T5 lighting

[niloc16]

i want the corals to thrive. i'm in the process of starting a 280 and currently have bought mh setup but i'm thinking of possibly going with 8/80w t5 setup, in europe they are big but i'm nervous as to whether or not they will be good for harder sps.

[muck]

There are some amazing SPS tanks lit with T5s.
Here is one of them that I had bookmarked. Is in german but you can plug it into Babelfish to make some sense of it..


http://www.hausriff.ch/4534/108355.html
http://babelfish.altavista.com/

[danny zubot]

How deep is the tank?

[niloc16]

30". thanks for the link muck but i couldnt find where they only ran t5's i think he was running 250w halides as well

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by niloc16

30". thanks for the link muck but i couldnt find where they only ran t5's i think he was running 250w halides as well

If that's Iwan's tank, then he's using an eight bulb ATI Power Module unit. It's strictly HO T5's.

[Reefer Rob]

I am 4 months into running a pure T5 setup, and so far I like it. LPS and all the varieties of SPS I have tried grow well side by side. I'm just getting to the end of the new tank cycle that started when I switched to T5s from PCs. Is there a reason why you don't want to use your MH setup?

[Tom R]

Originally Posted by albert_dao

If that's Iwan's tank, then he's using an eight bulb ATI Power Module unit. It's strictly HO T5's.

In the tank info posted it says that the tank is approx 225G (72x30x24) he is using 10 T5's 6 @ 80 watt and 4 @ 54 watt half of them are Actinic. He replaces them every 8 months. Excluding the heat problems with MH the cost of replacing these lights over say 3 250w MH would be substantial (approx $800 over $400)

It also says he is using a number of additives that sound a lot like the Polyp Lab's Reef-Resh system.

Tom R

[Chin_Lee]

Has any aquarist ever been able to successfully debate the pros of having multiple T5's that are equivalent in wattages comparable to that of metal halides?
I just cannot see the logic of having to buy 8 T5 bulbs to get 800 watts of lighting when you can achieve the same or better lighting with 3x250W or 3x150 MH bulbs?

Originally Posted by Tom R

In the tank info posted it says that the tank is approx 225G (72x30x24) he is using 10 T5's 6 @ 80 watt and 4 @ 54 watt half of them are Actinic. He replaces them every 8 months. Excluding the heat problems with MH the cost of replacing these lights over say 3 250w MH would be substantial (approx $800 over $400)

It also says he is using a number of additives that sound a lot like the Polyp Lab's Reef-Resh system.

Tom R

[albert_dao]

Here's a bit of a comparrision of some popular metal halide bulbs (all bulbs are SE 250 watts - Source Sanjay's website/Advanced Aquarist):

Iwasaki 6500K - 705 PAR

Ushio 10000K - 495 PAR

AB 13000K 250 - 577 PAR

XM 10000K 250 - 612 PAR

Here's a breakdown of the ATI brand T5's (all bulbs are 3' 39 watts - Source Grim_Reefer/RC):

Sun Pro - 357

Aquablue - 336

Blue Plus - 311

Actinic - 137

I think those numbers are pretty convincing...

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Has any aquarist ever been able to successfully debate the pros of having multiple T5's that are equivalent in wattages comparable to that of metal halides?
I just cannot see the logic of having to buy 8 T5 bulbs to get 800 watts of lighting when you can achieve the same or better lighting with 3x250W or 3x150 MH bulbs?

Iwan has a lot more light over his tank than he needs.

Also, Europeans replace their bulbs well before they start to have even the slightest change in performance. Kinda like how the Japanese replace their car engines at extremely low mileage (something like 50,000 km's if I recall correctly). A lot of people, namely Americans, run their bulbs for 12-14 months with very little decline in performance. Me, my Infiniti has over 180, 000 kms on it and I don't plan to throw it out anytime soon...