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To buy cheap or expensive T5's

FishBeast

Member
Joined
27 May 2009
Messages
264
Location
Australia
I am wondering if you guys would share your experience with using cheaper t5's compared to those of a higher price?

I am running some cheap ones and I didnt have great sucess with them. I did not have a very nutrient rich substrate but fed to the water colum. I would like to know so I can have an idea if my poor growth was due to the poor quality lighting or lack of nutrients in the substrate.

I was running co2 at approx 30ppm feeding EI method with 8 hours of light. 8 at 1.5 WPG with a 2 hr burst in the middle at a total of 3 WPG.

My next scape I am thinking that I will take our 2 of my 8 T5's dropping the WPG to 1.8 with the same sort of burst setup I did the the previous scape.

Cheers!
 
3 wpg is a huge amount with t5s when you say "I am running some cheap ones and I didn't have great success with them"
what do you mean i doubt lack of light is to blame. what's you flow like needs to be high with that kind of light .
 
Plants are very adaptable to a wide range of lighting so I would doubt its the fact that its the light bulbs that are the problem. I always use cheapo lighting and it seems to work OK for me and others that I've spoken to :) Running 2 tubes should be ample light as well. 8hrs also might be a bit much, so try 6 and see where you get too?

Sam
 
chrisfraser05 said:
how big is the tank?

I have a feeling you have too much lighting!

It is a 120 or so gallon.

danmil3s said:
3 wpg is a huge amount with t5s when you say "I am running some cheap ones and I didn't have great success with them"
what do you mean i doubt lack of light is to blame. what's you flow like needs to be high with that kind of light .

I had poor water turnover at 8x. The next setup will be 30x
 
define cheaper t5's?

If you mean cheaper than the branded powerglo or lifeglo, Approx £20-£25 branded tubes then yes.

I buy my tubes from Lampspecs.co.uk and for a 2ft/24w i generally pay between £8 and 12 each
As you have seen just done a comparison with them on my nano journal.

As others have commented you probably had too much light and not enough flow to carry the CO2 around the tank. I am not a fan of the midday burst, i think it just creates more algae problems.

I think if you reduced your lights and got your flow and CO2 right you would be on to a winner!

Andy
 
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