T5 Fixture Opinions

[trevorhiller]

I'm planning ~150 Gallon 60" x 30" x 20" SPS-Heavy Mixed Reef

I was originally looking at Radion XR30 + AI Blade Grow/Glow setup but the price for 3 Radion XR30 + 2 Blades is over $4000---more than I'd hope to spend.

Now I am considering going "old school" with a T5 fixture to get the same blanket of light. It seems like it will be cheaper for the fixture AND the electricity. I looked at the BRS video on the SunPower fixture and the PAR for the 8 bulb fixture actually looks rather high in a 20" deep tank, but I am also going with a wider than normal tank.

I am looking at the 48" ATI Sunpower in either 6 bulb or 8 bulb configuration. 6 vs 8 bulb, dimmable vs standard, which bulbs are your favorite?

I assume that I could go 8 bulb and leave 2 slots empty if too much PAR or always add some LED strips on the end of a 6 bulb down the road but for those of you with T5 experience I'm curious what you would do for the proposed tank.

P.S. Tank is going to be in-wall so the fixture will be completely hidden in a fish room so appearance and light spill is not important.

 

[ryshark]

I'm planning ~150 Gallon 60" x 30" x 20" SPS-Heavy Mixed Reef

I was originally looking at Radion XR30 + AI Blade Grow/Glow setup but the price for 3 Radion XR30 + 2 Blades is over $4000---more than I'd hope to spend.

Now I am considering going "old school" with a T5 fixture to get the same blanket of light. It seems like it will be cheaper for the fixture AND the electricity. I looked at the BRS video on the SunPower fixture and the PAR for the 8 bulb fixture actually looks rather high in a 20" deep tank, but I am also going with a wider than normal tank.

I am looking at the 48" ATI Sunpower in either 6 bulb or 8 bulb configuration. 6 vs 8 bulb, dimmable vs standard, which bulbs are your favorite?

I assume that I could go 8 bulb and leave 2 slots empty if too much PAR or always add some LED strips on the end of a 6 bulb down the road but for those of you with T5 experience I'm curious what you would do for the proposed tank.

P.S. Tank is going to be in-wall so the fixture will be completely hidden in a fish room so appearance and light spill is not important.

I'm planning ~150 Gallon 60" x 30" x 20" SPS-Heavy Mixed Reef

Then you should get the 60” sunpower with 8-bulbs although you can make 6-work.

My tank is 48” SPS heavy and I decided on Sunpower. Non-dimmable. Dimming the bulbs decreases their lifespan. I also added an XHO strip for LED, but 8-bulbs alone is more than enough light.

 

[trevorhiller]

I'm planning ~150 Gallon 60" x 30" x 20" SPS-Heavy Mixed Reef

Then you should get the 60” sunpower with 8-bulbs although you can make 6-work.

My tank is 48” SPS heavy and I decided on Sunpower. Non-dimmable. Dimming the bulbs decreases their lifespan. I also added an XHO strip for LED, but 8-bulbs alone is more than enough light.

My first thought was the 60” too though in some of the reading I did, a couple suggested not needing to go wall to wall with the T5, hence looking at the 48” fixtures leaving 6” on each side.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Big E]

Get the 60"x8 bulb and look add 60" led bars when the acros get bigger.

As acros grow you need to make sure you have 360 degrees light coverage. A 48" fixture isn't going to get that done.

I temporarily have a 48" fixture over my 60" tank and it's very obvious the acros inside of that width do well and have better par numbers and generally better colors. You don't get the reflective properties from a 48" fixture you get as when it's over a 48" tank.

You can also save more money by buying the LET fixtures. Since your tank is in wall this will reduce initial costs by quite a bit.

The LET fixtures will also allow for flexibility as in if you decide to move toward Reef bars or a mix of T5 and reef bars in the future you have that option.

 

[Bpb]

Agree with @Big E above. 60” 8 bulb if you get the ATI. Non dimmable. Dimming t5’s is completely unnecessary. I used the 8 bulb 48” sunpower on a 90 gallon tank and it was not excessive on par. Par estimations aren’t always accurate based on what BRS provides. Rock scape, sand choice, tank dimensions, ect will heavily impact your par map and how light gets scattered and absorbed. Sometimes a fixture will provide far more, sometimes far less than expected. But I disagree with those saying t5’s don’t need to be as long as the tank. By default, the ends will be less intense than the center. It’s simple mechanics of light delivery. And going shorter than the tank will worsen the problem. Is it a deal breaker? No, but it’s not as optimal as it could be.

