T5's sold at Home Depot cheap!

Just wanted to pass along a money saving tip about T5 lighting.
I heard that Home Depot was now selling them and went to investigate. I was in the market to add some to my tank along with the MH & Actinics i've already got.
I looked into purchasing thru my LFS and catalogs and found 48" retrofit kits starting at like $169.00. I never saw any 72" kits which is what i needed.
Looking at Home Depot the lighting guys showed me that they had full kits in 2-4 ft sizes including bulbs. All you needed to do was hard wire them or whatever. I decided on 2-3ft'ers which would give me the 72" i needed. Price? $29.00 per kit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They even sell MH bulbs! Just because it's not bought as a "coral light" it's like over $100.00 cheaper!

 

Many studies have shown that bulbs for human use do not emit light in the spectra for corals. It looks bright to our eyes, but there is very little par

The reflectors on Home Depot fixtures are not very good, and the end caps are not waterproof, and in the end you won't have good results. Trust me, if there was a cheaper way to do lighting would would have been all over it a long time

 

those bulbs have the wrong spectrum you need at least 10,000 kelvin bulbs and home depot bulbs burn at around 6500 kelvin so you will get some growth out of your coral but your tank is gonna look yellow and ugly plus your corals will loose their color. Stick with what works or youll end up paying for it later.

 

Going cheap will be more expensive in the long run. Do it right the first time and your wallet will thank you. Your corals will, as well. Those bulbs aren't meant for coral growth. Maybe a ball field or work area at night, but not a reef tank.

 

My cousin uses all Home Depot bulb, ballasts and reflectors on his tank. He has no problems with 'em.

 

You can use use Odyssea fixtures too and have no problem. But you don't get the performance, and there are animals that won't thrive like clams and host anemones, and many won't even survive.

Look at an Odyssea fixture they make 8 bulb models that put out as much par as a 4 bulb TEK fixture. But they use more electricity

And I bet your cousin isn't using Home Depot bulbs. Two things you shouldn't skimp on for your tank - the skimmer or lighting

Go check this site out

http://tfivetesting.googlepages.com/

 

Maybe the bulbs can be changed to the better one's but the unit itself is cheaper and still would work, IMO.
I've got sufficient lighting already without the T5's, but wanted to add them just to get the nice pop of color they give the Corals.

 

Make sure the T5 setups you are looking at are HO and not NO. If they are you can change out to good bulbs and be good to go. On the bulbs, they might sell the GE 6500K daylight bulb, which is a really good bulb for coral growth, but you will want some type of a blue bulb to go along with it to make the tank look nicer.

Kim

 

They are no where near comparable. You will need bulbs and ballasts to be replaced. And thats really all those kits are There really is a HUGE difference in the mechanics behind lighting your garage and growing corals.

 

I hate to say this, but a ballast is a ballast. If the fixture is a T5 HO fixture there is actually a good chance that it has better ballasts than some of the cheaper commercial aquarium fixtures. Industry does not normally use workhorse instant start ballasts for t5 ho application, they use the proper programmed start start T5 spec ballasts, while some of the aquarium manufactures use the workhorse ballast since they are less expensive and easier to install.

When it comes to MH, an M59 spec ballast is an M59 spec ballast. Aquarium trade uses the same ballasts as industry.

Kim