Best T5 Retrofit to Supplement LED?

blank · Sep 29, 2016

I'm trying to add some t5's to my tank (40b) my kessil and hydra will probably do ok but I want the growth from t5s. What's the best retrofit? Or the best bag for the buck. Also do you guys think I should go with 2 bulb or 4 bulb supplement. Thanks!

Chac317 · Sep 29, 2016

I believe NanoBox offers retrofits. I thought about getting an ATI sunpower and having them retrofit my hydras into the fixture. I was looking at an 8 bulb fixture and then having them retrofit my hydras in where the 4 middle bulbs would be to leave 4 t5s on the outside and the leds in the middle. I don't have a canopy so that was the cleanest option I came up with.

blank · Sep 29, 2016

Chac317 said:
I believe NanoBox offers retrofits. I thought about getting an ATI sunpower and having them retrofit my hydras into the fixture. I was looking at an 8 bulb fixture and then having them retrofit my hydras in where the 4 middle bulbs would be to leave 4 t5s on the outside and the leds in the middle. I don't have a canopy so that was the cleanest option I came up with.

Haha I would love to do that but 600 for a fixture is most definitely out of my budget right now xD

blank · Sep 29, 2016

I also don't have a canopy so I might do the whole bent conduit to hang fixtures. Or I can possibly mount it onto my AI Classic mount that my Hydra is currently mounted on

mcarroll · Sep 29, 2016

Are you saying you don't want the growth from the spotlights (Kessil and Hydra) for some reason?

Or are you saying you don't think spotlights will grow corals?

You might be over-worrying about light, or the wrong aspects of light. Or you just have the wrong lights in all cases.

I read in another thread that you had issues (theoretical or real?) with the shadows cast by some or all of the fixtures. Did I get that right? And if so is that the main reason for wanting this supplemental light?

blank · Sep 29, 2016

mcarroll said:
Are you saying you don't want the growth from the spotlights (Kessil and Hydra) for some reason?

Or are you saying you don't think spotlights will grow corals?

You might be over-worrying about light, or the wrong aspects of light. Or you just have the wrong lights in all cases.

I read in another thread that you had issues (theoretical or real?) with the shadows cast by some or all of the fixtures. Did I get that right? And if so is that the main reason for wanting this supplemental light?

Nope. Just from what I read, and heard, LED's have great coloring but doesn't have the growth like t5 and mh. I have pretty minimal shadowing because of my overkill of lights already but I want to get rid of 1 and use t5.

mcarroll · Sep 29, 2016

blank said:
Just from what I read, and heard, LED's have great coloring but doesn't have the growth like t5 and mh.

Too many other factors and too many pure-LED success stories for there to be much truth in that.

Unless you have excess money to tie up in excessive lighting, I'd pare down the lighting and focus on one fixture/brand that you like the best. Set up with lenses and power in mind, none of those should have growth or color issues.

What you could be lacking is a light meter, and possibly stability in water quality.

Where does the system stand today on:
lux
Ca
Mg
alk
NO3
PO4

How and what do you dose?

Water changes? How often/how big on average?

If you like the more complete/less-shadows coverage that T5's give, then conside strip LED's rather that the spotlights you are focusing on.

blank · Sep 29, 2016

mcarroll said:
Too many other factors and too many pure-LED success stories for there to be much truth in that.

Unless you have excess money to tie up in excessive lighting, I'd pare down the lighting and focus on one fixture/brand that you like the best. Set up with lenses and power in mind, none of those should have growth or color issues.

What you could be lacking is a light meter, and possibly stability in water quality.

Where does the system stand today on:
lux
Ca
Mg
alk
NO3
PO4

How and what do you dose?

Water changes? How often/how big on average?

If you like the more complete/less-shadows coverage that T5's give, then conside strip LED's rather that the spotlights you are focusing on.

Pretty sure this thread is on retrofiting T5s. Lets keep it at that. Any reason I have to use thr same brand of LED fixture? And as many success stories of only LED, there's an equal amount of people that say that LEDs don't have the samr growth.There's a whole bunch of factors so I'll be tackling one at a time. Thanks! Oh and I do agree I need to rent a par meter for a day or something to check.

mcarroll · Sep 29, 2016

If you want to add T5's to your setup, you definitely should. Considering your current lights, but without knowing budget or having a better feel for your goals it's hard to suggest anything more than one or two bulbs. ATI has a nice chart of bulb suggestions.

All I'm saying is that you have to disbelieve 100% of the pure-LED success stories where you can see great color and growth if you want to believe that LED's cannot generate great color and growth. Plus, I don't think it hurts to examine the basis of things we talk about on here, does it?

If you can't afford a PAR meter, definitely get a lux meter. For free or $15, it's almost crazy not to.

You can use the PAR meter to make a conversion factor for the lux meter specific to your lights. With that you can convert any lux reading you take into an accurate PAR number, any time you need to. (You won't ordinarily need to.)

