T5 Question

[goldenhurricane2]

Ok, this may be a super dumb question, but is there a reason people don't buy t5ho fixtures from lowes or Home Depot for their aquariums? They are substantially cheaper and basically have the same effect.

Am I missing something here? There must be a reason why more people don't do this.

 

[G8trBait16]

You can buy the cheaper ones from Lowes/home depot I would think. The reason why I didn't is bc I wanted it to be dimmable and have the control panel on the front. Also people go with more expensive ones is maybe bc they are built for saltwater conditions.

 

[ReeferBob]

I don't think they sell T5HO setups do they? Mostly they sell the large tubes (t8/t12) that are low output and not made in the correct spectrum for our tanks. If you have nothing photosynthetic, you can light it with whatever you want, but if you do, you need appropriate spectrum for it to thrive.

 

[goldenhurricane2]

Yeah they sell 2 and 4 bulb t5 ho fixtures. I just looked at some of them earlier.

 

[ReeferBob]

Yeah they sell 2 and 4 bulb t5 ho fixtures. I just looked at some of them earlier.

The major difference with a light designed for aquarium use is the quality of the reflector. Higher end lights have way better reflectors. I did look and none of them comes with bulbs. If they are the same size as the marine bulbs, you could use those fixtures I suppose.

 

[Diesel]

I would say knock your self out as 35 years ago we had nothing than only T12 and we stained the bulbs blue in order to have a blue +.
We used actinic from the disco's as that was pretty cool.
But we didn't had much corals to begin with to show off.

 

[ReeferMaddness843]

I personally added a few to my setup to accent my t5's a bit. I added 2 pairs to of 2 and run ati bulbs. They're not pleasing to the eye, but if hidden I don't see the problem. Yes, the reflectors on salt light setups are way better and allow for maximum dispursion of light. But my purpose was solely for accentuation rather than primary lighting. Here's a pic of the back of my old hood. And the front of my new hood once I finally got around to mounting them in there.