T5 Question again.

[tray262]

OK, I've read soooooo much stuff. I've come to the conculion I'm going the T% route. Heat is my main concern. What I have is a 150 tall 4'x2'x30" tall I do have 4"-5" of sand in the bottom so it's not all that tall. I really like the tek lights my question is which one do I need 6 or 8 bulb. I'm thinking the 8 bulb if that's not over kill. Also I need help with my bulb selection. I also have a picture I will try to post this evening. So I can show where my shelves are. Most are at least 1/4 of the way up.

Thanks,
Terry.

[The Grim Reefer]

depending on what you want to raise I would consider the Ice Cap T5's, much brighter than the tek. For a mixed reef a 8 lamp Tek system will be fine. Lamp selection depends on personal taste. I don't like the tidybowl blue look so with 8 lamps I'd go 2 GE 6500K daylights, 2 Aquablue 11K's, 3 Blue/Actinic pluses and 1 Pure Actinic.

[tray262]

I've thought about the IceCap t5's BUT I really don't want the extra heat. and the shortened bulb life. I'm really going with the t5 because of the electric they use and the bulb life and the heat. So that being said would you say that I'm correct with tek or so you still think the IceCap is the way to go ? and I really don't like the SUPER blue either. I like the Metal Halide 10,000k-14000k look.

Thanks Grim.

[The Grim Reefer]

The Ice Cap ballast doesn't shorten the lamp life as long as you use a couple of fans to keep the lamps cool. What you can do is upgrade the standard Tek kits to Ice Cap reflectors for 5 bux a peice. That would be a very good investment on your part. The IC reflector was about 20% better than the Tek on my 24" tall tank.

The aquablue lamp is shown as 11K which is about right, very crisp white with a hint of blue. The GE 6500 has the hghest PAR output but has a slightly greenish yellow tint but having one in the mix really brings out red and yellow colors better. The D&D 6000K sun was a little more yellow and had just a little more PAR than the Blueplus lamp. The Blue/actinic plus creates a nice 20K radium blue look and fluoresces red and blue corals really well (provides a lot of PAR as well). The actinic(pure actinic) really pops green flurescence but has the typical ugly purple look most actinics have.

I would try 2 GE's, 2 Aquablues, 3 Blueplus and 1 Actinic. That should be pretty neutral. You might find you want to swap a GE out with a 3rd Aquablue but the GE lamps are dirt cheap so I would go ahead and try 2 of them to start.

[tray262]

Where can you upgrade the TEK to IC. I was looking at the Tek fixture is it possiable to do the upgrade with that ?

[The Grim Reefer]

reefgeek.com will do it. I think it is 5 bucks a reflector.

[tray262]

Grim, Thank you sir. You're suggestions are valued very much. Thanks. again.

[tray262]

Just contacted reefgeek.com said there's not an option to upgrade the reflectors on the fixtures. But that's ok. I think I'm still going to go with the tek light.

[The Grim Reefer]

No more upgrade option? He must have a lot of Tek reflectors piling up on him

[tray262]

Well he said he could do it on the retro kit, just not the fixture.

[The Grim Reefer]

Ahhh you need a whole fixture. My bad.

[tray262]

What do you think Nova Extreme High Output Fixture ? It is far more reasable in price.

[tray262]

Also is there any issues with the UV's at all ?

[The Grim Reefer]

No.

[tray262]

I was concerned that I needed the UV glass and all that, Did you see my post about the a Nova Extreme High Output ?

[The Grim Reefer]

I was concerned that I needed the UV glass and all that, Did you see my post about the a Nova Extreme High Output ?

No

The kicker for T5's is the individual parabolic reflector for each lamp. The Nova doesn't have them. I know you can add the reflectors to the Finnex T5 fixture PA sells but I am not sure about the Nova. Check out Ocean Encounters for a price on T5 fixtures.

[tray262]

Got ya, That's what I was affraid of. Oh well lots like the tek is going to do it for me. Thanks again.

[tray262]

Well I ordered the tek 8 bulb. I'm hoping that it makes it here by friday. Probally not, but we'll see. Anyways. I'm really looking forward to seeing this thing. Can't wait. Thanks Grim for all the input.

[The Grim Reefer]

Let us know how it looks.

[tray262]

Will do, I've got about another week before, I can start putting in fish. I can't wait.