Weekend fun with T5s

[marco67]

I've been collecting parts for awhile and finally got around to converting my main tank to T5s

I started with
2x 250 HQIs and 2x 110 VHO O3s

Gutted the hood sanded, repainted and installed:
4x 54w 10K T5s driven by an Ice Cap 660
2X 54w O3s T5s driven by a long horse 7

Observations:
Damn it lights up the ceiling well without reflectors
(J/K of course I added them but no pic)
Unbelievable ho much light this set up produces!
O3s on the LH 7 are too bright for dawn/dusk, need to add a 3rd stage

After living 5 years under 700watts of light this 300+watts sent my checker board wrasse under a cave laying on his side it's so bright.

Still need to swap out and play with lamps
right now running 4 Ice cap 10Ks and 2 Ice Cap O3s (pvt label by UVL)
It's super bright white with just a hint of blue, I'll be looking to tone it down a bit and add a bit more blue.

Only negative, and it's a bigge to me!
I miss the Halide shimmer
(I think some LEDs are in store.)

BTW 2x sunlight supply 250HQIs FS here

The best part is I've been collecting all these parts so long
The box with reflectors from Ice Cap was dated 12 of '08'
I got out of the weekend project
with $.94 out of pocket,
(the only parts missing were 1 6/32x 3/8 bulb clip mounting screw and one box cover)

 

[snowmaker]

Nice job there.
I have noticed that on the over driven IceCap set-ups, all color of bulbs run slightly whiter than normal-driven.
For my tastes, I am liking:
Geisemann pure actinic, UVL 75-25, UVL 454, Geisemann pure actinic.
I'm getting amazing colors and decent growth. PAR is fairly low, but I am running over a shallow frag tray. PAR avg. 180 12" below fixture, in the air.
I am not sold on the internal reflectors in the UVL bulbs. To the eye, there is more light coming from the bulbs w/ out internal reflectors, as they are utilizing the clip on reflectors. The UVL bulbs are not.

 

[jackthestrat]

Nice job!

I found the brightness to be out of control when I switched to t5's as well. Blew my 250w fixture out of the water, no question.

I like shimmer too, but after a while I stopped missing it. Corals color up better, I think because the light is distributed better. Undersides and so forth.

Good luck with your new fixture!

 

[marco67]

I haven't done any par tests yet,
The idea behind the 4x10Ks on the 660 was because I was concerned about not having enough light. Now by eye I've got plenty of room to give up some and play with combinations.
FWIW
the PVT label O3s do not have the built in reflector but are also nothing like the classic look of the VHO O3s (my favorite). I need to play with those some too, it may be the ballast. next I'll try using only one leg of the LH7 and maybe even a WH5.

 

[wrassefan]

looks good Marc!! nice work! The workhorse and the ice cap 660 will overdrive the bulbs to about 80w each. Plenty of light for most anything...except shimmer.