t5 vs MH

Thanks for the depth dimension. I'd think at 14", you can't go wrong with T5s. With enough of them, I'd think you might be able to keep all corals--even SPS.

EDIT: I did not look at your link, my comment was in general about T5s on a 14" tank.

 

I wouldn't buy anything coming from China on eBay. I'd stick with a known brand. Look at Current USA, Tek or Giesemann fixtures. Also id you're concerned about heat look for one that is fan cooled. I have a Current Nova Extreme Pro and I really like it.

 

you do know that is a 220 volt light and 3 months is not a very good warranty

 

So this is going on a 29g biocube?


Will a 2 foot light fit on the biocube?

That light, while not expensive, has 2 negatives going against it.

1. lack of individual parabolic reflectors for each bulb, and
2. assumedly cheap bulbs. 4 whites and 2 blues will probably be too white for your tastes. Then you would need to spend more $$ on at least a couple new good quality t5ho bulbs. Those run around $20-25 a piece. You would also need to verify that that fixture uses standard length bulbs, otherwise if they are off by a little either way, then you can't use normally bought t5 bulbs.

The lack of individual parabolic reflectors does negate a lot of the light power that t5s are capable of. That said, I know guys with Current Nova extreme t5 fixtures that keep RBTA's and other coral sin the tanks. Those nova extremes don't ahev individual parabolic reflectors, but rather 1 large reflector for all the bulbs.

Just a couple things to ponder I guess.

 

OK then, I found this one at drs foster and smith:

Aquarium Lighting for Reef Systems: Current Nova Extreme Pro Saltwater T-5 Fixtures

Plus from what I can tell it's on sale pretty cheap.

So nobody knows of a mod out there to use t5s in a biocube hood? I'm not wanting to keep the PC lights, just switch them out entirely.

 

the novas are decent lights, but the bulbs are not the best either. At least I know for sure that the bulbs are normals std size.Those bulbs will work Ok, but you can get by a year with the stock ones just fine.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the wording from their snippet . . . "SlimPaq T-5 fluorescent lamps are optimized with individually contoured reflectors to direct useable light into your aquarium. . . " is denoting a single reflector with multiple bends to simulate individual reflectors, but isn't actually one reflector per bulb.

If this is not the case, I'd like to know from someone who has this fixture.

About your hood, I'm not familiar with what the inside looks like. Could you not utilize a retro kit and buy the individual bulbs, reflectors, socket ends, ballast, and mount it to the underside of your hood? Remember, if you went this route, you should strongly consider a splash guard.

 

I'm not sure about the retro kits, I'll have to look into that. Here is a pic of what the inside of the hood looks like: http://fishtankkit.com/Biocube%20lighting%20image.jpg

 

Good picture. It appears the ballast would be underneath that white, vented piece of sheet metal. Maybe you could make it all work somehow. Epoxy would probably suffice to get the standoffs/socket ends in place. I wonder how many T5s can fit in the space that currently houses those PC lamps??

 

Sparky, companies like to use tricky wording to make some think that they have individual reflectors per bulb, when it is not the case.
If you were to mount a retro inside the canopy, which would be a very good way to do it IMHO, I would mount the ballast remotely, and skip the shield. Those typically just decrease lamp output, and decrease lamp life as well. You would need waterproof endcaps if you eschew the shield though.

See, the salt can easily crud up the shield, and the shield itself blocks light even if clean.

The hood could be vented, but it would be best to have the ballast out of the place that the bulbs are.