Aquatic Life T5

I liked the first pair, it looks more natural.

 

I have had a couple of them in my shop, and I have been impressed with the fixtures. The reflectors are not as nice as the Tek units, but for OK reflectors they have a great price and come with the built in timer. One bad thing about the built in timer, if it goes out you are SOL. There is only one power cord for all the T5's and leds so you can not put them on another timer or use them with a controller.

The stock reflectors are triangular rather than a good parabola. I was not able to measure par to compare to my tek, but I think it will be within 15% or so with the same lights.

Build quality. I was also impressed with. The feet have metal inserts to hold them into the fixture so there should be a lot less broken feet, and the fixture is a lot more solid than most of the other fixtures in the same price range.

Kim


Kim

 

Still love my light, and here's the deal on the reflectors. The two reflectors on the end are not parabolas, they are triangular, and the reason is to focus the light towards the center of the tank. A lot of the wide fixtures with the identical parabolic reflectors spill light onto the floor. These fixtures were designed to minimize that spillage and maximize the light in the tank itself.

I am hoping by not lighting up the glass that the algae will be lessened. Time will tell. So far so good - one happy camper here

 

I purchased an Aquatic Life T5HO 36" Light Fixture. When I tried to swap the bulbs that came with the fixture for the 34" UVL 75:25 and super actinic bulbs, the UVL bulbs were slightly shorter in length (about a 1/8 inch shorter) than the Aquatic Life bulbs. Did you have any problems with the lamps staying on? When I tried to insert the UVL bulbs, the fit was not as snug as with the Aquatic Life bulbs and there was a small gap in the one of the sockets when the pins go in. Would using these slightly shorter lamps damage the fixture?

Thanks