I just wanted to add that I also use these lights. I own 2 of the 4 ft 8 bulb units. I’ve had them for over 2 years on my grow out tanks. They have been flawless and I must say I’ve been quite surprised by that. I shook my head in agreement when you said the bulbs cost more than the fixture.... truth . 😊
great little anecdotal share. I bought a basic Home Depot t5 fixture just for the purpose of burning in bulbs for the 50 hours ati recommends, these are a step above that for just a little more money but also include a reflector.
Next week on brs investigates. Cheap t5, are they unreliable, do they produce the colors you want, do we actually trust these to not burn our house down. Haha I could see it now. Thanks for the video.
excellent video Than. I keep thinking about all the new coral you are going to be able to grow that never did well in the greenhouse over the years. 👍👍
Great update on the lights 👍 will be good to see what you pick lighting wise for the new building and how corals colour up differently if you do go led. Good luck with it all.
That atinic that you talked about that’s dull to you brings out the colors in corals. Sometimes also about the bulb you have to wiggle is an easy fix sometimes it’s the bulb it’s self as well.
I purchased a similar one you have with the ballast problem, Mine was dead on arrival, so i called them up, they sent me a brand new one with a very simple process. Told me to do whatever with the bad one. Aside from that, this one seems to work just fine. Hydroplanet is the brand. haven't used it long enough to recommend but i like it so far!
Ours have been running this whole time. A couple had faulty ballasts, but they were running for years before there were problems. They are not high quality but they are really cheap.
Hi Than, You mentioned that the greenhouse collects a higher amount of condensation than usual on colder days. What are you doing in your new build to address this issue? Will the structure be insulated and treated with any special processes to accommodate moisture conditions or improve the performance to favor the environment for corals? I am very curious about how humidity is maintained if at all and with an aquatic space, what different materials are being used. I'd love to see an update that mentions this.
Can u please do a video on your filtration and plumbing. Would love to see you go in-depth on your stands I see they’re made of brick! What’s supporting the tanks length. Love how simple this is. Please go over it when u have time thx!
Never thought I would see TG go LED, especially name brand on this scale. I would love to see your cost break down for so many units up front versus bulb replacement for the T5.
great video! and also a couple summers ago on the hottest day of the year we had a power shortage, not an outage but from what I heard there was a shortage I guess on power because everyone was using their AC because it was so hot , and I had weird things start going on with my electrical, My AC would not even turn on , I had to keep trying it and it eventually came on but did not sound right and would not run on high , and the power supply for my chiller on my 55gal mixed reef fried, also few other things like lights in certain rooms not working , so I bet when you had the power outage it fried your ballast. I was lucky and my chiller was less than a year old and was covered under warranty
The worst isn't a black out but a brown out where stuff just runs at half power. It's horrible on pumps and motors and it broke a lot of our equipment when it happened a long time ago. If we had a regular black out, the generator would kick on, but in a brown out, the generator senses power still so it doesn't activate :(
Good information, have not tried them yet in my reef tanks. Running kessil on my Fusion and cheaper LEDs on my other tanks. I think when I add a larger tank I'll try T5.
Great update on the amazon T5 fixtures. I have one on my frag system and it works well for me also. FYI Amazon’s cost to ship those lights is about $5-$7 UPS. I sell some products on Amazon so I have a pretty good idea. My boxes are smaller but I have one package that’s 30” x 24” x 14” and my price is $4.88 from Amazon warehouse with Prime.
The cost you see as a seller is not the real cost. Amazon's cost is actually much higher (but still well below retail or a rate a medium sized business could negotiate). Your 15% selling fee actually covers alot of the shipping and is not pure profit for Amazon as most people think.
I agree with the lifetime for bulbs 12 months, Of course the manufacturer will advise you to change more often bulbs they wants to make money. I even kept it for longer than one a year and everything was fine.
I think the longest I've ever gone without changing lights was something like 3 years. They were super dull and dim. I should have changed them long ago because when I finally did, the difference was unbelievable.
