lighting again
- Thread starter jumanji
- Start date
lactrain
Moberator in training
not realy much ... othern then size and technology, small diferences in intensity ... all are fairly similiar compared to other lighting like halide bulbs.
If you were to choose amongst the three ... I would say T5 would be best. But halide is the way to go by far considering your tank.
If you were to choose amongst the three ... I would say T5 would be best. But halide is the way to go by far considering your tank.
RichConley
Attack of the Killer Cute
I gotta disagree here.
As far as efficiency goes, its something along the lines of
VHO: 40-50 lumens per watt
PC: 40-60 lumens per watt
T5HO:100-120 lumens per watt
MH: 70-130 lumens per watt (most bulbs are around 80-90.. 4K bulbs are 120+)
There is nothing you can keep under halides that you can't keep under T5HO
lactrain
Moberator in training
Like i said consider your tank, I dont know what size it is ...
I would think lighting a larger tank say a tank with demesions of 6ft + in length or 2ft+ in height would be much more cost effective to run T5 bulbs to produce the output of say one 400 watt halide mogul or one 250 watt halide DE.
Am I wrong Rich?
Would you run T5 on a tank that large?
What fixture/bulbs do you run or reccomend?
I would think lighting a larger tank say a tank with demesions of 6ft + in length or 2ft+ in height would be much more cost effective to run T5 bulbs to produce the output of say one 400 watt halide mogul or one 250 watt halide DE.
Am I wrong Rich?
Would you run T5 on a tank that large?
What fixture/bulbs do you run or reccomend?
dz6t
Acro Garden, BRS Sponsor
1. The longest t-5 for consumer market is 4 feet long. (unless you want to paid for those limited production 6' t-5)
2. T-5 is only good for shallow tanks.
MH is so far the best choice to light a large tank. If you do a poll on RC in the large tank forums, you will see most people use MH.
RichConley
Attack of the Killer Cute
Dong, thats not true. Linear light sources actually penetrate much better than point sources.
They decay in a linear fashion, whereas point sources decay in an exponential fashion.
T5's arent good in deep, narrow tanks, because you simply can't get enough bulbs over the tank that their overlap makes up for the lack of starting intensity.
dz6t
Acro Garden, BRS Sponsor
Thanks for pointing that out, I don't know that before. I thought light penetration is related to light spectrum (wave length). Bluer light goes deeper.
smcnally
Tankless
This isn't true Dong....I run 5' bulbs on my tank, they are a common size T-5 bulb.