 

[averagesteve]

I use a 48" ATI SunPower non-dimmable 6 bulb on my 75 gallon 48" tank. I agree with the others that say get the same width light as your tank if going t5s. I got my unit used for a very good price, but if I were to spend money and buy new, I would honestly probably get the ATI PowerModule T5/LED hybrid. For you, that would be the 60" 4 or 8 bulb t5 with 4, 75W LEDs. I think it runs about $2500 for the powermodule with shipping and bulbs, a little over half of the price of your Radion/blade combo.

For bulbs, I actually was messing around with this last night, here are some of the combos I tried and what I ended up going with:

2x blue+
2x actinic
2x coral+
This combo was very white with some blue. I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean you won't.

3x blue+
2x coral+
1x purple+
This combo is recommended on ATI's site. It was alright, very white and blue, too washed for me, but wasn't bad.

2x blue+
2x actinic
1x coral+
1x purple+
This combo was recommended to me as what my LFS owner uses on his home tank that uses 6x t5 bulbs. I really liked how this combo looks, and since my fish guy recommended it as what they use, I trust that it's a pretty good combo. I get my corals from him too so having the same lighting is a plus.

 

[RedoubtReef]

Awesome! Love to see people using T5s. I seem to recall seeing a couple nice used fixtures in the for sale forums. I don't think they were 60" though but worth a check to confirm if a used fixture is an option for you.

 

[rtparty]

You will need 8 bulbs to cover a 30" wide tank. Get the 60" for sure.

As a heads up, the Sunpower has been discontinued from what I heard so grab one if you find it and get extra bulbs too. In September they start outlawing them in Europe and my source also told me many factories in Europe have run their last batch of bulbs already.

For 8 bulbs I like 4 Blue Plus, 2 Actinic and 2 Coral Plus to start

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

Consider a hybrid? Im running one on both tanks and I love the balance between eliminating shading with the t5's and the control, ramping and overall lower electricity cost of a led fixture.

 

[ryshark]

Get the 60"x8 bulb and look add 60" led bars when the acros get bigger.

As acros grow you need to make sure you have 360 degrees light coverage. A 48" fixture isn't going to get that done.

I temporarily have a 48" fixture over my 60" tank and it's very obvious the acros inside of that width do well and have better par numbers and generally better colors. You don't get the reflective properties from a 48" fixture you get as when it's over a 48" tank.

You can also save more money by buying the LET fixtures. Since your tank is in wall this will reduce initial costs by quite a bit.

The LET fixtures will also allow for flexibility as in if you decide to move toward Reef bars or a mix of T5 and reef bars in the future you have that option.

Good point about the reflective properties.
@trevorhiller you get light bouncing back into the tank from the glass.

 

[nereefpat]

8 bulb for the 30" width
60" v 48": It depends. If you want wall to wall Acros, I'd get the 60". If your version of "mixed reef" has LPS and zoas on the ends, you could get away with the 48".
Bulb choice: In an 8 bulb, I would probably run something like:
4 B+
2 C+
last 2 some combo of Purple + and actinic. I actually like the P+ better.

You also can't really go wrong with any combo of just B+ and/or C+. Buy extras of B+ and C+ to find what you like, as you'll use them eventually anyway.

This is all assuming you want to run ATI bulbs. Geisemann makes nice bulbs too.

 

[ryshark]

For bulbs I run what BRS investigates suggested.
4x Blue Plus
2x Coral Plus
2x Actinic

 

[trevorhiller]

Get the 60"x8 bulb and look add 60" led bars when the acros get bigger.

As acros grow you need to make sure you have 360 degrees light coverage. A 48" fixture isn't going to get that done.

I temporarily have a 48" fixture over my 60" tank and it's very obvious the acros inside of that width do well and have better par numbers and generally better colors. You don't get the reflective properties from a 48" fixture you get as when it's over a 48" tank.

You can also save more money by buying the LET fixtures. Since your tank is in wall this will reduce initial costs by quite a bit.

