Why do we not have led t5 replacements yet

[SoggyNW]

I'm an electrician and we've been swapping out t5 florescent tubes for plug and play led tubes for a few years now. Why don't we have any reef spectrum bulbs yet? It's all the advantages of t5 and led rolled into one and we are paying less than $10 per 4' tube. They also come in a "ballast delete" version that runs off 120v.

I get that it would have to be a special run and would cost more but it can't be that hard to get a tube built with the correct mix of chips to mimic the tubes we use. Even if they cost $30 a tube that is a super affordable lighting solution.

 

[mdb_talon]

It's all the advantages of t5 and led rolled into one

I would suggest it does not have the advantages of t5 other than bulbs spread out rather than pendant style. However there are many led strips that can do the same thing without putting them in a t5 fixture.


Also what you describe has been around awhile. As far as i can tell never taken off. I think the vast majority that want led buy an led fixture.

Arcadia T5 HO LED Lamps - MarineAndReef.com

Arcadia T5 HO LED Lamps (Bulbs): Marine Blue Actinic, Marine White, Tropical Pro & Freshwater Pro. Free Shipping over $99. MarineAndReef.com.

www.marineandreef.com

 

[SoggyNW]

I would suggest it does not have the advantages of t5 other than bulbs spread out rather than pendant style. However there are many led strips that can do the same thing without putting them in a t5 fixture.


Also what you describe has been around awhile. As far as i can tell never taken off. I think the vast majority that want led buy an led fixture.

Arcadia T5 HO LED Lamps - MarineAndReef.com

Arcadia T5 HO LED Lamps (Bulbs): Marine Blue Actinic, Marine White, Tropical Pro & Freshwater Pro. Free Shipping over $99. MarineAndReef.com.

www.marineandreef.com

Huh.. learn something new every day. I've looked around a fare but and never ran across those bulbs. I might have to buy a few to play with

Also I think that the industry went from huge t5 an MH fixtures and tired to make the smallest led light they could. Now it turns out you actually want your light source to be huge and everything is getting bigger again. It'll be interesting to see what materializes but I think there is definitely a market for a cheap t5 alternative.

 

[mdb_talon]

I think there is definitely a market for a cheap t5 alternative.

I agree completely...i just dont think it will be with using actual t5 fixtures. There are already plenty of affordable t5 alternatives if we are talking about the footprint of the "bulb'(ie a 46 inch strip light). They dont necessarily replicate the spectrum or look of an actual t5, but then again neither do the led bulbs that actually fit in a t5 fixture.

 

[Bacon505]

Imo, LED t5 bulb=LED bar/stip and there are plenty of it.

 

[SoggyNW]

Imo, LED t5 bulb=LED bar/stip and there are plenty of it.

I suppose what I am looking for and haven't found is that flat shimmer-less look that t5s produce. Granted I haven't seen most led strip lights in person, but the ones I have seen still produce a shimmer. The LED t5s we install are all but indistinguishable fron the real thing and I'm betting would produce that same flat look.

 

[Smite]

Fellow sparky and worked as a lighting tech for 4 years retrofitting kits, some of them straight relamps like you're talking about. Ohhhh the amazon fulfillment centers, ugh!

There was a company, euroquatics I think, that had the euro-pop led lamps. They also made a few daylight versions too. They went under and I think there were a few issues with the LED tubes. Sagging from the heat to actually shorting out and burning in the sockets (probably from the sag issue.)

I'll say, the commercial relamps look similar to the t5's they replace but they are almost always used with a diffuser of some sort and 7'+ high. Both those help mimic the spread.
When you throw one in a fixture like an ATI that is 6-12" off water you are not going to get the same spread because you are eliminating the key component that is the individual reflector. Not something you see often commercially unless a grow house or painting area. When we'd retro-fit those I'd always be ready for a complaint because the LED just doesn't disperse as well. I was almost tempted to install them up, in those fixtures but worried the foot candle survey would come back low.

The closest LED bar to t5 output is Reefbrite's XHO strips. If you look closely at the strip you'll see it has 3 rows of LED per strip: 1 facing down then also two facing the sides to shine into it's reflector and spread the light out evenly. That's how it gets such amazing spread and so evenly.

 

[Opus]

I suppose what I am looking for and haven't found is that flat shimmer-less look that t5s produce. Granted I haven't seen most led strip lights in person, but the ones I have seen still produce a shimmer. The LED t5s we install are all but indistinguishable fron the real thing and I'm betting would produce that same flat look.

They had great LED bars several years back from a company called BuildMyLed. To this day I still think they were the best leds on the market. They had them to mimic 10k and 20k metal halide look plus a couple of others including for planted freshwater tanks. They even had it setup where you could pick each led on the bar yourself. Unfortunately the pot growing business got too lucrative and they shut down their aquarium led business so they could keep up with the pot growing side of the business.

