Looks like Todd31 may have just ordered one of these to try out. It's shipping out today. Thank you!
Biotek t5 led replacements
- Thread starter Velcro
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As an FYI...if you write and review on our site and you will get some extra reward points added to your account.
http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/lighting/led-lighting?manufacturer=7101
http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/lighting/led-lighting?manufacturer=7101
Todd31
Active Member
Happy with my purchase. Was hoping to get a little more coral pop for the last couple hours of my light schedule. I have a 6 bulb ATI fixture and my program ends with just channel 1 on. 2 bulbs. I had an ATI blue and ATI actinic in channel 1. With those 2 bulbs and the fixture hung 11 inches above water line I got 160 PAR just under the water line. I replaced the actinic bulb with the all blue biotek LED and definitely get more coral pop than before and a little shimmer. Not AP700 shimmer (what I converted from), but some. PAR is 130 just under the water line with the biotek bulb subbed in.
I was just looking for a little more coral fluorescence at night without having to attach a reefbrite or something like it to the fixture. This definitely did the trick. Worth it for the small drop in PAR for my purpose.
I was just looking for a little more coral fluorescence at night without having to attach a reefbrite or something like it to the fixture. This definitely did the trick. Worth it for the small drop in PAR for my purpose.
Todd31
Active Member
Hoping for a little input from those that are more T5 savvy than me. As i said above, i installed 1 biotek bulb on channel 1 of my 6 bulb ATI. So thats the channel with 2 bulbs. After a week, channel 1 started turning off on its own. When i put the replaced T5 back in, it works fine. Is it possible that having a mixture of bulb types (T5, LED) on the 1 channel causes a problem? Haven't found any info anywhere about this sort of issue....
Right now we are running our T5 and LED on separate fixtures. If anyone else is using T5 bulbs on the same channel with BioTek LED lights then please let us know (along with what brand of fixture/ballast). The 2 fixtures are on one of our 8 foot x 4 foot farm tanks so it will be interesting to see how much growth rates and coloration vary under each fixture on the same tank.
For a few weeks we were running T5 and LED bulbs in the same fixture and everything worked fine for us but we decided to run the "experiment" a couple of weeks ago now that farm tank #2 is online.
For a few weeks we were running T5 and LED bulbs in the same fixture and everything worked fine for us but we decided to run the "experiment" a couple of weeks ago now that farm tank #2 is online.
OP
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Velcro
2500 Club Member
cjd
Well-Known Member
As of now I run 3 of the biotek 20k in an ATI dimmable fixture. 2 are in their own channel and one is in the mix with t5's . No problems to report other than my fixture is so buggy and after replacing the timer just to have it bug out again, I decided to build a T5 /LED hybrid floating canopy over my rimless. Who knows ...maybe these have been messing up the timer somehow???? It did start acting up the first time after adding the euroaqutics blue pop version ??? Never had an issue with them not lighting when the fixture is working properly .
Todd31,
I've had a similar issue with my dimmable 8 bulb fixture... I put 1 BioTek bulb in channel 1 and the ATI (brand new bulb) either flickers or flickers and then goes out. I really like the BioTek bulb so contemplating ordering another one to have 2 in channel 1 to see if it will fix the issue. Only scare is they are pretty expensive to take a gamble on if it will function correctly or not...
Steve,
Any thoughts/input on this?
sromero287
Valuable Member
I bought yday the ATI 8x24w second hand but pretty much new with less than two months used, was not sure if buy two reef brights xho blue but $$$ omg, so I just ordered through Aquarium specialty two Bioteks T5's one 20k and 20k with red for my channel 1, honestly did it because of the good reviews, let's see I hope so because two tubes for 106 bucks Jeeeeeez, everything for my reef!!!!
Todd31
Active Member
Well I guess its good that someone else had the same problem.... I ordered a second one so I would have only bioteks on channel 1. I'll let you know if they work correctly.... biotek should probably put a note on their site that you shouldn't mix bulb types on a channel....
Todd31
Active Member
Good news is that the 2 biotek's on my channel 1 on my 6 bulb fixture seem to be working fine. and i really like the look for my last couple hours at nighttime to enjoy the coral pop. But im not sure i will leave them on because of the PAR sacrifice. Thats the bad news, when only channel 1 is on i measured about 35 PAR just under the waterline. So, going with 2 biotek's and 4 T5's im going to have a significant PAR drop vs going with 6 T5's. For some people that may not matter much because there might be plenty of light anyway... For me leaning SPS primary, i might need the extra punch...
ATI North America
Valuable Member
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I cannot comment specifically on the product, but would like to share that more than likely any strange behavior would likely not be related to the channel, but to the ballasts. Even on 4 or 6 bulb channels, they run on 2 bulb ballasts. Its not likely that running T5 and LED on one channel will do anything, but it may be likely mixing T5 and LED on a single ballast may make it behave strangely. I am only referencing the comment above about the proposed warning, not from any data we have on the product.
I can say Euroquatics E5's have about a 50/50 shot of being dimmable according to the manufacture and the support I have given folks.
Channel 1 Channel 2
ATI 4 bulb SunPower T5 High-Output Fixture 1&3 2&4
ATI 6 bulb SunPower T5 High-Output Fixture 2&5 1&3, 4&6
ATI 8 bulb SunPower T5 High-Output Fixture 3&6 1&2, 4&5, 7&8
I can say Euroquatics E5's have about a 50/50 shot of being dimmable according to the manufacture and the support I have given folks.
Channel 1 Channel 2
ATI 4 bulb SunPower T5 High-Output Fixture 1&3 2&4
ATI 6 bulb SunPower T5 High-Output Fixture 2&5 1&3, 4&6
ATI 8 bulb SunPower T5 High-Output Fixture 3&6 1&2, 4&5, 7&8
sromero287
Valuable Member
I received my two biotek bulbs (20K and 20k with Red) place them in my channel 1 from my ATI and they work perfect the collars in my reef looks awesome I got the same effect like when I was using the two reefbrights in my future looks clean not that many wires, super awesome, thanks Daine at aquarium specialty!!! [emoji106]
cjd
Well-Known Member
Long story short...... I changed my lighting to a floating canopy with an AP 700 with 4 t5 LET retrofit kit. I have 2 of the biotek leds on their own channel and they do not turn on when the timer turns on. I have to unplug them from the timer and plug them back in for them to turn on. Unfortunately I will not be using these in my new set up.
Another note, they are way brighter in the retrofit than they were in the ATI dimmable fixture and yes they were set up for 100%.
Another note, they are way brighter in the retrofit than they were in the ATI dimmable fixture and yes they were set up for 100%.
ATI North America, thank you for the input. The BioTek bulbs are dimmable and you are correct, it seems to be a ballast issue with placing a standard T5 bulb and LED BioTek bulb on the same ballast. Unfortunately I learned this the hard way by trying different bulb combinations with the LEDs burning up 4 new bulbs. Shame on me, I should have learned after a couple time not to place LED and T5 on the same 2 bulb ballast.
Can you provide input on the following: the new bulbs I have purchased which seem to get burned out if put in the same ballast as LED, seem to still work if changed to be (2) T5 on the same ballast if turned/adjusted in socket but don't turn on without being tweaked in the socket. Pretty sure they are just getting burned out as new bulbs work fine in the sockets...
Can you provide input on the following: the new bulbs I have purchased which seem to get burned out if put in the same ballast as LED, seem to still work if changed to be (2) T5 on the same ballast if turned/adjusted in socket but don't turn on without being tweaked in the socket. Pretty sure they are just getting burned out as new bulbs work fine in the sockets...
