T5 + Blackbox Hybrid Light Rack

[jwstephens]

Morning,

I am curious if anyone has created or found a solution that will allow you to leverage T5's and LED's like some of the other light rack kits. I have noticed that most seem to be designed for pendants and not for a full SBreeflite or other Blackbox design.

My project consists of lighting a 72x36x30 acrylic tank and I'm struggling to find options unless I attempt a custom setup using EZTube to frame it out.

Ideally, I'm looking to end up with 4 60" T-5's on the outsides and my existing 32" Sbox Pro's on the inside.


Thoughts?

 

[RobZilla04]

Likely cost to develop/manufacture vs popularity which result in sales profit. I'm willing to bet the companies (like AquaticLife) did extensive research into the "most popular" (by sales numbers) LED options and designed around those.

Additionally the so called Chinese Black Boxes aren't sold by the reputable outlets (BRS, Marine Depot, saltwateraquarium.com, etc) due to the quality/reliance issues. You do bring up a good point about the quality fixtures such as the SBreeflite and others....

When in doubt, custom is usually the route to go. If you have the means and capabilities of course.

 

[Apedemak]

I was wanting to experiment with adding T5s to my viparspectras and they were too big for the aquatic life fixture. I ended up just making a rack thing out of slotted angle iron that i could suspend from the ceiling and set the leds on while adding t5s as i saw fit. Just finished it today so not sure how well it works yet.