T5 Lighting Advice

[Dima]

Good day guys,

due to one of my AP700s burning on me for no reason after 1.5 years of service and Kessil support not being able to help but offer a discount for a new light I am thinking to switch to T5s only. Will remove the remaining LED fixture.

My tank is 72in 180 gal, nothing crazy couple of SPS, but want to go more SPS. With ap700 SPS were not happy at all. I am thinking to go with 2x 24in fixtures. So far looking at the Giesemann Matrixx.

Can u suggest how much T5 power I need for SPS ? Never run t5 before

 

[TORX]

Your hydro company is going to thank you for sure. You best option is probably going to be a 72" 6 bulb fixture. They aren't like led and don't have a dome reflector. You want bulbs to go from one end to the other as their reflectors only reflect down down and perpendicular to the bulbs. A 24" fixture bulb is only actually 20". With 2 that will leave the tank at almost half unlit by proper PAR. T5 for a tank that large will almost be as much as LED, especially when you look at bulb replacements and these huge increase in hydro. They also put off a ton more heat, which is good in the winter I guess.

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[Luke.]

Here’s my 2cents , don’t buy kessil , not trying to bash them but I’ve never had luck in 4 years I’m on my 4th light and trying to communicate with San Francisco is a PITA .. and without a light it’s a problem .. corals start to slowly die , (btw my kessils were ran max 50% intensity, and tank had a glass lid)

Any who I would recommend a hybrid mix of t5 and leds , that way you can run your t5 and led off and on so they will last longer , yes hydro will be a little more when t5s are on but the coral growth from the mix would be rewording

 

[Dima]

Thank you guys, so taking it farther to Hybrid light, so I still have one ap700, would that be better if I go with lets say 4x80W 60 in Hybrid unit guiseman or ati and place ap700 in the middle.

Heat is not a problem as tank is in the basement.

Hydro yes, but ap700 usage is about 180W I run it 80% = 140W the 4xT5 80W = 240W so its a 100W difference, plus they probably run 6 hrs top a day.

So what do you think maybe the Hybrid is the way to go , would that be better for corals , I didnt have much luck with ap700 with SPS.

 

[Luke.]

What’s wrong with the ap700?

I’m not going to say it’s the way to go , I just think it’s the best of both worlds t5 will grow anything , period (until they die out) then with the led i like to think it helps in other aspects and you get the shimmer effect , I’m not to sure how much t5s you’ll need but if you get something that can hold more bulbs then you could always add a bulb in the slot I would think .

 

[Pistol]

Have you looked into getting the light fixed? Sometimes it's a pretty simple problem that can be fixed.

 

[Dima]

Have you looked into getting the light fixed? Sometimes it's a pretty simple problem that can be fixed.

DO you know who or where I can fix it. The only option I found is to send it to Kessil.

But even that will cost me 100$ to ship it probably to Cali, 100$ for them to tell me what is wrong, and if its a big deal more money for fix. Thats why I thought maybe to try t5s for a change dont want to buy another unit like that.

 

[Dima]

What’s wrong with the ap700?

I’m not going to say it’s the way to go , I just think it’s the best of both worlds t5 will grow anything , period (until they die out) then with the led i like to think it helps in other aspects and you get the shimmer effect , I’m not to sure how much t5s you’ll need but if you get something that can hold more bulbs then you could always add a bulb in the slot I would think .

AP700 was fine for a year and couple of days ago its just shut down, power wifi leds all of it off. Connect disconnect nothing helped, cleaned dust, not much were there, still no help. So I switched power supply from another ap700, not sure why but led turned on for a 10 secs and started smoking. after that same thing power lights are off.

 

[Luke.]

Dang that rough .. yeah my chips always burn out on half the board ,

You could look into a cheaper led like the black boxes , or mars leds @Shooter000 has a nice one, but let’s say your light schedule is 10 hrs you could do 6 hrs with t5 and 4hrs led or something like that so making t5 main source and leds to cover the rest of that makes sense

 

[Pistol]

I know there are a few on this forum, I am one who has fixed a lot of electronics, a lot of times it is a burned solder connection or circuit board which can be easily repaired. You could try a local electronics or tv repair person to open it up and look, or you could open it yourself and post some pics of the insides. your prolly donna toss it in the trash anyway so you can't hurt it.

 

[Dima]

I know there are a few on this forum, I am one who has fixed a lot of electronics, a lot of times it is a burned solder connection or circuit board which can be easily repaired. You could try a local electronics or tv repair person to open it up and look, or you could open it yourself and post some pics of the insides. your prolly donna toss it in the trash anyway so you can't hurt it.

I could not find how to even open it. Do you know who can take a look at this on this forum for money of course ?

 

[kapelan]

somewhere should be a micro screw.
I've tried Kessil A360WE - it's 2-3mm star.

 

[Pistol]

most of the images on google show 8 screws on the top

 

[cica]

I could not find how to even open it. Do you know who can take a look at this on this forum for money of course ?

If you run out of options, you can drop it off at my place so I can look at it. Can't promise that I'll be able to look at it immediately but I'll try to do it ASAP.
Only thing is that I'm in Scarborough, Lawrence and Kingston.