Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - T5s vs. MH... What would be the ultimate faceoff?

Sanjay · 01/08/2007, 05:51 PM

I know there are going to be too many variables with t5s... bulb mix, ballast mix, etc. Hence my question - What would be the best set up to test ?

I know one thing I am going to test for sure, is light output at 30 inches. This would simulate light reaching the bottom of a 24" tank, with lights at 6" above.

I would like to do a 4X3 area so the full length of the 48" T-5s is taken into account. This means there will be a lot bigger grid of data points. Just as reference... my old gird of 3ftX3ft took about 1.5-2hrs to just take one set of readings. So you can see that time (and boredom) will soon become a factor. Hence I have to choose carefully and need your input in what would be valuable.

sanjay.

01/08/2007, 05:51 PM	#13
Sanjay Premium Member Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: State College, PA Posts: 2,302	I know there are going to be too many variables with t5s... bulb mix, ballast mix, etc. Hence my question - What would be the best set up to test ? I know one thing I am going to test for sure, is light output at 30 inches. This would simulate light reaching the bottom of a 24" tank, with lights at 6" above. I would like to do a 4X3 area so the full length of the 48" T-5s is taken into account. This means there will be a lot bigger grid of data points. Just as reference... my old gird of 3ftX3ft took about 1.5-2hrs to just take one set of readings. So you can see that time (and boredom) will soon become a factor. Hence I have to choose carefully and need your input in what would be valuable. sanjay.