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metal halide with T5 question

Olivier

Olivier

hi everyone,
I currently have a Metal halide light fixture and want to add T5 light into the fixture for supplement light and moon light. What type of T5 light should I get and color type as well? can I use these T5 bulbs as moonlight purpose?

my MH light fixture is 72" long. I am thinking of 72" long bulb and run 2 bulbs on each side of my light fixture. I do'nt know if this is feasible?
any input would help and greatly appreciated
Olivier
 
Sunny

Sunny

NJRC Member
Article Contributor
T5 have a very high output. In my opinion running them as moon lights is ruled out. I only use t5 in my tank and have moonlight as well.

I cannot answer if you van use t5 with MH in a fixture.

Sunny
 
C

chuck116

Hello Olivier, I just built a canopy and added t5s via 2 660-09 ice cap ballasts to go with my 3 x 250 mh what type of fixture do you have ?
Chuck P
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
What kind of bulbs do you have now in the MHs? If you have 20ks you probably don't need blue bulbs. If you want moonlights go for the icecap leds, they are perfect for monnlights.
 
Olivier

Olivier

Sunny,
thank for this verification. I then build 3 set of moonlight then.

Chuck,
I have a custom fixture with 4 MH bulbs. I took one out so 3MH bulbs right now. they are 250W each. My fixture has a V shape with a flat where the light mounted is. I am thinking of mounting my T5 inside the fixture with MH since fixture already have its reflector.
 
Olivier

Olivier

mnat said:
What kind of bulbs do you have now in the MHs? If you have 20ks you probably don't need blue bulbs. If you want moonlights go for the icecap leds, they are perfect for monnlights.
Click to expand...

i have either 12K or 14K bulbs but very sure not 20K.
 
Nickjr000

Nickjr000

I'm a mh guy, but i dont think t-5's come in 72" Why dont you add 2- 72" vho's. Would give you another 320 watts. would really make it bluer or whiter. You can run them in actinic and put 10, or 12 k for your mh. Alot of people like the t5 cause it will give you a good color range to pick from to make your tank a certain look. But that really only works on like 6-10 bulb fixtures. You wont really be able to play around with the colors that much since your only going to have 2 more bulbs, and they're going to get washed out a bit from the mh. For the moonlights, your def better off with some kind of led, any flourescent will be too bright and unnatural.
 
C

chuck116

Ok I just measured my stand offs they are 2 and a half inches wide each .so if you have that amount of room inside your fixture, then I think you would be ok.
 
C

chuck116

I went with 2 x 36 inch bulbs to total 72 , well I think there 34 and a half I can measure them if you want me to.
 
M

mnat

Officer Emeritus
Staff member
Moderator
If your MH are 10k or 12k you can run some actinic bulbs or KZ figi pinks to really bring out some color. I would not use them for moonlights as Sonny said but you can get LEDs for moonlights.
 
magic

magic

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Olivier

If you are looking for moonlights. Try the IceCap LEDs like Mike said. I believe that they come in 72" lenghts. They are light weight and can be velcroed to the back of the fixture.

Bob
 
Hawkeye

Hawkeye

i dunno - i like the icecap LEDS, they make the corals pop at night (when the T5s are off) but I think two might be overkill. I have two now and the fish do not want to sleep...it's that bright. So I have decided to turn them off and rely solely on the single LED light I get from my tunze. If i could control them such that I could gradually turn one of them off -t hat would be ideal. In this sense (and only this sense) I miss my solaris fixture.
 
Nickjr000

Nickjr000

Hawkeye said:
i dunno - i like the icecap LEDS, If i could control them such that I could gradually turn one of them off -t hat would be ideal.
Click to expand...

Agreed . they are bright, if they were dimmable or a preset thing with different brightnesses for lunar cycles they would be perfect
 
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