What brand of T5 bulbs to use?

WinnipegDragon · #1 07/30/2007, 01:53 PM

It occurs to me that in my months of reading here, I've never seen anyone mention what brand of T5 bulbs they are using...

Locally, I can get my hands on Geissmann and CoralVue. Are these brands okay or should I be hunting for something else?

Iammatt219 · #2 07/30/2007, 01:55 PM

best bet is to post which lighting setup you have, what you are keeping, and teh size of tank, in the T5 q&a thread and ask grim for an idea as he is probably the most knowledgable person on this subject

Ti · #3 07/30/2007, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by WinnipegDragon
It occurs to me that in my months of reading here, I've never seen anyone mention what brand of T5 bulbs they are using...

Locally, I can get my hands on Geissmann and CoralVue. Are these brands okay or should I be hunting for something else?

Not true.
Everyone here always talks about brands of T5.

Look into ATI for starters.

DarG · #4 07/30/2007, 02:09 PM

The Geisemann are excellent bulbs. Havent seen any info the Coralvue T5's. Geisemann. ATI, UVL are probably the top 3 high quality brands that are widely available. Then there are the KZ bulbs which are not widely available in the US but are also very high quality. Zeovit USA sells them and their Fiji Purple bulb is garnering alot of interest lately (about 10 bucks more for the KZ bulbs and some information that their blue bulb may be a relabeled Geisemann. The Fiji Purple is a unique bulb though) .

Then there are others like the Current USA bulbs which I believe are Chinese made and dont have the output or the quality of the others. Still, they do work and the color seems to be ok. They are usuable if money is tight or you already have them, IMO.

Helios has T5's and I think they are of lower quality as well but not sure.

AquaZ is another brand, not sure where they are made or of the overall quality. I've only seen them on 1 site and I think they are the same price or only a little less than the big 3.