Who knows their lighting?

[sculdermut]

I'm thinking about getting a T5 retrofit for my 75 gallon. Reefgeek has two options for their 48" T5 kits: High Output and Very High Output. The HO set comes with two ballasts and drives the bulbs at the normal wattage of 54W. The VHO set comes with one Icecap ballast that overdrives the bulbs to about 85W, also making them run hotter.

Is it recommended to overdrive the bulbs to a higher wattage? I would be trading off the ability to set the lights on two timers since there's one ballast, and it would be adding heat. Also, would it be diminishing the bulb life and adding to the power usage? Or would it be worth it for the extra wattage? I'm hoping to run these over a mixed reef with SPS. I've never had T5, so I'm not sure what the best option would be.

 

[JR's Reef]

Yes it fine to overdrive them. I have some on Icecap ballast now.
Yes it does shorten the life of the bulb some they would need replaced around every 10months instead of 12 you can add a fan to blow across them and will last longer
Both ways the bulbs still get pretty warm addind fan will help them run cooler and last longer.
The bad things about overdiving them is it makes the blue bulbs look less blueor more white. You have to turn them on all at once.
I say do the icecap just because you plan on some SPS 4 bulbs. I also would add either 2 VHOs or 2 more non overdriven T5s to help with color and so you can cut them on 1st

 

[sculdermut]

Would it be better to go with 6 non overdriven T5s over the 4 bulb Icecap?

 

[hershell]

A standard ballast is 54w (48" bulb) and the IceCap is 85w. So the total on a standard ballast is 324w for 6 bulbs. The total on the IC is 340w for four bulbs. With the IceCap you don't have to spend $45 on two extra bulbs and you get 16 extra watts. The IceCap is overdriving the bulb so the intensity, which matters the most, is going to be better.