Buying New Lights

[no1bubba]

Have 75 gal. tank. Have been using 6 T5's and now I find that two of the 6sometime do not come on and my tank has been suffering. I want to buy a t5 - metal halide combo. Do any of you know where the best prices are? Ordered an Odyessea 48"combo and it arrived with one T5 broken. I got on the net and found it wasn't a very good choice. No UL rating or guarantee. Need some suggestions fast tank is suffering. Thanks, Bubba

 

[BigAl07]

All I can offer is how I would do it (or how I THINK I would) if I were in your shoes today.

I currently have a 90g system with Mh/T5 combo and I wouldn't do it this way again. If I were looking for lights I'd TRY to LED if I had the $$ (many Many MANY $$$) or I'd go with a high quality T5 system with individual reflectors for each bulb.

Good luck.

 

[DaveK]

At this point it sounds like your sort of stuck with the Odyessa.

I'd replace the broken bulb, hopefully from the manufacturer. If the bulbs in your existing fixture are the same you could borrow one.

At least this way you'll get the thing working.

That way you'd get something out of the fixture. If something then breaks in it, then make the choice of repair verses replace.

The other alternative would be to send the Odyessa fixture back for a refund,and repair the original one, or get something else. If you go the replacement route, always buy top quality. It will cost more up front, but long term it's least expensive.

These sort of systems can only have a few problems. The ballast and/or the bulbs can go bad. To test, swap the working bulbs from another section with the problem section. If the problem follows the bulbs the bulbs are bad. Otherwise the problem is the ballast.

You might be able to find a replacement ballast locally.

 

[no1bubba]

BigAl Reasoning behind changing over to leds? Bubba

 

[BigAl07]

BigAl Reasoning behind changing over to leds? Bubba

• A) I just had an LED unit built for my 12g and LOVE it!
• B) Less energy used (considerably)
• C) Mush less heat generated
• D) Completely control over color (temp) of the light
• E) Reportedly GREAT bulb life (many thousand hours potentially)

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Hope you don't mind me elaborating Al

• A) I just had an LED unit built for my 12g and LOVE it! - Read all about it here. Fast forward to page 7 for some pictures of the light installed.
• B) Less energy used (considerably) - Evilc66 on Nano-reefs has done some extensive PAR testing and has found the popular 12 LED fixtures (each diode uses 3w x 12 = 36w) areabout he same in output as a 70W MH.
• C) Mush less heat generated - Also, the heat that is generated by the LEDs isn't radiated the direction of the light, it comes off the diode itself, which is pulled through a mounted PCB and then fed into a heatsink of some sort.. so little, if any heat gets into your tank.
• D) Completely control over color (temp) of the light - perhaps the best feature. The LED drivers used in Al's project have external dimmers that let him turn the diodes anywhere from 0-100% intensity, giving probably the most control over the output possible. Light acclimation of corals is a breeze when you can choose to dim your lights down to any intensity desired.
• E) Reportedly GREAT bulb life (many thousand hours potentially) - The data sheets claim 50,000 hours before a drop to 70% intensity, with no MTBF mentioned. On an 8 hour a day lighting schedule, that would mean over 16 years.

While I really like LEDs and have witnessed first hand their power, it is difficult for he average hobbyist to get a reliable LED fixture. The only ones I've heard of that use high powered Cree LEDs are a product of the UK. Also, the cost is substantial.. Al's fixture when all was said and done cost around $400 I think, and that was for 12 LEDs.

If you really like the technology, then I would suggest it. If not, I would not. The Solaris is a good example of what happens when people pay top dollar for an aquarium light and expect it to have magical properties or healing powers... LEDs still leave a bad taste in many people's mouths because of the Solaris' shortcomings, despite the fact that it was a first-generation LED product, PFO is now out of business and that LED technology advances more and more every day.

 

[DaveK]

I think LED lighting will become the lighting of choice in the long term future. Today, now, it's still very expensive for what you get. In effect, you save about 50% on electricity over MHs.

If we use the numbers from the previous post of a $400 initial investment and getting the same light as a 70w MH, this is the result -

You save 34w per hour on electricity, times 8 hours a day, times 365 days a year = 99,280 watts or 99.28 KW saved. (Note there is a possible additional factor here, which is the relative performance of the power supplies involved. I didn't take this into consideration because I have no way of knowing what it is for MH or LEDs)

At .15 per KWH we save 14.90 per year on electricity. Note that this could be higher if your system needs a chiller because of the MHs. For a lighting system this size most people would not.

In addition, we would also save the cost of a MH bulb. If we figure a MH bulb is good for about 18 months, and has a replacement cost of $60 this works out to about $40 a year in bulb replacement costs.

So we save about $54.90 a year using LEDs over MHs. Note that the biggest part of the savings is in bulb replacement.

A 70w MH fixture is going to cost about $170. This makes a price difference of about $230 less than LEDs. We must also keep in mind that the LED fixture was a DIY project. A manufactured product would cost a lot more.

Dividing the price difference of $230 by the cost savings of 54.90 we get a pay back time of 4.18 years or just over 4 years. This also assumes that nothing during this period needs replacement. In other words, you never knock the fixture into the tank, and nothing ever goes wrong.

The question comes down to this. Does a 4 year ROI (return on investment) justify the up front cost of the LEDs?

In my opinion, the ROI is a lot better than the first generation LED fixtures by PFO, which had something like an 8 or 9 year ROI, but it still takes a log time to get your money back.

For this reason, I can only recommend LEDs for people that want an LED system at any price. For most of us, I think we are still better off using MHs or T5s. In about 5 to 10 years or so, I would expect LEDs to be a much better choice.

 

[BigAl07]

One other point I'd like to make is that my LED system can be tuned down to moonlights or UP to "Solar Flare" (equates to large blind spots for hours after looking anywhere near the LEDs themselves) and this "system is an amazing "under the hood" (called a "Sneaky Pete" back in the day of hiding a Nitrous Oxide system under the hood of the car) that can give you MH results without LOTS of HEAT or a very visible MH pendant. I'm not saying those don't look good but they don't fit the bill for lots of us A-I-O owners who like the sleek clean design of the factory looking hood.


CoD's prototype just gets better and better every day! I LOVE IT!!

 

[rmlevasseur]

I have 4 systems, Solaris (LED), Outer Orbit MH/T5, Belize Sun MH/T5, and a T5 on the fuge.

The LEDs savings and lesser heat cannot be denied, especially when you figure in bulb replacement. But I by far and away prefer my MH systems. The pop I get from the Phoenix 14k coupled with the shimmer is not comparable. I have never been completely happy with the look of the LED's, no matter how I adjust the blue/white mix. I have seen some of the newer LED fixtures and do not feel they have improved much, if at all, over the last generation Solaris when it comes to color and pop.

While my 180 is certainly evidence that softy and LPS can do great under LED, there is no doubt in my mind that SPS and most of my corals in general will do better and look better under the halides.

As for T5, I have seen many beautiful tanks lit by T5, but the flourescent look just doesn't do it for me. I don't like the artificial glow. I like the shades and shimmers offered by halide and LED.