do you guys think its worth adding these old T5s ?

[Reeffragger]

My current 125g tank uses a 24 and 48 inch bulb grow T5HO fixtures 24 and 48 to cover all 72 inchs without dark corners like youd get on 5ft fixtures... grow meaning the plant fixtures you can buy on amazon. The ones tidal gardens uses on their youtube videos. Their white with polished individual reflectors.. Looks identical to ati fixtures just with no splash guard

Anyway . 4 bulbs has been plenty thus far.. Im growing 10 diff types if zias. 15 different acroporas. Tons of euphilia like torchs.. frog spawns. And hammers ect. I also have many plating montis encrusting montis and 4 types of bubble corals.

The ONLY issue i guess would be the fixture is only 15 inchs wide i believe placed directly above my tank it lights most of it but the back.front is still a little dark. If i tilt it to thr back it gets much brighter and same for the front. Not like dramatically but it is visible..

Anyway i have some old T5 fixtures. Aqueon brand crappy reflectors.. bulbs are side by side.. and theyre only NORMAL OUTPUT but i do have two so i can add 2 more bulbs to the tank. I could also buy ballasts and rewire a 54w ballast in it. So theyd run a full output vs half.. Itd cost me only 60$ to do vs buying two new 6 bulb fixtures at 150$ a pop.

What do you guys think ? Worth doing ? Sure even with new ballasts the bulbs being side by side and no real reflector it wont take 100% advantage of the bulbd.. but its still better then 4 bulbs. Even if i keot the normal output ballasts and the lights ran at half ppwer its still 2 more bulbs at half power vs 4.

I dunno what do you guys think ? Here isa pic how id mount em . Need to buy bulbs all i have is 6500k but ya

 

[Daniel@R2R]

i don't think it could hurt to try

 

[Mastiffsrule]

Hi,

like Daniel said cant hurt to get some ballast and bulbs. Tanks sounds like it’s doing great. If you just need viewing light for the front maybe just an inexpensive led strip to add onto the fixture. Be around the same $. Current USA and reefbreeder I think both have a 48 that could attach and give light, or even cheaper Marineland. Just a thought if only looking to light the tank.

 

[jda]

If they reflectors suck, then I would not. If they are polished, wide enough and pretty parabolic, then give it a shot... ballasts are not that expensive and if you do not use this light you can save them in case your future light has issues so you are only really out your time.

 

[Reeffragger]

They are aqueon duel t5 normal output ligjts.. They are side by side with like plastic shiny reflectors lol... Buttt its still light.. And it grew plants when i had them on my 135 and it was fresh water.

Even if its only 50 par( guessing). its still 50 more par right.

I actually added these and two 36 inch 100 led .50w full spectrum lights. These are onky .50w each led for 50 watts.. but tested par on them is 150 par at 8 inchs and 100 par at 14 inchs and 58 par at 24 inchs.

Not alot but combined with my 4 t5s which brs tested at 200 par 8-12 inchs down. Thats another 150 par plus guessing 50 par on the t5.. Thats another potential 200 par.

Ive had it like this for a few weeks.. ajd i can deff tell a change in corals.. and some have infact shown that its too much light LOL.. like orange setaso has turned pink which means its too much light.

Here isa pic. And yes the tsnk is more (white) but actually i like it. I keep the t5 6500k normal putputs and the leds on for 8 hours. And then i turn them off. And keep the leds on the 460nm blues only with the t5 highoutputs ( in the middle of my pic) and this then turns my tsnk into the typical blue.Uv glowly tank. Then after the 11th hour i turn the t5s HO fixture off.. and only habe the 460nm blue leds on and my tank is dark but GLOWY. After the 12th hour i turn it off for night