The LET fixtures will also allow for flexibility as in if you decide to move toward Reef bars or a mix of T5 and reef bars in the future you have that option.

Interesting, I didn't even realize these were a thing. I used T5s years ago on my nano tank when I had no clue what I was doing. Topping off manually with bottled DI water from walmart into my 10 gallon nano from Petco and testing with an ATI Master Kit. Since getting back into the hobby I only considered LED to this point so I'm very much a "newbie" to T5 world.

Agree with @Big E above. 60” 8 bulb if you get the ATI. Non dimmable. Dimming t5’s is completely unnecessary. I used the 8 bulb 48” sunpower on a 90 gallon tank and it was not excessive on par. Par estimations aren’t always accurate based on what BRS provides. Rock scape, sand choice, tank dimensions, ect will heavily impact your par map and how light gets scattered and absorbed. Sometimes a fixture will provide far more, sometimes far less than expected. But I disagree with those saying t5’s don’t need to be as long as the tank. By default, the ends will be less intense than the center. It’s simple mechanics of light delivery. And going shorter than the tank will worsen the problem. Is it a deal breaker? No, but it’s not as optimal as it could be.

You've sold me on 60" - that was my initial gut feeling and I probably should listen to it as it hasn't steered me wrong yet.

I use a 48" ATI SunPower non-dimmable 6 bulb on my 75 gallon 48" tank. I agree with the others that say get the same width light as your tank if going t5s. I got my unit used for a very good price, but if I were to spend money and buy new, I would honestly probably get the ATI PowerModule T5/LED hybrid. For you, that would be the 60" 4 or 8 bulb t5 with 4, 75W LEDs. I think it runs about $2500 for the powermodule with shipping and bulbs, a little over half of the price of your Radion/blade combo.

For bulbs, I actually was messing around with this last night, here are some of the combos I tried and what I ended up going with:

2x blue+
2x actinic
2x coral+
This combo was very white with some blue. I didn't like it, but that doesn't mean you won't.

3x blue+
2x coral+
1x purple+
This combo is recommended on ATI's site. It was alright, very white and blue, too washed for me, but wasn't bad.

2x blue+
2x actinic
1x coral+
1x purple+
This combo was recommended to me as what my LFS owner uses on his home tank that uses 6x t5 bulbs. I really liked how this combo looks, and since my fish guy recommended it as what they use, I trust that it's a pretty good combo. I get my corals from him too so having the same lighting is a plus.

I do run my tank fairly white. I would probably run it bluer, but I have the XR30 and am trying to squeeze the power out of it over a 24" Cube with a fairly low aquascape. I attached a screenshot of my current light settings here.

I was looking at doing some mix of Blue+, Coral+, an Actinic and maybe a Purple+. I'll probably order some extra bulbs if I go this route just to make my life harder than it needs to be.

Awesome! Love to see people using T5s. I seem to recall seeing a couple nice used fixtures in the for sale forums. I don't think they were 60" though but worth a check to confirm if a used fixture is an option for you.

I was looking around in there, unfortunately many of them don't want to ship them but I'm still renovating the space so I am going to keep watch and see if anything pops up. I don't mind spending the money for a quality product, but I started questioning myself going down the rabbit hole of trying to get wall to wall LED coverage when T5 can get the job done for cheaper and possibly more effectively.

You will need 8 bulbs to cover a 30" wide tank. Get the 60" for sure.

As a heads up, the Sunpower has been discontinued from what I heard so grab one if you find it and get extra bulbs too. In September they start outlawing them in Europe and my source also told me many factories in Europe have run their last batch of bulbs already.

For 8 bulbs I like 4 Blue Plus, 2 Actinic and 2 Coral Plus to start

I was kind of worried about that. Do you have worries that it may become impossible to run these lights in the near future? I'd hate to spend $1000 only to not be able to find bulbs in a year. I suppose I could buy a few years supply and store them.

Consider a hybrid? Im running one on both tanks and I love the balance between eliminating shading with the t5's and the control, ramping and overall lower electricity cost of a led fixture.

I am considering this route too. I currently have a XR30 and XR15 on hand. However, the price difference isn't substantial enough to make me think it's worth going this way vs the 8 Bulb T5 fixture. I would likely still need to buy another LED fixture as well as the supplemental T5 fixture to add to what I have.

