Cheap T5 Bulbs

This seems too cheap. Does anyone have any experience or input? If they are good bulbs I don't mind saving some money. I definitely don't want to waste money and have to buy expensive bulbs anyway; that's the opposite of what I'm trying to accomplish.

 

They do not list the name brand. I would contact them and ask them the brand of the bulb. They should be able to provide a spectrum chart as well. In general cheap bulbs are cheaply made bulbs. I would be skeptical.

 

You get what you pay for, especially when it comes to lighting. Unless this is a sale of some sort with nice high quality bulbs I would assume they are not very good. If they were good bulbs I would expect them to put a brand or something out there somewhere.

That said, it wouldn't hurt to give them a call and ask them for details like Matt said.

 

Dr. Foster & Smith has UVL t5's on sale for $15

 

Unless you know what brand they are I would steer clear.

UVL bulbs are OK, but unless you really want to save a couple bucks a bulb, I would get the ATI's, or geisseman's over UVL's any day. Now UVL's are much better than Current brand t5ho bulbs.

If you want a good cheap t5 bulb, get the ones from commodity axis. Their blue/ actinics are very nice looking, and have great PAR as well.

 

The Helios? Tom if I remember correctly, at least according to Grim, the levels on the Helios were pretty low...

 

At least the blue bulb was actually pretty good for PAR. I have a helios strip light with their blue bulb on it on my 200g for now. I modded the light to take one of my ATI t5 reflectors and it works very well.

Actually Grim sent me this helios light a few years back.

 

ATI all the way.. Go to ReefGeek.com they are great