Great video. Thank you. If you're looking for natural sunlight in certain areas of the new grow house look at solar tubes. A lot of government installations are using them to light cubicle areas now because they are proven to drive vitamin D3 downward from the roof. It's 100% free after install and your corals will feel the natural progression of the sun. Food for thought. Can we get a slow pan walk around video of the frag tanks?
I had purchased the same 6 bulb T5 light and scraped the AI prime units. I just could not get the growth on the SPS and the LPS in either of my tank systems. I think LED still has a ways to go before I try LED again. First gen AI Prime and Marsaqua LED were used for 2 years. I fully back to T5 again. ALSO using ATI
Please. What size would you recommend for a 36” L 18” wide 18” deep tank. I’m think 12” 14” high from water. What do you think for size. Love your videos will 100% be ordering corals from you.
You could go a lot of different directions depending on what you want to keep. A low end fixture would be an inexpensive 36" T5: amzn.to/392slxk A high end fixture would be something like an Ecotech Radion light: amzn.to/2Qs6o4k
Hello Than. Did you check par reading from the 4 bulb fixture by any chance? I have a 4 fixture with ati two coral plus and two blue plus the tank looks like its full of really bright light. I was wondering if its enough to keep acropora?
I've just been in this hobby about one year now I've probably watched every video you have twice! I definitely really appreciate all the effort you put into these. Would you reccomend the 4 bulb version of this? I seem to be struggling getting corals to grow with my current t5 setup (2 separate t5 fixtures resting on top of my 75 gallon) total 4 bulbs. Thanks again!
A 4 bulb fixture will absolutely work fine assuming you use good bulbs like ATI or Giesmann. If you are still having issues I would look at other aspects of your tank rather than lighting.
What do you use for electrical protection on your equipment ,as you said it pretty much rains in there , just curious as im always nervous when messing around my tank as theres water and wires everywhere.
The ones in the video are Vivosun 4ft T5 HO on Amazon. The Affiliate link are different ones? Can you make an affiliate link for the Vivosun that are in the video?
It would be interesting to see someone do an in depth analysis of the cheap LED fixtures on amazon. I've been using them myself for a couple of months and I can't say I have enough experience to really compare them to anything but in general I've heard that they can grow corals pretty well.
I think the bulbs matter a lot more than the fixture powering them. I would expect any of the top tier T5 manufacturers' bulbs would work great. I've only tried the ATI bulbs and like them a lot.
Yeah I've actually seen that video. I mean like an in depth review over time about how they actually grow corals compared to other LEDs. Like a 12 month update style video, like this one.
If it’s not broken don’t fix it… I like your set up… .companies just trying to make money so just do what works I’m about to order one of those right now … thx
Than I notice you have a lot of Fox Faces in your tanks. Is there any reason you prefer these over a tang especially within aquaculture since they are venomous?
I like their temperament and their ability to really go after algae. I think tangs are altogether too aggressive once they get established. Also, foxfaces do a better job on macro algae than any tang I have ever owned especially on really problematic macro algae such as Valonia.
if decision was on me - I would go with cheap T5 fixtures in new building simply because you already spent a lot on the building it self and you will need a lot more on stuf like tanks, etc... next summer, if heat will be an issue - maybe upgrade to hybrid or pure led. p.s. do you plan to fire up all the tanks at once or in stages?
Can you keep sps under these light in a home aquarium or would you opt for an ati fixture i am looking for 48 inch 6 BULB t5 for a 75 gallon tank i am building. By the way your videos have helped a lot in my reefing career!
For your large scale project, I would assume LED would be much better long term in relation to heat, electricity and time spent maintaining the T5s etc. Also if most people now have led lights in their home, it would be better if they received corals already acclimated to LED rather than the strain of shipment, then adjusting to a new reef system in someones home as well as new lighting fortmat. Ideally a LED / T5 (two bulb) hybrid fixture would be best Im guessing. Best of both worlds : )
Plenty of folks here have beautiful tanks with LEDs but in the back of my mind I wonder if the colors would look better with T5. Regardless, in the new system the heat and electrical consumption of T5 might be a deal breaker right off the bat.
