I have had my T5’s (4 bulbs) for about a year now. I need to replace the bulbs. Any suggestions on which bulbs to use? colors? This will be my first time replacing bulbs. Any suggestions or advice would be great. Thanks
How many bulbs will you be replacing?
I ran T5’s for a while, both 4 bulb and 6 bulb fixtures. I always used ATI or UVL lamps (I think UVL is something else now though, not sure). There are a lot of good quality bulbs out there.
Also - what kind of color spectrum are you looking for overall?
I will be replacing all 4 of them. I’m not sure what color spectrum yet. I was just online trying to research it. I havent had much coral growth with the current lights I have. Currently I have 2 white, 1 blue and 1 purple
In addition to needing to replace the bulbs now one of the ballasts dont work. >:::
If you need a ballast for 2 x 54 watt 4 foot T-5s, I often use these. Fulham WorkHorse 5 120V. 128 watt max.
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or you can use a WorkHorse 7 120v, 220 watts, to run all 4 four foot bulbs.
Have you opened up the fixture to see what they are using?
I would do two ati actinics then one blue then one white/actinic forget the name think it’s Fiji purple or purple plus that’ll give nice color and good growth as long as all else is good
I like to replace bulbs in stages in my multiple t5 bulb fixtures. Especially if going with different spectrums. The sps corals don’t like lots of change all at once and shift color/bleach when I do all at once. Softies and lps don’t care much. As for brand, UVL makes good multi-phosphorus bulbs, like the 75/25. I have used zoo med actinics for a while, no difference than the other 420 actinic bulbs. I want to try the red sea 15,000K bulb but haven’t jumped to it yet. Much more blue than the whites I want to replace. A good balance between price and performance is UVL, IMO. If you are just going 10,000K and 420nm bulbs, like what comes in most, there is very little difference. I personally would use this opportunity to change the spectrum to what you like.
[quote=“Scottman81, post:7, topic:7145”]
I like to replace bulbs in stages in my multiple t5 bulb fixtures. Especially if going with different spectrums. The sps corals don’t like lots of change all at once and shift color/bleach when I do all at once. Softies and lps don’t care much. As for brand, UVL makes good multi-phosphorus bulbs, like the 75/25. I have used zoo med actinics for a while, no difference than the other 420 actinic bulbs. I want to try the red sea 15,000K bulb but haven’t jumped to it yet. Much more blue than the whites I want to replace. A good balance between price and performance is UVL, IMO. If you are just going 10,000K and 420nm bulbs, like what comes in most, there is very little difference. I personally would use this opportunity to change the spectrum to what you like.[/quote]
Second what he said. Corals don’t like the sudden change in light spectrum and amount, but algae sure does!
Certainly dont want an algae bloom. The bulbs are all almost a year old now. They will all need to be replaced but I will do it in stages and not all at once.
Or replace them all at the same time and I cover the top of my tank with layers or window screen.2-3 layers and I remove 1layer a week until there gone. :TWOCENTS