T5s for a 125, what would you choose?

katz

katz

Member
SE stand for single ended bulbs.
Have you looked into PFO lighting. You can get a PFO 51 inch Polyplight 8 x T5 HO for 339.99. The bulbs cost around 240.00 for all eight.
I purchased my 3 x 250k MH retrofit kit w 14k bulbs for 630.00 with free shipping. AZAINTCOLD has the same set-up.
Katz

PS: My electricity bill went up 15.00 a month when I started running the MH.
I have my lights coming on in a pattern. Far left bulb runs from 12 -8, far right bulb runs from 1-9, and the middle bulb runs from 2-10.
 
azfishgal

azfishgal

Active Member
Originally Posted by Katz
SE stand for single ended bulbs.
Have you looked into PFO lighting. You can get a PFO 51 inch Polyplight 8 x T5 HO for 339.99. The bulbs cost around 240.00 for all eight.
I purchased my 3 x 250k MH retrofit kit w 14k bulbs for 630.00 with free shipping. AZAINTCOLD has the same set-up.
Katz

PS: My electricity bill went up 15.00 a month when I started running the MH.
I have my lights coming on in a pattern. Far left bulb runs from 12 -8, far right bulb runs from 1-9, and the middle bulb runs from 2-10.
Do you have anything else besides your MHs, like Lunar lights, or additional T5s/PCs? I'll try and get a hold of Azaintcold and ask where he got his lights. Where did you get yours?
 
azfishgal

azfishgal

Active Member
OK, I'm done researching and looking. I'm starting to see light bulbs in my sleep.
I'm going to get 3x250 MH retro w/14K bulbs and pray to God my tank does not over heat. I will have an open top canopy (it's a tall canopy) with a fan blowing over the surface of the water, so hopefully it will be ok. That's my decision and I'm sticking to it.

Now, where is the best place to get these lights for the price?
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
I have two 175w MH 8" above the water which I have many rationals for as opposed to 3 lamps per rule of thumb for a 6ft tank or using 250w bulbs. some of those were cost, heat, not burning the low light corals and electricity which has now been proven a non issue. All I can say about using two bulbs instead of three is I can see where the beams of both lights cross and it is so high above the center no livestock will ever go there). it also helps that my tank has no top center bracing and is 3" shorter than a 125g. You would preferably go with 250w and three bulbs. the good part about that is bulb selection is much greater, 250w set up's usually only cost $10-20 more than 175w set up's per bulb and of course more powerful lighting.As for time on my MH are on a timer from 10am to 9:30pm. they've been that way for months. I dont have any supplemental lighting but I could always add that later if I chose to. day/evening effect is cool but cant say I really miss it.
As for Color depends on the bulbs. I use 13k bulbs which are white with a hint of blue but 13-15k bulbs simulate what a 10K bulb with supplemental actinics would look like. 20k will be bluer. I am as happy with the color as I was with pc.
As for electricity honestly when this tank went up going from a 30g I added about 6 more pumps, more lighting, more electrical stuff like UV, a tub with pump and heater in the garage and still havent noticed any difference in my electric bill. I see more of a difference from weather changing and running ac/heat than I do from going from the 30g to the 100g and associated electrical devices. maybe its just the area I live in

as for heat before fans my tank would get as hot as 85deg yet that caused no problems what so ever. nothing died or didn't open up. I let that go on for months. I finally added some clip on fans directly in front of the MH a few weeks ago and temps have dropped 5deg with my tank reaching a max of 82deg once in a while but usually stays at 80deg
clip on fans added

I cant tell you where to buy (well I can klassic_liven@yahoo.com) but complete kits from ARO, PFO, Coralvue and Catalina should cost you no more than $200 per kit with bulb often shipped. Thats not to say you shouldn't go with T5s. For some people MH will cause heat problems and high electricity bills but its hard to say for certain until they are up and running. There are reflectors that will allow you to run two bulbs and cover the entire 6ft of space but two of those will cost the same as the third MH kit so if heat is anticipated as being an issue two kits and lumenmax or lumenarc reflectors will do the same with less (but equal cost). some places (like where the below pic is linked) will allow you to substitute those in place of batwings for $70 saving you $60-80 and two reflectors not used collecting dust.
 
