Lighting: Time for a change?

[elephen]

Alright well I have ALWAYS run halides since I can even remember but recently have been doing quite a bit of reading and research on T5's.

What what I can tell for the energy consumed vs. the energey that is put out it seems like a no brainer (I may be wrong). I have seen numerous T5 only tanks that look very sharp and have GREAT SPS growth and coloration.

I have a 120 (4x2x2) and have been looking at the Sunlight Supply TEK 48" 8 @ 54w T5 fixture.

What do YOU all think?

[Graham]

I think I love my halides.

How often do T5's need replacing? Has it been effectively established? (as in, independent non-manufacturer data). Replacing them any more than once per year seems prohibitively expensive.

Also, I have no idea on this either, but why would 400W of T5 be any more efficient than 400W of halide? Something to do with less energy lost as heat?

I dunno...I'd miss the glimmer lines.

[elephen]

Here is some points I have found...

1) a lot less heat with the T5's therefore less cooling costs
2) cheaper to bulb replacements and they say you can go for around 2 yrs with the T5 bulbs so that saves even more.
3) better light coverage and no shadowed areas, this is due to the fact that the bulbs cover the whole tank and can be angles so that light is over the whole coral. This should give you better color through out the whole coral.
4) Easier to adjust and tweak lighting by just changing a bulb or two.
5) Less energy use.
6) Nice low canopy with T5's.

[panic]

I thought that they must be replaced 6-9 mo without losing par. Wouldn't it be more expensive by using 4x as many bulbs? Nothing beats a vho for blue and you'd miss the shimmer effect, unless you ran a bunch of LEDs.
(cool, my first post on this forum - thanks for the invite!)

[elephen]

Doug- Nice to see you here...

According to everything I have read 2 years is how long a T5 bulb will be good for.

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by elephen

Doug- Nice to see you here...

According to everything I have read 2 years is how long a T5 bulb will be good for.

Remember the hype about PC's? Alot of these statments seem to be reruns about what they said then. Although I have seen some spectacular tanks using T5's I will wait until alot of people start using them so I have a good idea about what is hype by mfg's, and what is proven hobbiest fact.

One very nice SPS tank I saw posted on RC lit by t5's, although the owner did not speak easy english, he said that he starts to see a signifigant decreace in growth at 6 months (if I remember correctaly).

HTH,
Whiskey

[Wiskey]

This is a quote from the thread I speek of.

Lights:

At the moment

2 x54 watt ATI Aquablue Special
2 x54 watt ATI Blue plus
3 x80 watt ATI Aquablue Special
3 x80 watt ATI Blue plus

Makes 696 watts

I will stock it up to:

2 x54 watt ATI Aquablue Special
2 x54 watt ATI Blue plus
4 x80 watt ATI Aquablue Special
4 x80 watt ATI Blue plus

Makes 856 watts

Lights duration:
Blue Light: 08.00-09.00 and 21.00 -- 22.00

Blue ligth and full light: 09.00 -- 21.00

Moonlight: 22.00 -- 07.00 (LED)

Lamp change:
every 6-8 months

This explains why he changes them that often

@ melev

I know the marketing argument that T5 lights are up to 3 years utilizable.

T5 lights can burn for a long time but the loss of the spectrum is too heavy for a stone coral keeping after around 9 months.

Bernd Mohr has described 1999/2000 the effect. After 9 months the growth stagnated. After a change of the lights the corals grew again very well. I know these for all T5 users change their lights in the interval from 6-11 months.

This is the thread I took it from, one spectacular tank!!! Check the pics on the first page.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...5&pagenumber=1

Whiskey

[elephen]

Ah thanks for the info Wiskey.

T5's have been around for some time, they outnumber halide users in Europe. Not sure if we would consider it a 'trend' like BB. Just gave me some food for thought and my halides suck a TON of juice... Since that would be my primary thinking is they are more energy efficient.

My ballast is pulling 359w per ballast and I run 2. Of course I could run the IC electronics and pull 251w per ballast...

Hrm, food for thought

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by elephen

Ah thanks for the info Wiskey.

T5's have been around for some time, they outnumber halide users in Europe. Not sure if we would consider it a 'trend' like BB. Just gave me some food for thought and my halides suck a TON of juice... Since that would be my primary thinking is they are more energy efficient.

My ballast is pulling 359w per ballast and I run 2. Of course I could run the IC electronics and pull 251w per ballast...

Hrm, food for thought

I wasn't saying T5 bulbs were a "trend", I was just suggesting that alot of the information we are getting on them right now is MFG hype, and not independant peoples results.

I didn't know that T5 tanks outnumbered hilide tanks in Europe, if we could brouse one of those fourms for a while I bet we could really get some good information on them.

Are you using HQI balasts? Or just regular magnetic? I am using ARO electronic balasts and I think they pull really close to 250W per bulb.

Whiskey

[elephen]

HQI ballasts on SE bulbs =D PAR Power

What I'm currently running is a Sunlight Supply Blue Wave 7 dual 250w HQI ballast with 2 Sunlight Supply Reef Optix I pendants shining 250w 20k Radiums. The HQI ballast makes the Radiums look better then any other setup I've seen. Unfortunately the Radiums only last 6-9 months and they are $80-90 a bulb. Even wholesale the bulbs are not much cheaper.

I'm looking at selling my setup since I can get just about what I put into it and then get 2 IC 250w electronics and wire them into my ROI pendants. I'll probably go with the Reeflux 12k then.

[Graham]

I wish more people would invest in their own PAR meters and really get an idea of when their bulbs start to go downhill. I bet it would end up saving money in not replacing bulbs that are still plenty good. In every case I've seen where data was put up against "the word", the bulbs in question lasted longer than they were reported to. I know a PAR meter is very high on my list of what I'm getting next... Radiums only lasting 6 months (low estimate)??? I run XM 20Ks on HQI ballasts, too and I don't see a decline of any kind (growth-wise) with nearly 1 year-old bulbs...

[Wiskey]

Originally Posted by elephen

HQI ballasts on SE bulbs =D PAR Power

What I'm currently running is a Sunlight Supply Blue Wave 7 dual 250w HQI ballast with 2 Sunlight Supply Reef Optix I pendants shining 250w 20k Radiums. The HQI ballast makes the Radiums look better then any other setup I've seen. Unfortunately the Radiums only last 6-9 months and they are $80-90 a bulb. Even wholesale the bulbs are not much cheaper.

I'm looking at selling my setup since I can get just about what I put into it and then get 2 IC 250w electronics and wire them into my ROI pendants. I'll probably go with the Reeflux 12k then.

Oh, I see, you are trying to get more par out of lower par 20K bulbs. I have xm10K's so I don't need to worry about it as much.

I have a LUX meater, although not a par meater, it still gives me a good idea of how much light I am getting, my 6 month old xm10K puts out almost exactally as much lux as my 1 month old one, but XM's are supposed to last longer other bulbs, plus I am not pushing them as hard.

Whiskey

[elephen]

Wiskey - What ballast are you running those XM10ks with?

Graham - From my experience a Radium bulb on a HQI ballast running 8-10hrs a day is only good for 8-9 months but some have reported less. I have no hard facts/evidence to prove this but this has been my personal experience in using this setup over the past 2 years, you can really tell when you compare a brand new bulb vs. a bulb thats 7 months old.

[Wiskey]

I am running my XM10K's on ARO electronic balasts. I didn't always use them, but when I upgraded I bought 2 to save power and bulb life.

Whiskey

[elephen]

Are you supplimenting the 10k's with any atinics or just 10k only? The XM10k's look nice on electronic ballasts?