Reef Central Online Community - View Single Post - When are T5's equal to MH in relationship to the depth of the tank?

werew · 01/30/2006, 12:12 PM

My tank's 24" tall, a 65gallon Megaflow. With just ONE Blueplus T5HO tube, it totally penetrated the depth of my tank and THEN SOME.

Out of curiousity I took my T5HO retro over to my friends to test it out on his tank, a 150gallon +30" tall tank. Using ONE blueplus 39watt T5HO tube (using icecap SLR reflectors & Triad ballast), it lit up 75% of his tank front to back, and definitely reached down to his sandbed with authority.

Lifting the tube about 6" off the top of that tank to find out where this T5HO would start showing weakness, 6" was it. Granted... that 6" was air and not water AND the glass splash guard was on the tank!

With that said, for me... T5HO BluePlus works for up to 30" deep tanks, i'll testify to that! I'd even say possibly 36" deep.

RE: T5HO vs. MH.... they're 2 different beasts altogether...
I noticed with my 10k MH's, i'm not sure if it's the color or the point source type of lighting, but it gives my tank a crisp & clean look. This is why i chose to go with T5HO as supplemental lighting to MH's.

01/30/2006, 12:12 PM	#3
werew Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Colorado Posts: 317	My tank's 24" tall, a 65gallon Megaflow. With just ONE Blueplus T5HO tube, it totally penetrated the depth of my tank and THEN SOME. Out of curiousity I took my T5HO retro over to my friends to test it out on his tank, a 150gallon +30" tall tank. Using ONE blueplus 39watt T5HO tube (using icecap SLR reflectors & Triad ballast), it lit up 75% of his tank front to back, and definitely reached down to his sandbed with authority. Lifting the tube about 6" off the top of that tank to find out where this T5HO would start showing weakness, 6" was it. Granted... that 6" was air and not water AND the glass splash guard was on the tank! With that said, for me... T5HO BluePlus works for up to 30" deep tanks, i'll testify to that! I'd even say possibly 36" deep. RE: T5HO vs. MH.... they're 2 different beasts altogether... I noticed with my 10k MH's, i'm not sure if it's the color or the point source type of lighting, but it gives my tank a crisp & clean look. This is why i chose to go with T5HO as supplemental lighting to MH's.