ATI Sunpower {or other high end T-5,s}

[Doug]

Anyone used one long enough for bulbs changes? I,m going to purchase a 6 bulb 24in. unit. Looks like T-5 users on some of the Rc forums are barely getting 9 months out of the bulbs, on various units.

Thought T-5,s were suppose to last 18 months. And the fancy high priced properly cooled units were to help that. So if I switch from my halide my bulb cost doubles every year?

I was hoping to get about 14 months from a set.

[BlueTang<3]

using an 8X80watt 60" ati power-module and well 8 months in and i am going to be replacing the tubes next few weeks they are way dimmer now could hardly look at the tank with fixture was new now i can stare into the bulbs lol was running 4 ati blue plus and 4 aqua blue special great tubes got awsome growth from this light

[Doug]

That seems to be the norm I have read on RC.

Nobody else have to change bulbs yet?

[lorenz0]

most hardcore t5 owners out there change there bulbs every 4 months for maxium performance. thats why i used to sell my old 4 month bulbs

[Doug]

Originally Posted by lorenz0

most hardcore t5 owners out there change there bulbs every 4 months for maxium performance. thats why i used to sell my old 4 month bulbs

Well I wont be using T-5,s then.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by lorenz0

most hardcore t5 owners out there change there bulbs every 4 months for maxium performance. thats why i used to sell my old 4 month bulbs

So you telling me those owners with the large 10 or more bulbs units on their sps tanks, spend over $250 quarterly on bulbs?

[staceyd72]

Originally Posted by Doug

So you telling me those owners with the large 10 or more bulbs units on their sps tanks, spend over $250 quarterly on bulbs?

Yes, some do. My neighbor with a Stealth 12*80, every four months but a lot more than $250

I personally on my 10*80 Powermodule change every six months, at $350-400(I always get a few extra bulbs to play with colour)

Not cheap by any means.

[mike31154]

The price on some of the T5HO lamps out there makes me cringe too. I mean, it's not rocket science, they're much the same as any other fluorescent other than the particular flavour of gas/phosphors to produce the desired colour temperature. I started with a modest Hagen GLO two lamp fixture and eventually cobbled together my own more or less ghetto lighting system using components stripped out of an older MH/VHO fixture along with some new components such as waterproof T5 endcaps. DIYed a couple of lumenarc MH reflectors out of the Solar Tube material and hold it all together with some aluminum square & angle stock.

I now run two cheap 54 watt 10,000K T5HOs for the morning and afternoon/evening photo period and have two 250 MH 14000K (also cheap) lamps turn on and off sequentially during the 'midday' period. The T5HO are off while the MH are running. I don't have any exotic corals, some softies & LPS and all are doing very well, as is a BTA hosting my Maroon clowns. For my system this combo is working well, I don't keep track of when the T5s were installed, I intend to run them 'til they quit. I've added an individual fan blowing on the end of each tube and that seems to keep them going very bright, hardly any evidence of blackening at the ends after ?? months. I'm overdriving the T5s with a Workhorse 8 ballast. I think it really helps that everything is relatively open and the addition of the fans greatly increases the useful life of the lamps. Some of the high end T5 systems like Sfiligoi (?spelling) are real sleek and beautiful, but it's a challenge to ventilate a fixture with that many lamps crammed into a small enclosed area. Neither the lamps nor the ballasts do well with excess heat.

There's a limit to what I'm willing to spend on lamps to run my system, I observe and stuff is doing well so I prefer to leave the exotic bulb combinations and PAR readings to those with more disposable income. Here are several photos of my current rig. Not real pretty, but gets the job done. No T5HO vs MH debate for me, I use both, ha ha. LEDs might be in the future, but too complex, expensive and dubious reliability for my liking at the moment.

This one's from a while ago when I was running four T5HOs and would manually remove the center two T5 lamps every day to run the MHs for a few hours. I've since removed the two middle T5s and everything is on timers. And yes, that's plastic chain holding the rig, makes it fairly easy to raise a few links for better access to the tank.



12VDC fans mounted immediately above each end of each T5HO, blowing down.

[Doug]

Originally Posted by staceyd72

Yes, some do. My neighbor with a Stealth 12*80, every four months but a lot more than $250

I personally on my 10*80 Powermodule change every six months, at $350-400(I always get a few extra bulbs to play with colour)

Not cheap by any means.

Wow.

[Doug]

No matter the cost of T-5,s they are cheaper than those stupid 65w compact actinics I just bought for my 150w fixture, which I,m going to run on the new tank. Sheez, $41 for a stupid 2ft. bulb. Guess I will be running them until burn out time.

Not my first choice. The 6 bulb Sunpower would have been. But not @ over six bills and costly bulb changes.