Light, Camra... and well lights

[doggiepuffer]

The setup i am getting is T5 VHO with the tank setup that I am buying. They are going way from the Obit and Satelite Power Compacts, does anyone know anything about the T5 VHO... someone said the are very similar to MH, but without the Heat factor... comments.......

 

[scsinet]

T5 HO is similar to halides in that you get about the same bang for the watt.
T5 lighting lacks the intensity of halide. This however is not a factor unless your tank is more than 18" (some would say 24") deep. T5s have no problem penetrating this water depth.
T5 lights do not have the "shimmer" effect that halides do. Some people want the shimmer effect, some hate it. It makes no difference to the livestock.
As far as the heat factor, many folks think of halides as an absolute 1 way ticket to having to have a chiller, and T5 as a guarantee that you won't need one. Not true in either case. It all depends on your setup. It's more somewhere in the middle. More folks with halides need a chiller than T5, but one can be needed or not needed depending on your setup.

 

[doggiepuffer]

Thank you for all that wonderful information. I figured with the 180 gallon what I am getting this summer, i will get a chiller (that price tag gives me the chills), but was hoping that with the 90 gallon I would not need them, I was just excited to the LFS is having them in the kit, and not increasing the price of the kits LOL>

 

[wattsupdoc]

You need to be sure what they are providing in the kit is a adequete lighting system. not all T5's are the same.

You can go from really crappy to awesome....

 

[scsinet]

The price tag of a chiller is high, but with a larger reef system - I assume it's a reef since we are talking about lighting, skipping one to me is akin to buying a house so big that you can't afford the insurance. Buy a smaller house.
They are so commonly skipped, I can't do anything but shake my head. What do you do when your home AC unit goes out? Perhaps not so much a problem in Indiana, but when you put the cost of a chiller against the cost of replacing your livestock, it's a no brainer. The chiller on my 180 cost me about $1300 to buy, but I probably have several times that in livestock in the tank, including some particularly rare and hard to find pieces. No brainer.

 

[reefraff]

Originally Posted by DoggiePuffer
http:///forum/post/2880413
The setup i am getting is T5 VHO with the tank setup that I am buying. They are going way from the Obit and Satelite Power Compacts, does anyone know anything about the T5 VHO... someone said the are very similar to MH, but without the Heat factor... comments.......
T5 VHO is simply T5 lamps ran on Ice Cap ballasts which overdrive the lamps. The good Ice Cap system will penetrate as deep of deeper than a lot of the 250 watt halide systems out there.
Heat is much more controllable with T5's but there are no absolutes as far as the need for a chiller. If your room temp is less than 75 or so it would be rare that you would need a chiller with T5's. Really depends on how well the canopy is vented. Keep in mind you need to run a fan at each end of the T5's to cool them when overdriving them. Just a fan blowing in from the back on each side so it blows down the rows of endcaps will do it.
If your tank is less than 24" tall you really don't need to overdrive the T5's unless you have the tank stocked full of SPS.

 

[doggiepuffer]

I have seen the info on the T5's from the LFS, and I know the are very good T5's. They are going to them now, as within a year, they will no longer be carrying the Orbit Power Compacts (Yes, it is a small Chain, Based in Dayton, OH, but not the Saltwaterwarehouse place that I have mentioned in previous post).