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new T5 luminaire on its way - thankyou

a1Matt

Member
Joined
10 Mar 2008
Messages
2,489
Location
Bromley
Hi Guys,

I just joined to say thanks for the forum. It is really nice to see a UK forum with knowledgable members when choosing equipment.

I spent hours on here over the weekend poring over posts to help me decide what lights to buy for my 3ft tank. (Am currently running 3 x Triplus 25w T8 and love the colour but at £15 each am fed up of them burning out after 6 months)

The time and care taken in people posting pics of different lamps has helped me no end. In particular this post: http://ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t= ... olux+osram . James C you are a star!

Then last night I ordered a 3 x 24w T5 unit from a German company off of Ebay. I got it for £75 inc. p+p for the luminaire with tubes included.

Can't wait to get my hands on it! ... Then I will buy some tubes and start swapping them around.

I may even post some pics so I can contribute back into the forum :D
 
I also have a 3x 24w from that company on my 2ft tank. Had it for a couple of months now and it's been excellent. I also bought a 3x 39w one for my Rio 180 about a year ago, and that's a great luminaire too. If you need any new tubes for it then use this company http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/ they are excellent on price and very speedy delivery. :D

That company you ordered from on ebay will get the luminaire delivered to you probably by Friday this week if you've already paid for it, they are very good ;)
 
Thanks guys, it is reassuring that you have the same luminaires and are happy with them 8)

As I don't actually want any more light output than my T8's provided (I can't keep up with the pruning!) I am going to wait until the luminaire comes in and see how bright the light is compared to my T8's, then make a judgement call on what/how many lamps to buy for it (to replace the naff ones that I am sure will come with it).

When I do buy them it will definitely be from lamp specs and will most likely be a combination of Colour 96, Osram 880 and Grolux. I am thinking maybe 2 of each. This will give me enough to do a good mix and match experiment and keep me in spare lamps for a few years afterwards. :D
 
Sweet lord that's going to give you úber lighting!
assuming your running a standard sized tank of 15gallons you'll have 72watts of light, so that's 4.8 watts per gallon!
 
I have a luminaire from these guys, although it was 2nd hand.
when i got it, one of the hinges was broken. They agreed to send out another hinge for just £5. When i got it it was the wrong one, but they sent out the correct one free of charge.

Nice helpful chaps :)
 
I got the luminaire on Thursday and am really pleased with it :)

The lamps that come with it are a disgusting blue colour. Which is pretty much what I was expecting so I have ordered some more off of lamp specs. Delivery expected Tuesday according to the UPS tracker.

@ Garuf - I would love uber lighting :D but would need sunglasses to look at the tank with that much wpg :lol:
My tank size is 36" x 20" x 15", which I work out at 160l~35UK gallons~2W per gallon.

I'm off to stare at my fish now ;)
 
I also purchased my 4x24w T5 from these guys, I paid £38+Del for mine ;)
Note that the tubes that come with it are all 10k so you will need to change some of these if not all.
After about 9 months one of the tubes stopped working, I took the thing apart and found out that it was one of tha ballasts, I emailed them regarding this and they sent me a new ballast free of charge.
I recommend these guys.
 
LondonDragon said:
I also purchased my 4x24w T5 from these guys, I paid £38+Del for mine ;)

Thats a damn good price, nice one 8) (I paid £42+ del for mine to be precise!)

I should have bought a 4 way instead of a 3way! I thought that the unit would be as bright as my 3 x 25W T8's but it isn't. It is almost as bright, and to the eye that is fine, but I am not getting any pearling at all, whereas I used to get a little bit. I think it is probably the tube combo I have rather than the units per se.

LondonDragon said:
Note that the tubes that come with it are all 10k so you will need to change some of these if not all.

Agreed. The lights that come with it are a horrid blue.

Since last posting I have tried out a few tube combos... I have settled on 2 x Osram 880 tubes and 1 x Grolux.

I am going to give the tank a couple of weeks to settle (as I had a minor replanting and bought some new fish this week as well) and then if my pearling doesn't come back I will experiment with running T5 and T8 in combination.

It's all good fun, I do like keeping my planted tank :D
 
Glad you got everything ok, a 4x24w would have been ideal you can always get another 2x24w the same size ;)
Saw a couple sell this week for £21+del so might be worth checking it if you need it. All depends on the type of plants you want to keep.
To get mine that cheap I added all their 4x24w to my ebay bid snipper and just left it to do the bidding for me with a max of £40, after a couple of months managed to get one that cheap! Was happy about that.
 
Thats really helpful thanks :)

Can you tell me the name of the ebay software you are using?

My immediate reaction is to say that I do not want to grow anything too fancy, but 20 years in and this hobby is still unfolding, so I will most likely end up growing plants that need higher light requirements at some stage ;) ....
 
a1Matt said:
Can you tell me the name of the ebay software you are using?
Its called BayGenie ( http://baygenie.com/ ) Its not free, but you if you look around you might get a crack for it :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
 
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