BioTek B5HO RETROFIT LED?

[Mono]

Does anyone have experience or thoughts about the BioTek B5HO RETROFIT LEDs? I was thinking of picking up a 20,000k blue light to add some pop to my 6 bulb ATI.

 

[cjd]

They seem to be hit or miss with working correctly . My personal experience , I had two in a dimmable ATI 6 bulb fixture for that night time pop. They worked fine except they did not dim. Gave me that pop I was looking for. I changed my lighting to a floating canopy with leds and retrofit T5's . I tried to add these as well but they would not turn on unless I played with the bulb . Others have reported this issue as well. Unfortunately there isn't a way to tell if they will work unless you try them. Same issues reported with the EuroAquatics E5's.

 

[Mono]

Thanks cjd.

Don't have a dimmable ATI fixture, so I'm not worried about that. Of course, if I have to jiggle the bulb every morning, that would be annoying.

Anyone have any thoughts on how the 20,000k B5HO compare to a regular ATI Actinic T5?

 

[cjd]

I tried both. 20k bio tek is what you're looking for. It's definitely pops.

 

[Todd31]

I found that I had problems having 1 of the biotek's on the same ballast as a regular t5. after a couple days, neither would work. Feedback I got was that mixing on the same ballast may be a no-no. So, I went with 2 of them on the 2 light channel 1 ballast of my 6 bulb ATI ... which was a great look for dawn and dusk with coral pop. But, the PAR drop was drastic with all 6 bulbs on. So, Ive pulled them and am still in the market for supplemental LED lighting...

 

[Mono]

Todd, thanks for your input much apreciated. Gonna stick with one ATI Actinic T5 for now since I just installed one. I'll check back in a year and see where the LEDs are at.