T5 bulbs

[Nas19320]

Does anyone know of an online site that sells T5 bulbs cheap.

[moonpod]

T5 bulb pricing is relatively fixed currently cause there are count 'em ONE supplier of ATI bulbs to the US currently. So they are NOT going to be significantly priced different from retailer to retailer. Now that being said, soon, cheap @$% chinese T5 bulbs are on their way to market soon--but it might be a case of you get what you pay for. The GE bulbs, made in Europe, have been ABUSED and last a long time and are relatively cheap. Problem is they are only in the 6500k color flavor, which is REALLY yellow. ATI bulbs are also putatively made in Europe--and my first hand experience w/them is they seem well made--granted I've only had 'em running for like 3 months now.

BTW, my favorite retailer for this stuff is reefgeek.com

[Nas19320]

Ok so for a 4 bulb configuration what bulbs would you suggest. I was thinking two 6500k and two atinics. I was wanna be able to do dawn/dusk with this setup also.

[musashi666]

That's what I've got (2-day/2-actinic) and it is a tad bit on the pinkish side but when my 250w 10K Ushio's fire up the color is amazing!!! (In my opinion)

[Obi-dad]

moonpod (aka T5 guru), I am planning on T5s mostly because I don't want the heat of halides in my office.

What is the current configuration of your setup (how many bulbs of each color temp, in the order from front to back)?

I have read you have individual reflectors, do you have any 'striping' due to different color temp bulbs?

Do you get any glitter lines? I have read that you can get glimmer lines from T5s if you have focused reflectors at the proper height to focus on the surface (because even though they are not point sources they are narrow line sources) - but I have a hard time believing this without verification since at 5/8" they are not true line sources. (I am hoping you will say yes you can get glimmer lines!)

[moonpod]

I currently, on a 55/60 gallon tank (four feet by 1 foot essentially) have a 4x54w setup. Waterproof endcaps, individual "W" reflectors (sunlight supply suntek or something like that), IC 660. Order of bulbs is from font to back ATI aquablue (11kk), aquablue, GE 6500k, ATI arctinic. No striping, sometimes I get something like glitter lines, but I'm not sure why or when. In general no, it's still a fluorescent not quite line source.....I'm thinking maybe when I had it set up w/separate ballasts and only one or two bulbs, not next to each other I got glitter lines.....honestly if you want those set up a small halide.....

[Obi-dad]

moonpod, I think I had read you were at one time overdriving the T5s, are you still overdriving? If not, why did you stop?

[moonpod]

Currently I am still overdriving--why, b/c the ballast I have is an IC660, which overdrives the bulbs. I am probably going to continue to overdrive w/my new tank that I'm setting up (see signature), why, b/c I have IC's....I would NOT overdrive w/workhorse ballasts--those things will PROBABLY (nothing is proven like in a lab) dramatically decrease bulb life w/the combo of overdriving and instant start. Industrial lighting research indicates that instant start will "dramatically" decrease bulb life unless your burn cycle is greater than 12 hrs. I will say that even normal driven w/a real T5HO programmed start ballast, these things are really, really bright--the par/watt effeciency of these bulbs is phenomenal--the numbers will be published soon by an independent tester. Bear in mind as well that in Europe, where this all started they do not overdrive. They use ballasts that run the bulbs to spec ie the advanced centium, the universal triad, the osram quicktronic T5 ballasts, etc....

So if I had to do it over would I be overdriving....probably, b/c I already had an IC ballast and while the T5 ballasts aren't expensive, it's still an added cost.....the downside is I'm probably not going to get anywhere near the theoretical 20,000 hr bulb life.