Sad news about T5

[Aaron75]

Good 48 inch led bar cost 500 cad, it's like 15 True Actinic Bulbs...

T5 allow to lit the tank for cheap.

I just bought my 48" bars from Alibaba for about $85 per bar. Probably aren't the best but they're great.

 

[galantra]

Well ATI had more of an option compared to GIESEMANN AQUARISTIC is even korallen-zucht bulbs any good?

 

[spsick]

Actinic has always been a poor investment bulb for me. PAR output drop within 6 months is huge and Blue Plus already has the 420nm in it.

But sure they did look nice matched with a 10k halide.

 

[Miami Reef]

Did they fail a lot? Not grow coral? What was so bad about them?

What didn’t you like about it? I love my sunpower! I also supplement it with a lumilite proactinic+UV led strip and it’s perfect.

The true actinic T5 bulbs are trash though if all you are looking for is the color pop.

I wrote multiple paragraphs, but I’ve decided it’s best if I posted it somewhere private where I can share my experience without needing to defend it. It just didn’t work for my tank and setup. I didn’t like the build quality. The par was good and it gave light I guess. I’m happy I switched away to LED.

 

[X-37B]

I wrote multiple paragraph, but I decided it’s best if I posted it somewhere private where I can share my experience without needing to defend it. It just didn’t work for my tank and setup. I didn’t like the build quality. The par was good and it gave light.

Yea the sunpower build quality was ok but my old Giesemann was twice as nice as the sunpower. I gave both away.

 

[nessig]

I never tried true actinic always used the blue pulse t5s

 

[BeanAnimal]

That’s unfortunate. However, I didn’t like those bulbs, anyway. I saw no benefit IMO. They were also weaker in par.

They weren’t for PAR — they gave halides depth and pop without turning the tank blue. The T5 version sucked. The VHO was the gold standard.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Actinic has always been a poor investment bulb for me. PAR output drop within 6 months is huge and Blue Plus already has the 420nm in it.

But sure they did look nice matched with a 10k halide.

They weren’t for PAR. They were for color.

This also goes back to “PAR” in general being a rather crappy metric to judge light by. T5, VHO and MH setups made gobs of “PAR”, but what really mattered was the overall spectrum. The actinic made the corals glow but didn’t really turn the whole tank blue like LEDs cranked up heavy on all blue channels to get the same effect but like windex.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Anyway… I had no idea you could still get the T5 version.

 

[Miami Reef]

They weren’t for PAR — they gave halides depth and pop without turning the tank blue. The T5 version sucked. The VHO was the gold standard.

I don’t feel like debating tonight. ;)

In my experience, these actinic bulbs do nothing extraordinary for coral coloration. The fluorescence is suboptimal, judging by a variety of different coral species under the T5 actinic bulbs alone. The greatest T5 tanks didn’t use these actinics at all.

I also really don’t like the nauseating purple hue they use. It’s not purple, it’s like a vomit purple. Typing this, I’m wondering why since my LEDs don’t have this effect, then I remembered the infamous mercury green spike these bulbs carry. They really aren’t needed and do nothing extraordinary for “PUR” which is just buzzword these days.

PAR>PUR. Hands down. Of course, I’m not here to debate. Have a good night, folks!

 

[rtparty]

Yea the sunpower build quality was ok but my old Giesemann was twice as nice as the sunpower. I gave both away.

The Giesemann build and design is WAY better but their failure rate is crazy high because they didn’t cool anything properly

 

[BeanAnimal]

In my experience, these actinic bulbs do nothing extraordinary for coral coloration…. The greatest T5 tanks didn’t use these actinics at all.

Looks are subjective, nothing to argue about. There were dozens of high quality bulbs back then. Actinics didn’t make or break a tank, they added a layer. But there were all kinds of amazing VHO and T5 combinations. No argument there either. As I said, I think the T5 version was terrible.

I also really don’t like the nauseating purple hue they use. It’s not purple, it’s like a vomit purple. Typing this, I’m wondering why since my LEDs don’t have this effect, then I remembered the infamous mercury green spike these bulbs carry. They really aren’t needed and do nothing extraordinary for “PUR” which is just buzzword these days.

They weren’t for PUR they were for esthetics and if used in the right combo the tank didn’t have a puke purple cast. I don’t like that either.

It doesn’t matter, they are now extinct.

 

[rtparty]

BTW they are violet-indigo mix, not purple

 

[BeanAnimal]

then I remembered the infamous mercury green spike these bulbs carry.

For what it’s worth, all VHO and T5 have the 546 nm green spike, it is what drives the phosphors. Sure some lamps absorb or shift more of it depending on phosphors, but they all have it.

 

[Miami Reef]

For what it’s worth, all VHO and T5 have the 546 nm green spike, it is what drives the phosphors. Sure some lamps absorb or shift more of it depending on phosphors, but they all have it.

Yes. This I know. I was trying to say I didn’t like the look with only them on for dusk and dawn. The violet is too weak to outcompete the green spike.

 

[Miami Reef]

Looks are subjective, nothing to argue about.

It’s not really subjective in this case. The actinic spectrum the True Actinic contain falls from the main excitation wavelengths for many (most) fluorescent pigments.

And it’s very clear, even with my own eyes. The corals don’t really have much pop with them. The colors the corals do emit are very very faint.

I think cyan popped the most, but it wasn’t attractive (this is subjective), but cyan can also get excited from the blue plus bulbs.

 

[Miami Reef]

Ya know what? Now I’m in a good mood for a little debate.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Yes. This I know. I was trying to say I didn’t like the look with only them on for dusk and dawn. The violet is too weak to outcompete the green spike.

Ahh. I like the VHO alone. Not the T5. Different phosphors from what I remember.

 

[BeanAnimal]

It’s not really subjective in this case. The actinic spectrum the True Actinic contain falls from the main excitation wavelengths for many (most) fluorescent pigments.

And it’s very clear, even with my own eyes. The corals don’t really have much pop with them. The colors the corals do emit are very very faint.

I think cyan popped the most, but it wasn’t attractive (this is subjective), but cyan can also get excited from the blue plus bulbs.

I don’t have anything to debate. I liked the lamps for what they were. I never ran a T5 tank. Many club members did. I like VHO better almost across the board though. I have seen a few that I liked as much or more than some MH. I run LEDs. I don’t care for them comparatively.

 

[Miami Reef]

I don’t have anything to debate.

I’m a bit disappointed. I thought we’d have a nice chat of par vs pur. Hmph. Oh well.