Best of luck!

blank · Sep 29, 2016

Oh wow didn't know that. I'll definitely look into getting lux meter. If it helps my budget will be around <250 probably. I mean I love the LEDs but the constant doesn't have the growth comments has kinda made me atleast get supplements. I mean doesn't hurt

mcarroll · Sep 29, 2016

blank said:
I mean I love the LEDs but the constant doesn't have the growth comments has kinda made me atleast get supplements. I mean doesn't hurt

Doesn't hurt? My wife would kill me if I tried to buy four light systems for one tank! Might not hurt, but I wouldn't count on it. I think it might hurt a lot!

In seriousness, just be sure to make it worthwhile and take measurements of everything and take notes along the way. Keeping a journal on anything always seems to boost the learning factor – keep one on your tank if you aren't already.

Regardless of the lights you choose, I would still question 100% of the sources that give you the "doesn't have growth" vibe on LED's.

(I still say any one of the lights you have/have had could be fine...or if not, you should be considering strip-LED's instead of the current course...PM me if you want to talk about LED setup and other stuff. 2¢)

blank · Sep 29, 2016

mcarroll said:
Doesn't hurt? My wife would kill me if I tried to buy four light systems for one tank! Might not hurt, but I wouldn't count on it. I think it might hurt a lot!

In seriousness, just be sure to make it worthwhile and take measurements of everything and take notes along the way. Keeping a journal on anything always seems to boost the learning factor – keep one on your tank if you aren't already.

Regardless of the lights you choose, I would still question 100% of the sources that give you the "doesn't have growth" vibe on LED's.

(I still say any one of the lights you have/have had could be fine...or if not, you should be considering strip-LED's instead of the current course...PM me if you want to talk about LED setup and other stuff. 2¢)

Haha I had the Kessil a360we and a160we originally and the hydra 52 I traded for it's not a huge deal actually getting a light. I tried strip LEDs and idk I don't like the effects of it compared to the dense matrix LEDs (It's probably because they were cheap LEDs

). I'll probably end up selling these lights for Radions sooner or later and have t5's just to have it. Might as well have best of both worlds, plus if there is any shadowing, the T5 will take care of it. I mean T5 is plans for the future :3 just getting a better idea of things.

But my plans areeeeee either;
T5+Reefbrite LED
T5 Supp + Current LED
Radions .. and maybe T5?
just.. t5 ? I love the shimmer of LEDs though

mcarroll · Sep 29, 2016

Right on!

Again, PM me if you want to talk about setup when the time comes – I'd be glad to help.

Jongalt26 · Sep 30, 2016

I'm going to be adding retro T-5's to my canopy as well. (I currently have reefbreeder photon V2's) My canopy is 60" so i will be adding at least one fixture for two bulbs, if not two fixtures. The main reason for my addition is to color up my rainbow acans a bit better. While their color is still rich they're losing some of their definition. From my research it seems t-5's are best for this. I use a seneye for par metering. While it's not the best tool, its price as a par meter cant be beat and ive found the other functions to be useful in my QT.
Back to the OP question, im going to be going with the giesemann razors which have good reviews.

Kyuss414 · Oct 2, 2016

The LET Lighting Miro-4 retro kits on BRS are good quality, especially for the price. Good quality components - reflectors, endcaps, even includes all wiring, and the ballasts are HEP Group ballasts, same thing ATI uses in their T5 fixtures. Great value IMO.

cromag27 · Oct 2, 2016

http://reef2reef.com/threads/diy-t5-led-post-build.266073/

Bozoman · Oct 2, 2016

Spending time researching reflectors is better time spent than the retrofit kits themselves. Bulb choice I will always recommend going ATI, but Giesseman is a good alternative. I believe LET had the better reflectors last time I did the research if you want to buy a kit rather than assemble it yourself. Myself I have used T5 only for 10 years now and I see no reason to switch in the foreseeable future. The 8 bulb Sunpower is hard to beat on value and reliability. That said since you already have high quality LED fixtures adding some T5 retrofits will definitely get you the best of both worlds. Can't beat the spread and ability to light up every crevice and eliminate shadowing. The only downside as I see it is that T5s have a tendency to reduce the shimmer effect from LEDs.

cromag27 · Oct 2, 2016

Let use the same ati reflectors, and ballasts (I believe).

Bozoman said:
Spending time researching reflectors is better time spent than the retrofit kits themselves. Bulb choice I will always recommend going ATI, but Giesseman is a good alternative. I believe LET had the better reflectors last time I did the research if you want to buy a kit rather than assemble it yourself. Myself I have used T5 only for 10 years now and I see no reason to switch in the foreseeable future. The 8 bulb Sunpower is hard to beat on value and reliability. That said since you already have high quality LED fixtures adding some T5 retrofits will definitely get you the best of both worlds. Can't beat the spread and ability to light up every crevice and eliminate shadowing. The only downside as I see it is that T5s have a tendency to reduce the shimmer effect from LEDs.

blank · Oct 2, 2016

Oo definitely the smarter way to go about it since the reflectors are the more important piece of the fixture anyways. So I'm assuming http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/dimmable-t5-ho-miro-4-retrofit-kit-let-lighting.html are the best bang for the buck instead of these http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/razor-t5-retro-kit-giesemann.html . The Giesemann does look cleaner and that would be nice because I don't have a canopy but like, there's so information on their reflectors so I'm guessing it's just their standard Giesemann reflectors? Could I just get the replacement ati reflectors and install them? or would that be complicated?