azfishgal

azfishgal

Active Member
Stan, thanks for the info.
I really appreciate it. I have the same fan that's in your canopy in my sump, except it's four fans (I was going to get the two, but they don't have them anymore and don't know when the manufacturer will send them more). That has actually taken my tank down almost 2 degrees just doing that, and I've noticed the humidity that was in my stand is now almost gone. So I was thinking of getting another one to put inside my canopy, I really like those fans, they are quiet. My only question with going with two lights is the braces I have on my tank (see above), do you think it would still work and look good?
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member

Originally Posted by azfishgal
Stan, thanks for the info.
I really appreciate it. My only question with going with two lights is the braces I have on my tank (see above), do you think it would still work and look good?
No problem with the info. you run into two problems with the bracing, shadows where the bracing crosses and heating the bracing. Its probably best to keep the bulbs in between the bracing but I'm not going to say its impossible to use two with the right reflectors. the higher up the lights are the more coverage but the more chance of the center bracing causing problems. the lower they are the more heat will get transfered and less coverage. You could always see how two is going to work first before going with three since I dont know of any tripple retro kits available (take that back PFO has a tripple ballast at least).
edit: My reflectors are mounted 1ft from the corners of the tank (far from evenly spaced across six ft) and extend to 25" from the corners leaving about a 2ft gap in the center where no light is mounted. I would say if your center bracing begins beyond 25" from the corners two will probably work okay especially with the upgraded reflectors that are supposed to be good for at least 3x3ft of coverage.
 
azfishgal

azfishgal

Active Member
My two bracings are 26" from either side with 3.5" of glass on either side of each brace, and the two braces are 21" apart from each other........Someone mentioned if you have an area in your tank that's not fully lit, then you can use that part (which would be the midde if I'm going with 2 MHs) for lower light corals.......
Here is a better picture of what I have. (Can't wait for my canopy so I can take down those beautiful window coverings.
)
 
azfishgal

azfishgal

Active Member
Originally Posted by Stanlalee
...... the upgraded reflectors that are supposed to be good for at least 3x3ft of coverage.
Is that for the regular size Lumenarcs or would the "mini" cover a 3x3ft coverage? The reason I ask is the Lumenarc 1 is 19.25"Lx19.25"Wx9"H (to big for my canopy). But the "Mini" is 14.5"Lx14.5"Wx6.5"H. So I'm thinking of going with 2 IceCap 250W MH Retro kits, using the Mini Lumenarc Reflector. The price on that would be $559.90 (free shipping). Do you think those would work with my braces? It's either that or going with 3 IceCap 250W MH kits using the Spider Reflectors for $629.85. The canopy is going to be about 18" high, so the lights will be a good distance from the water. Or not, depending on where we want to place them, but we have plenty of room to work with.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
Originally Posted by azfishgal
Is that for the regular size Lumenarcs or would the "mini" cover a 3x3ft coverage? The reason I ask is the Lumenarc 1 is 19.25"Lx19.25"Wx9"H (to big for my canopy). But the "Mini" is 14.5"Lx14.5"Wx6.5"H. So I'm thinking of going with 2 IceCap 250W MH Retro kits, using the Mini Lumenarc Reflector. The price on that would be $559.90 (free shipping). Do you think those would work with my braces? It's either that or going with 3 IceCap 250W MH kits using the Spider Reflectors for $629.85. The canopy is going to be about 18" high, so the lights will be a good distance from the water. Or not, depending on where we want to place them, but we have plenty of room to work with.
the mini's are suppose to do the same but for the slight price difference I'd just go with the three to be sure. I have a feeling the braces my get in the way.
 
partsman

partsman

Member
azfishgal,
tell me - how did you mount your cooling fans to your tank ? - the ones o purchased from aquatek have a u shaped clamp that won't clip on the rim of my tank - their made for a flat piece of glass or acrylic and my tanks rim has a ledge for glass top to lay on .
i really didn't want to cut the tank rim lip or glue any L shaped brackets that close to my water line to adapt their clamp.
get back to me please !!!!!
 
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