T5 lighting

[machome79]

Hey all,

I am putting a 135gallon mixed reef together. I am going to use t5 lights. My question is regarding the difference between a t5 agriculture light and a regular t5 high bay from a big box store? Do any of you use these? I don't have the option on spending big money on a name brand fixture (ati, reef Brite,etc.)
I however am going to use the ati bulbs for this build.

 

[SilvermistInc]

So basicaly you describe any fixture.....

There is nothing in ati fixtures that dont exist in others, or that cant be done in diy version.

You pay the name. The heart is bulb, so ati bulb will perform very similar in any fixture. There can be slight variations caused by reflectors, temperature, ballast, but, that is measured in low %.

The rest is simply "any store cheap electronics", and really dont matter who made ballast, as long as is adequate in term of wattage that can be run on it. Metal sheet bent in shape, piece of acrylic and cheap fans.... You really think that ati have some space or secret technology behind all of this....

Does ati reflector reall beats any other - giessman, juwel, or any, by 50%? 70% double? Tripple? No. Simply no, its all reflective polished material in some shape, one can reflect light slightly better or slightly worse than another, but its all small difference.

There's no software, there is not some bin or anything for bulb, its the same bulb, and same bulb is performing the same, within +-5% difference.....

He's right you know