Tidal Gardens Inc. True. You would have to do side by side tank comparisons of led and t5 to find ur true 'colour centre' : ) Ps have you tried the e5 led t5 bulbs. Could be a solution to heat and longevity of the bulbs. Prob one day the led fixtures will all have diffusers to make them give out light similar to t5 fixtures.
I did catch that video the other day. One local hobbyist here has the V3 Atlantik over his frag tank and is very satisfied with the coloration of his corals. I didn't like what it looked like for photography, but maybe the V4 is better for that. It is certainly an option though, I just haven't seen the fixture in person yet.
@@tidalgardens that's awesome.. I'm trying to add some t5s to supplement for my LEDs due to shadowing. Was gonna go with the Let Lighting retrofit. Do you think that going with one of those fixtures would be equivalent?
Will you be using solar power for the new building? They are in use alot up here in Oregon where it is cloudy and rain 9 months of the year so if they work here I imagine they would work everywhere.
While it is fairly cloudy here, the biggest hurdle is the payback period because we have very inexpensive electric in this region. I would love to do solar here, but unless something changes with how little electric costs, I don't see it happening.
Power problems cause problems for cheap electronics. Good quality ballast are not expensive and the reliability much improved. So better light fixtures for a little more cash.
Fulham's are real good. this one would fire up to 4 54w bulbs. A lot of the performance from bulbs is #1 ballasts, bulbs, and reflectors. If those three are decent then you have a good reliable lamp. I bet those lamps that are dead are because of the cheap ballasts they must use to make the fixtures. 40$ to upgrade the fixture to make it a really good fixture, not too bad? www.amazon.com/Fulham-T5-HO-Workhorse-Volt/dp/B000WCQY92/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522770860&sr=8-1&keywords=t5+ballast+fulham
I won't be tearing down the greenhouse. There are plenty of corals that do really well out there and the stocking of the greenhouse tanks will be more catered to them.
Thanks for the video, very informative and well thought out. I am very curious as to which types of corals do well in natural light. Is it specific groups, like all soft corals, no hard corals, or general groups, like mushrooms versus acropora, or even very specific like individual species?
I've watched this video a lot of times. For me these fixtures are still too expensive as I dont live in the US. I ended up building my own fixture which is pretty good.
....there’s a video I like to watch where it looks like a yellow tang is going to swim up behind you, and eat your hair, but I can’t remember which one it is...
Go with LED. You know you want to and your wallet will too when you get that electric bill. Plus you are what some consider a lazy reefer and being able to set LED's and leave em for 3 years is ideal lol.
The reason that Amazon can ship them to you so cheap is that the USPS has been used to subsidize their shipping. That means taxpayers pay to ship their product, not the company.
I think when these were delivered, they came FedEx Express. We get a lot of shipments here, but I remember the driver knew to take them back to the greenhouse. They might have changed their shipping since then because now I notice they are no longer 2-day PRIME. They are just free PRIME shipping.
That is false. Amazon will use Fedex, UPS or their own flex drivers to deliver fixtures this large. The reason they can deliver so cheap is they spread the items around their hundreds of warehouses (and growing exponentially) and they then truck the items to the closest hub themselves. Only then do they hand off to Fedex, UPS or their own flex delivery drivers. They will use USPS for small boxes or bubble mailers only but get no subsidy. Also these fixtures are sold by third party sellers so they are the ones that subsidize the cost through the 15% sales fee not the taxpayer. Lastly Amazon uses their retail operation as a loss leader. They make money on subscriptions and their massively profitable cloud services.
I don't use them because sometimes the humidity in the greenhouse messes with the electric in the greenhouse so when I turn on the lights it immediately pops a breaker thus shutting off the pumps :/ So for now anyway it's all manual!
