other, then, take that drilled piece of bar metal and drill two mounting holes for it. I would then attach it to the existing bracket in the housing. I would then add 3 clips on the t5's to keep the reflectors spaced evenly above the light.

As for the same color bulbs... As in nature, the sea doesn't get a blast of full light for 10 hours.Obviously it ramps up and then down. I want to keep the same color in the tank on ramp up and ramp down. I will take look over growth, but, plants still need to stay healthy. I also like a fairly bright tank (at high noon of course, cant do that with one bulb) but do not like yellow or dark blue spectrum so trying to find my middle.

I will try to find the quote of grims but it is too buried to find it as of this writing, but, he said......... whew, just found it, top of page 5 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=724967&page=5 "Normally driven 80 watt T5's are brighter than the 54 watt lamps, when you overdrive them the opposite is true.".

If so, how far can/should we overdrive 80w t5's before we start losing out on watts/PAR gains?

The current 10k and 460 actinic combination is knocking at the preferred color spectrum door that I like. If I can just tip over into the bluer side I think I would have what I am looking for. I have 20k halides with a purple hue to them and do not like that, so, purple/pink/red is not for me. I am sooo close to my prefered color I can just........well...... see it, lol.

Also, Grim said he is done with T5's. Is he playing with LEDs? Whats his take on them compared to the beloved T5's? Whats he up to now, lol?

 

[TropTrea]

I will try to find the quote of grims but it is too buried to find it as of this writing, but, he said......... whew, just found it, top of page 5 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=724967&page=5 "Normally driven 80 watt T5's are brighter than the 54 watt lamps, when you overdrive them the opposite is true.".

If so, how far can/should we overdrive 80w t5's before we start losing out on watts/PAR gains??

Having worked with florescent bulbs professionaly for a few years I will say that simple wattage is not the only driving factor on the bulb effeciency and output. Different phosphate mixtures react differently to overdiving. But if your looking for output per watt then I would not overdrive. Most test showed that if you give them 10% more power your return is only 5% more light, and 15% less bulb life. But pther factors also fall in like the cooling of the bulb.

The current 10k and 460 actinic combination is knocking at the preferred color spectrum door that I like. If I can just tip over into the bluer side I think I would have what I am looking for. I have 20k halides with a purple hue to them and do not like that, so, purple/pink/red is not for me. I am sooo close to my prefered color I can just........well...... see it, lol.?

I will agree with you that I do not like a purple tank. This is where a balance of red- green- and blue is so very important. The other factor to consider is that light in wave lenghts shorter 470 nm starts looking less blue and more violet to the eye. Yet corals need light in these shorter wavelenghts. Now add to this that everyones comor preference is different and there eye sensativity is different especialy in those shorter wave lenghts you have no perfect combination for everyone.

An example of the purple blue issue can be seen with easily with LED's. One of my first LED tanks was light with 80% of the LED''s being 454 nm. 5% with 420 nm, and 15% with full spectrum. To me it initialy looked too blue nut some others thought it was too pink. I light another tank next to it with 50% of the 454 nm leds 35% 470 nm LED's 15% full spectrum LED's and 10% 420 nm LED's. The two tanks next to each other made the first one look obfiously pink compared to the second one that was obviously blue.

Also, Grim said he is done with T5's. Is he playing with LEDs? Whats his take on them compared to the beloved T5's? Whats he up to now, lol?

I still ocassionaly exchange email with Grim. He talkes me into going with the my first LED tank. I will say now after playing with T-5's for about 10 years and LEd's for about 3 years they each have there specific advantages and disadvantages. The big advantages of LED's are less power consumed and less worry about changing your "bulbs" regularly. But there are parts of the light spectrum that T-5 can produce more light in that the LEd's still fall behind. Therefore to me the ideal is a combination of these two lighting sources.

 

[TimeConsumer]

As for the same color bulbs... As in nature, the sea doesn't get a blast of full light for 10 hours.Obviously it ramps up and then down. I want to keep the same color in the tank on ramp up and ramp down. I will take look over growth, but, plants still need to stay healthy. I also like a fairly bright tank (at high noon of course, cant do that with one bulb) but do not like yellow or dark blue spectrum so trying to find my middle.

I will try to find the quote of grims but it is too buried to find it as of this writing, but, he said......... whew, just found it, top of page 5 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=724967&page=5 "Normally driven 80 watt T5's are brighter than the 54 watt lamps, when you overdrive them the opposite is true.".

If so, how far can/should we overdrive 80w t5's before we start losing out on watts/PAR gains?

So, you want to use all of one bulb type specifically to avoid a color change for between the daylight and dawn/dusk periods? If that's really what you want to do, I would use all coral plus bulbs, but you may not be happy with the color compared to something like a combination I mentioned earlier. You could always just skip the dawn/dusk period and use all 6 bulbs combined with dimmable ballasts to keep a constant color at varying degrees of intensity.

Back to the subject of overdriving. I wouldn't overdrive the bulbs at all. There are some PAR gains when it is done properly (or maybe not, Grim was rather cryptic and doesn't go into detail on the 60" bulbs), but you reduce the bulb's lifespan and alter its spectrum. You mentioned above that growth isn't your main concern so there should be no reason to bother with overdriving. Especially if your fixture doesn't have active cooling, you will kill the bulbs in less than 6 months.

To sum up our conversation so far:

• You want a 6x80w fixture
• You want a consistent spectrum throughout the day without changing colors between dawn/dusk and daylight
• You want higher PAR from high quality reflectors or possibly overdriven bulbs

It sounds to me like your best course of action would be to sell the fixture you currently have and get a 6x80w ATI Dimmable Sunpower. You will be able to use a combination of bulbs for ideal visual spectrum and growth yet ramp them up and down throughout the day. You will get the highest power T5 unit on the market with the best reflectors, ballasts, and cooling. Otherwise, if you want to keep your fixture and do all the DIY work, I would use dimmable ballasts and the IceCap reflectors or LET Miro-4 reflectors.

 

[1SlickFish]

TropTrea:

Yea, I was thinking of incorporating some LEDs. I would have about 1/2-1" space between the reflectors I could shove some LEDs into. Question is, do I go with white LEDs and blue bulbs or blue LEDs and white-ish bulbs???

Yea, cryptic is exactly that, lol. I got really excited when I saw he used 80w bulbs, but, he is quiet about his setup. I see Grim still posts but I didint want to bother him. There is a reason he stopped posting in the T5 section, but, I am curious what he is up to. He knows T5's so I am sure he is on a quest to match LED's to the T5's he was so fond of using. I am curious what he thinks of this new fangled technology and what lights he fancy's.



TimeConsumer:

I am on a limited budget so I dont know if I could afford a ATI dimable sunpower unit, sadly. I actually do have 2 fans on the side and 2-3 on the top of the unit, so, I do get some cooling out of it.

How does the t5 bulbs react to being dimmed 75%? Do they still last as long? Does it screw up the bulb not running them full on?

I also just found a post that said they dont make a 60" dimmable unit. I will have to check into that more even though i know it is out of my price range.