 

[ingchr1]

I wondered the same.

T5 LED Retrofit

I don't think there are any yet, but was wondering if any of the manufactures are working on T5 LED retrofit bulbs for reefing.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Bpb]

They had great LED bars several years back from a company called BuildMyLed. To this day I still think they were the best leds on the market. They had them to mimic 10k and 20k metal halide look plus a couple of others including for planted freshwater tanks. They even had it setup where you could pick each led on the bar yourself. Unfortunately the pot growing business got too lucrative and they shut down their aquarium led business so they could keep up with the pot growing side of the business.

Those were easily the best made led strips to ever hit the market. I really liked mine and wish I had never sold them. Shame they stopped producing them. Still to this day nothing is designed quite as good as those were

 

[Big E]

There are LED fixtures and LED bulbs, but they lack high enough par and don't have the spectrum we need. Most are 4-5000 kelvin ratings at best.

If the par was high enough you could mix with some of the popular blue heavy led bars available now.

I've been looking a lot into horticulture LED setups for the whites as they are much cheaper and don't have or need all that useless software. Just a knob for power level is all I need. A par meter would be needed for intial setup but that's it.

Justintime2grow on you tube does a ton of reviews on those fixtures. I haven't looked into a specific unit or pricing yet. Of course you have to do some minor diy on your own to add blue strips.

 

[jda]

I think that those tubes would be fine for most people as long as they had the same output and were made for reefs. However, phone apps, thunderstorms and all of that is just too tempting for most people during initial purchase. They soon grow out of this, but the products are bought already.

Most people who understand that a plug-and-play static LED bulb to replace a T5 in a T5 fixtures probably are having excellent success, can do math and see that a real T5 bulb does not cost that much outside of an internet straw-man or in a LED company booklet and probably don't want to replace them anyway and take the risk (like switching from gas to ethanol in a car... most don't care and will just stick with gas or go to electric and there is no argument that you can make to most of them). To me, these are lesser cousins of a better solution. The people who are wanting LEDs want the apps, form factor, coolness and all of that. After all, if pure performance and ease were paramount, nearly nobody would buy LEDs in the first place, but they do, which means that other stuff is at play and that stuff is real.

 

[Midrats]

Fellow sparky and worked as a lighting tech for 4 years retrofitting kits, some of them straight relamps like you're talking about. Ohhhh the amazon fulfillment centers, ugh!

There was a company, euroquatics I think, that had the euro-pop led lamps. They also made a few daylight versions too. They went under and I think there were a few issues with the LED tubes. Sagging from the heat to actually shorting out and burning in the sockets (probably from the sag issue.)

I'll say, the commercial relamps look similar to the t5's they replace but they are almost always used with a diffuser of some sort and 7'+ high. Both those help mimic the spread.
When you throw one in a fixture like an ATI that is 6-12" off water you are not going to get the same spread because you are eliminating the key component that is the individual reflector. Not something you see often commercially unless a grow house or painting area. When we'd retro-fit those I'd always be ready for a complaint because the LED just doesn't disperse as well. I was almost tempted to install them up, in those fixtures but worried the foot candle survey would come back low.

The closest LED bar to t5 output is Reefbrite's XHO strips. If you look closely at the strip you'll see it has 3 rows of LED per strip: 1 facing down then also two facing the sides to shine into it's reflector and spread the light out evenly. That's how it gets such amazing spread and so evenly

The XHOs only have one row of leds. The reflector makes it look like three.

 

[Smite]

The XHOs only have one row of leds. The reflector makes it look like three.

I own XHOs and that is false. There are 3 diodes where you're thinking there are 1.

 

[Smite]

I thought the same, look at it with the lights off.

EDIT: Here is a picture

 

[Midrats]

Those were easily the best made led strips to ever hit the market. I really liked mine and wish I had never sold them. Shame they stopped producing them. Still to this day nothing is designed quite as good as those were

I still have a BML 20K strip on the shelf in the basement, great lights! I'm sure I'll deploy it again someday. I stopped selling my used aquarium equipment a long time ago as I always ended up regretting it.

 

[Midrats]

I thought the same, look at it with the lights off.

EDIT: Here is a picture

I have owned them too. There's 12 leds per foot unless they have changed something.

 

[Smite]

Not sure? I feel like the tech version I had years ago was the same though, just less clusters per foot.

 

[Smite]

I feel like they've always been that way, if you think about it the reflector would be nearly useless with all diodes pointing down. It would barley be reflecting some spillage from the diodes.

I'd love to see a company make a large footprint LED using reflectors. Like reefbrite meets kessils in a wide MH 15x15 or 20x20 footprint.

 

[Midrats]

The diodes protrude enough to enable the angled reflectors to reflect the light, creating a softer more diffuse light akin to t5. The lightweight body isn't enough of a heat sink for 36 diodes per foot.