If I go all T5 I can keep the Radions for over the sump frag tank and be ahead of the curve.

8 bulb for the 30" width
60" v 48": It depends. If you want wall to wall Acros, I'd get the 60". If your version of "mixed reef" has LPS and zoas on the ends, you could get away with the 48".
Bulb choice: In an 8 bulb, I would probably run something like:
4 B+
2 C+
last 2 some combo of Purple + and actinic. I actually like the P+ better.

You also can't really go wrong with any combo of just B+ and/or C+. Buy extras of B+ and C+ to find what you like, as you'll use them eventually anyway.

This is all assuming you want to run ATI bulbs. Geisemann makes nice bulbs too.

Good to know about the Purple+ over the actinic. I do remember I had actinic in my old fixture but I don't remember the names of the other bulbs. I'll likely pick up a variety to experiment a bit.

For bulbs I run what BRS investigates suggested.
4x Blue Plus
2x Coral Plus
2x Actinic

I presume this is similar to an AB+ appearance since that's what BRS seems to focus their efforts around?


Thank you everyone! It's great seeing people so engaged in the discussion. It really makes me think that T5 is a solid option seeing such avid supporters of it.

 

[rtparty]

@trevorhiller I don't think T5 bulbs will fully disappear for a while. Years at least. It took VHO bulbs a few years to fizzle away. The European ban is a slow rollout over 2 years and we still aren't positive that specialty bulbs will be banned completely. However, no factory is staying open to make the 15-20k bulbs the hobby uses yearly. They need to produce millions a year for it to remain viable.

The big brands (Philips, Sylvania, and others) could also change where they make the bulbs if they wanted.

I would be confident in running T5s still if I wasn't having such great success with the Blades. I would just make sure I had a year or two of replacements on hand when they start to disappear.

 

[Trizz]

My first thought was the 60” too though in some of the reading I did, a couple suggested not needing to go wall to wall with the T5, hence looking at the 48” fixtures leaving 6” on each side.

Thanks for the feedback!

get the 60 8 bulbs with 4 blues plus 2 corals plus and 2 actinic taking into account the wattage for the t5's is going to be about 640 watts add in 2- 60" Blue XHO LED Strip Light output from this lite is 3 watts per led x 60 is 180 a bar 360 watts for 2, one in the front and one in the back will give a total of about 1000 watts all together. use a par meter set your Hight above the tank. believe me you can't beat this setup. total price is $1,767.90 the new g6 only put out 205 max output do the math. this is the set up going on my sps cade 2100 but with two 36 inch t5 two xho at 72 inches setups at 10 to 15 inches above the tank.

 

[trevorhiller]

get the 60 8 bulbs with 4 blues plus 2 corals plus and 2 actinic taking into account the wattage for the t5's is going to be about 640 watts add in 2- 60" Blue XHO LED Strip Light output from this lite is 3 watts per led x 60 is 180 a bar 360 watts for 2, one in the front and one in the back will give a total of about 1000 watts all together. use a par meter set your Hight above the tank. believe me you can't beat this setup. total price is $1,767.90 the new g6 only put out 205 max output do the math. this is the set up going on my sps cade 2100 but with two 36 inch t5 two xho at 72 inches setups at 10 to 15 inches above the tank.

Trizz,

That's actually the exact fixture I ordered. It's supposed to come on Friday! I ordered back in April, but no one had the SunPower fixtures in stock and there was a bit of a back order.

I ordered 10 bulbs with it: 6 Blue Plus, 2 Actinic & 2 Coral Plus

I like the idea of the ReefBrites on the sides to give the option of a ramp up/down, but they are going to have to wait a little while. I'm building an equipment room and remodeling my basement for this tank so it's become quite the expenditure.

 

[Trizz]

good deal Trev. you can't go wrong with this setup, if your going down the dark hole of sps, start the lights out at about 14 inches from the top of the tank will give you in a 10 inch deep frag tank at 14 inches from the top 310 par at the bottom of the tank at 8 inches you'll get 531 par to the bottom I have these on my zoo-med lowboy frag tank at 14 inches right now just set it up moved to a new house and i do use a par meter...