My DIY T5/MH fixture

[FishieBusiness]

I have been using MH on my tanks for 15yrs. I have always loved the way they light the tanks. The shimmer just can't be had replicated IMO. The last 2 years I have taken the tank in a different direction. At that point lighting became more important to me and the tank. Thought that I needed more blues to get the colors I see at LFS and frag show. I was not getting rid of the MHs. Thought adding led bars would be the way to go. So I started playing with Blue LED light bars. Thought that I had the right combo to get the colors right. Had a bud over that hadn't seen the tank in a while. His first words were WOW! followed by Why is you tank so blue. I had not realized how far down the blue hole I had gone.

So decided to scrap the current light fixture and make a new 1. So I'm using 2 t5 retrofit kits bought from BRS. Made the frame out of wood scraps from other home projects. Used aluminum scraps from the first fixture.

Used all ATIs. So I wired ballast 1 to 2-54w Blue+. Wired the ballast 2 to 1coral+ and 1purple+. This way I can stager the start times of the bulbs. To support the MH and keep the heat from contacting the wood frame I used aluminum brackets to mount the MHs. This will make bulb makes bulb changes on the MHs easy as they can be lifted right off without any problems.

I can't believe the difference. There are so many more colors and the color pop is like nothing I had with any other setups.

It was a really fun project and came out pretty sweet. Really stoked with the outcome.

What do you think?

 

[this is me]

Nice!
If I’m on Solar, I would go back to Radiums and T5s superactnic. For my previous tank, I was running about 1200W for light. I’m now using about 300W with Radions. Gonna give it a bit more soaking time before I can consider swapping back.

 

[PSU4ME]

That’s how I built my old T5 retro around my two radion Gen 2s. They worked really well as long as the reflectors are nice and clean.

 

[ChrisV]

Can't beat halide.