Switching from MH to T5?

[MikeP]

Yeah I thought about that. I'm more interested in even light distribution and if I used a 6 bulb 54 watt T5 setup it might be worth it on power savings but maybe 6 bulbs wouldn't be enough.

Originally Posted by fishytime

Have you considered putting a couple fans in the canopy?

[i have crabs]

i read a study somewhere and when they tested different mh lights and ballasts most used huge ammounts of energy when starting up and while running,electronic ballasts ran at proper levels but i dont think the starting up was any better,im thinking of buying a kill-a-watt so i can test things myself and know for shure instead of just guessing all the time.
i have no proof myself but i would shure assume any mh light system is gonna use a heck of alot more power than a t5 of similar wattage

[Der_Iron_Chef]

Originally Posted by MikeP

Yeah I thought about that. I'm more interested in even light distribution and if I used a 6 bulb 54 watt T5 setup it might be worth it on power savings but maybe 6 bulbs wouldn't be enough.

Mike, how wide is your tank? Could you get an 8-bulb unit?

[i have crabs]

i say add a 3rd 250w with some t5s aninics or fji purples if thier is room.
if i had a 24" tall tank or shorter i think id keep the t5's i bought but im not satisfied with what i see from my corals, it would be good if someone had a lux meter and a par meter so we could test a bunch of set ups and actually have some numbers to judge things from instead of the same old argument.
i know i have other things to spend $500 on right now though,

heres a lilttle read about par even though its just about mh's

[MikeP]

The tank is 24 in wide. I've thought about adding a third pendent in the middle. It would be nice to get rid of those super hot ballasts in my stand rather than add another one though. Maybe I should save up and buy a MH T5 combo unit. I'm due to buy new bulbs for my current set up and I need a new capacitor for one of the ballasts so I figured if I was going to make the change now is the time.

[spreerider]

i read a study somewhere and when they tested different mh lights and ballasts most used huge ammounts of energy when starting up and while running,electronic ballasts ran at proper levels but i dont think the starting up was any better,im thinking of buying a kill-a-watt so i can test things myself and know for shure instead of just guessing all the time.
i have no proof myself but i would shure assume any mh light system is gonna use a heck of alot more power than a t5 of similar wattage

watts is a measure of power so there is no way 100w of mh could be more than 100w of T5... 100w is 100w of power, and yes there is a surge of power when a coil and core ballast is first turned on but its only for a very short time and wont increase your overall power consumption noticibly as it only lasts a fraction of a second.
a kilo watt meter wont show you a startup spike a sits too fast to see, you can make your own wattmeter with 2 multi meters by attaching a ammeter in series with the ballast and a voltmeter in parallel then multiply the values together gives you watts
Amps X Volts = Watts.

[midgetwaiter]

Originally Posted by spreerider

watts is a measure of power so there is no way 100w of mh could be more than 100w of T5... 100w is 100w of power

Sort of true. Most magnetic ballasts have a pretty awful efficiency factor and will end up drawing as much as 20% more power than they are rated at in normal use.

[i have crabs]

book i was readin said tar type ballasts use 20-30% more while electronic are almost perfect