Newt

If you want the lastest and greatest in lighting go with T5HO. They are straight vs CFs/PCs which are bent in half. There's a better selction for planted tanks vs CF/PC.

Yes , lumens means more green light. It is more meaningful to look at PAR and PUR but I doubt you will be able to find those ratings from the manufacturer. Giesmann Midday and AquaMedic Planta are great T5HO bulbs. I'm sure there are others. I like the Planta more as the red is higher on the nanometer scale. The Midday is more in the orange.

Where are you located?
Sunlight Supply has a TEK T5 fixture that is top of the line.

Supercoley1

Best to take advice from Newt on this. light availablility is much different in Europe than it is in States.

I am also on LEDs which means that I do 'belittle' any flourescents a little so I can be a little misleading sometimes

What he says is true. WPG and Lumens are nowhere near accurate for what we are after but the options for PAR and PUR are not financially viable.

Therefore Lumens would be slightly better than WPG however Lumens are not always detailed on the tube/packaging where Watts always are. therefore Watts are the easiest for people to use.

Within reason you can just go by the WPG rule and you need a bit less if you have T8 and half if you use T5. This of course assumes you are using good reflectors.

By lumens per watt and lumens per inch I mean that a standard T5 will be about half the wattage of the T5HO for the same length. The T5HO will more often than not (I may be wrong) not supply double the Lumens of the standard T5. This means that although the T5HO is giving you more lumens per inch of the tube length than the T5 that 2 T5s making the same wattage as the T5HO will actually give more lumens than the single T5HO. It does however mean you need twice as many tubes

AC

Newt

My quess is that Europe leads the US for availability of items and quality.

eylk

Once again thank you for the answers. I think I will have to agree with the lumens statings.. a lot of them do not state lumens..

I just need one last bit of information confirmation.. Linear T5 bulbs are the straight horizontal ones right?

And reflectors .. do they come with the bulb or the fixture or both? I read bout reflectors that come with the tank hood and also bulb reflectors. Something about a reflective coating being place between the outer glass and stuff..

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I live in a place so small on the world map you can hardly find it... Singapore !! heard of it?

I think I should have no problem getting european products given our history.

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once again thanks for all your your help, all the practical advice is golden.





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oh oh ! one lassssssst thing. If i were to get a T5HO and i want to start with a low light tank, I can minimise the number of bulbs used and also reduce the hours so that it wont be 'over lit' right? thanks thanks

Supercoley1

linear = straight tube. CF = bent tube

reflectors are a different story.

If you buy a cheap luminaire (or some of the expensive ones) there may be 2/3/4 tubes but 1 reflector.

Want you want is 1 reflector for each tube otherwise you lose light/use more light to get to the light level you did need/waste electricty&money.

Therefore you ned to research before you buy.

Generally when you buy a tube you are going to get just that. There are some 1 piece units which are pretty good where they are basically a reflector with a ballast inside it and the tube connected. These are 'disposable' units and (I haven't seen any for a while) were about £30 when the exchange rate would have meant $50. T5HO run on programmed start electronic ballasts and therefore you can get 2-3 years of good light with only 5% or so loss before chucking it and getting a new one.

I have one of these in my 'emersed' cupboard which is now 2 years old and looking fine.

AC

eylk

thanks a lot for the help... now i need to go do some product research..