lighting questions (1 Viewer)

[incysor]

I'm upgrading from my 55 to a 75 in the next couple weeks. I'm thinking of upgrading my pc lights to vho or t5's, perhaps lower wattage halides if the cost would be comparable. Can someone tell me what the differences/advantages between VHO and t5's are? I tried searching over at RC, but they've got the search function disabled right now.

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Guest]

outout and size are the biggest differences. A 46.5/48in VHO is 110w versus 54w T5. However the T5 is like 1/3 the diameter of the VHO. I personally am very satisfied with the T5's, I think the actinic and the blue bulbs together are awesome.
you would have to double the T5 to equal the VHO, but they are smaller so it's easy to do. Pricewise, you can run 4 off of a Workhorse 7(a WH7 is only like $35) so for 75-80 bucks you can have 8 T5's which is the same as an Icecap($125) running 4 110 VHO.
The T5's probably run cooler but not by much.

I don't think you'll go wrong either way.

 

[aqua-nut]

Brian, I'm now kinda dissapointed I replaced all 600 watts of my PC bulbs versus just going with MH. If you haven't checked out this ebay reseller, you should... they have great prices on MH retrofit kits and the prices are really good:

http://stores.ebay.com/Cool-Touch-Lighting

 

[incysor]

I was considering trying one of these....Anyone know anything about them? I know that there are several grow light, and security lights out there that you can simply screw a MH bulb into and they're much cheaper than going with the normal MH setups. I also know they generally don't look as nice, and a canopy might be needed in order to hide them.

B

 

[HolyBanana]

MH is the way to go with some athinic VHOs. Thats what I use.

 

[Niko5]

I used T-5's for a while and I really liked them they run fairly cool (dont heat the water anyway) and the light you get from them is very nice as well as the blue plus is really nice... I had some growth from them but I think I was a couple bulbs short of very nice growth (I only have 4 bulbs and I needed 6...) but now I use MH mainly becuase my tank is 6ft now and the T-5s would have cost me twice as much to light that big of a tank but the MH is very nice and gives great growth... basicly If you can squease 6 T-5's in your hood you will be happy with them.. if you cant then go with the MH.

 

[AggieBrandon]

Ok. I have a question? How much do the T5 bulbs cost compared to VHO? If I can use 4 VHO bulbs for say 24 bucks each and get 440 watts of light how much would it cost to get T5 bulbs to equal the lighting equivalent of the 4 VHO's? Just curious if the T5's are worth it in the long run after bulb replacement etc.

Brandon

 

[Niko5]

Go to www.reefgeek.com and see what T-5 bulbs cost but most are i think like 19 bucks. plus if you dont overdrive them they will last 2 years.

 

[AggieBrandon]

Interesting....VHO and T5 are about the same cost wise then if the T5's can really last 2 years. I would like to see some tests on the T5's after a one year and then two year time frame to see how the bulbs stand up to VHO.

Thanks.

Brandon

 

[Niko5]

Email the guy at reef geek i THINK his name is greg ask him if he knows where you can see the tests about the bulbs he talked to me about it once.. and i know somewhere on reefcentral they are doing it.. but where is beyond me right now hehe

 

[AggieBrandon]

Thanks Nick. You seem to have done your research already...lol. I think I will stick to my VHO's for now especially since they are already paid for and set up. But may look into doing some of the T5's on a later creation.

Brandon