T5s Q&A

Bluefish, I honestly never really thought about the flow with the monti cap. I should've though, it is only a few inches from a modded maxi jet!! Thats probably the reason!

As far as SLRs go, I don't know if Icecap's beat Aquactinic's as like mentioned, Aquactinics MADE IceCap's reflectors up until recently, so why would they make IceCaps superior to their own?

I have never heard the 1 lamp per 2" rule...... Aquactinics SLRs are really one of the few that are still only 2" wide... most companies are widening them for more coverage. I try to get the old 2" Teks from Chris at SLS but he says they are mostly all gone.

Nano, looking at your other threads and reading your PMs I think the Tek would be by far the easiest way to go. No unsightly things hanging from the ceiling, not having to worry about wiring your retro or the fan issue..... The only downside to the Tek is the four bulb aspect. But with the right lamps you should be able to find a suitable blend. Look towards the ATI first if you are looking for PAR, then like a broken record, Giesemann....

Good luck and welcome to the T5 club!

 

I heard it's a good club 8).

Now on to bulb choices, there are so many it is really hard to choose. Honestly, I think I might be done with UVL, there bulbs are just not that appealing and I have several different kinds. But then again maybe it is just the Nova fixture? One big long reflector can not be as good as SLR's, so perhaps that plays a key role? What about ATI and the rest, any bulb that is actually true actinic?

 

I've done the UVL route too, and while they aren't bad bulbs, I wanted something different. I have a four bulb fixture, Nova Extreme, and now have 2 x 54s Aqua Science Specials (15,000K) and 2 x 54w Aqua Science Blues (22,000K) I love these bulbs, the blue bulbs cause my corals to really pop, much more so then the Super Actinics. And with the daylights on, you get a really nice blue/white color.

 

I'm pretty sure the UVL is the best true actinic, and Tangster vouche for this. ATI's are sweet I lke them.. had UVL 12k hated it. The Fiji I would say puts out more of a whiter spectrum than blue. Im not usre that it's an actinic. It does however put out a red and blue specturm. It will make you purple and reds pop.

 

Giesemann makes a nice TRUE actinic.... As far as PAR is concerned UVL nor Giesemann beat ATI....
ATI's spectrum is fairly similar to the Giesemanns.
For bulbs... I would do 1:1 white to blue, unless you want more PAR or more blue... but that is up to you.....

UVL has a new bulb called 454 that is not so violet, it will be their BLUE bulb. Heard it is pretty nice....

Happy lighting!

 

As far as the reflectors go, James Fatherree did a study comparing PAR output between no reflector, single and SLRs and of course the SLRs crushed... I just can remember the exact percentage they one by...

 

i think the par of the slr's was more than double the par of the single reflector.

 

I think I might be going with some ATI bulbs perhaps. I do not want the fiji purple for PAR or anything else, just purely aesthetics. I have quite a few of both UVL and Giessemann actinic bulbs with a few others. The UVL 14k is not that great and the Giessemann AquaBlue+ was a huge dissapointment, no offence. It really washes out the color when using an actinic next to it. But maybe this will all change with a TEK fixture .

 

i agree with the giessemann statement.it def washes out everything .
you know i also got bored with the uvl's this is why i switched to g manns, but after making the switch i was more disappointed. not only the color but the g-mann honestly seem poorly made, with a lot of small defects like, parts of the inside of the bulbs not painted, 2" of black on each end. as well as a long start up. plus they are expensive. i just dont like g manns! imo imo imo

ill be tryin some ati as well, seems this is were everyone ends up at the end!.

but thats the nice part about t5s bulbs, they are not that expensive so you can try dif bulbs till you get what you like.

imo imo imo

 

which ati bulbs are blue? Is it the ati blue plus or the aqua blue?