what would u do, for lights?

[schulace123]

thanks for the help.........i am goin to get mh...just becuase this will be my last big tank, and i have never had mh ever.

i think i will move the tank to the basement.....where it is atleast 5 to 7 degrees cooler....that will be a project :eek1:

 

[ChemE]

8BALL_99,

Thats interesting; I've not seen many people remark that their growth was better under MH than T5. Of course, there is someone on RC advocating for or against everything. It would seem that lots of people do get good growth under T5's. I'm not disputing your observation just offering that some T5 setups seem to do well. Just out of curiousity, were you using single lamp reflectors on that setup? Were the reflectors high quality (IceCap) or lower quality? I'm just trying to understand why you observed the opposite of what others do.

Regarding bulb changes, you failed to mention that MH need changing every 6 months while T5's can go 18-24 before they color shift. Certainly if that is the case T5's are markedly less expensive to maintain.

 

[Ti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6552188#post6552188 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ChemE
8BALL_99,

Thats interesting; I've not seen many people remark that their growth was better under MH than T5. Of course, there is someone on RC advocating for or against everything. It would seem that lots of people do get good growth under T5's. I'm not disputing your observation just offering that some T5 setups seem to do well. Just out of curiousity, were you using single lamp reflectors on that setup? Were the reflectors high quality (IceCap) or lower quality? I'm just trying to understand why you observed the opposite of what others do.

Regarding bulb changes, you failed to mention that MH need changing every 6 months while T5's can go 18-24 before they color shift. Certainly if that is the case T5's are markedly less expensive to maintain.

Power compacts are speculated to last 6 months.
Halides last longer than 6 months, halides are to be swapped out every 1yr.
T5's are still speculated to last up to 2yrs, on the safe side people tend to swap out annualy at 1yr.
Remember that T5 cautionary thread?
Alot of the answers are in there.
I think even RJwilson is on MH now.

BTW specturm plays a very pivitol role, not just par.
There is no doubt that the par is there with T5, but MH offers a broader spectrum where as the flourescent T5 has a large Peak at it's rated spectrum.

 

[schulace123]

thanks again guys for the replys.....yah i think MH need to be swapped out ever like 8 mouths right?

 

[E-A-G-L-E-S]

8-12 months for M.H. bulbs
.....i couldn't do without my shimmer

 

[tkeracer619]

I just installed my 3 250w 10k reeflux bulbs on coralvue electronic ballasts. They have only been on for 30 minutes and i know they need to burn in but jeese im glad i went with MH. These things are awsome. My whole living room is HID now :rollface:

 

[8BALL_99]

My T5 lights had a one reflector..It was Highly polished not cheap at all.. The single reflector per bulb do a lil better. But I could have bought a new MH fixture for what a Tek light cost.. Its 300 bucks with no bulbs.. So that would have been 420+ times Two.. 840.00 for T5s lol ..Nope not doing it... I went with Finnex fixtures They are 306.00 With bulbs.. Still over 600 bucks.. But like I said the bulb changes hurt...around 240 bucks.. Really more then that cause I ended up getting some ATI bulbs last time.. They run about 26 bucks each....That comes out to 312.00! bucks for bulbs. Don't get me wrong T5s aren't bad.. But they are not as good as MH and I'm not paying the same price or even more for T5s then MH...I rather have MH... Now if you have a small tank and you just want a lil light then I think they are great.. But for larger tanks it takes so many bulbs to get decent light.. They just aren't practical IMO Plus no SHimmer!!:mad2:

Will