Get the most out of your T5 bulbs

Michigan Mike · 10/05/2012, 04:52 PM

Here is a simple way to get increased PAR and bulb life out of your T5HO bulbs.
T5HO Bulbs have what is know as the cold spot. The cold spot is on the end of the bulb where the manufacturer's label is on the far end of one side of the bulb.
This area is very important to understand to get the maximum life and intensity out of your bulbs. To have a properly functioning bulb you must cool this "cold spot" or label end of the bulb. Too much cooling and the bulbs wattage will increase and PAR will drop, sounds backwards, huh? The optimum temperature is around 95*F.
Anyone with an ATI fixture know the importance of proper cooling. ATI fixtures have a switch on the fans A/C plug where you can change the voltage and fan speed. The recommended voltage for most in house temperatures of 68-80*F s 9v. If your fixture is in a cooler area you may be best served at 6-7.5v or less in extremely cold areas. Only a PAR meter will tell you exactly how much PAR your gaining or losing but this is a generalization to help you make an informed choice for your setup.

Notice the holes above the label ends of the bulbs? Cool air is blown past the ballasts and onto the cold spot of the bulb, notice the labels on the bulbs are all on the same side where the cool air is hitting the bulb? That's what we want!
What about those of us that don't have an ATI fixture? There is a simple way to get the increased PAR and extended bulb life too! It's as easy as removing any splash shield that may increase internal temperatures of bulbs and ballasts and adding a small fan pointed at either the fixtures vent holes near the bulb's label ends (cold spots) or blowing across the label ends themselves. If you have a PAR meter handy ( not many of us do unfortunately ) you can test the bulbs before and after and find the best spot and fan speed to get the best results. Unfortunately some fixtures with waterproof end caps like HAGEN GLO fixtures make this more difficult.

There are more factors like good independent reflectors to add to the list of things to get the most out of your T5 bulbs. Here's a 4 bulb ATI Sunpower, notice the reflectors and the reflection on the water...

Notice how consistent the light is.
Now Current's reflectors( a popular brand )
And the reflection on the water...

Here's another example of poor reflectors...

Notice the difference between good and poor reflectors? The bulbs blend in on the ATI's reflection while the other poor quality reflectors don't direct the reflected light into the tank. You are losing A LOT of light that should be directed into your tank, instead it is wasted with poor reflectors.
Also good bulbs are a must! ATI,KZ,GEISSEMAN have proven themselves and are much better than cheap bulbs that come with most low/mid end light fixtures. I recommend not getting a fixture that comes with bulbs unless they come with ATI or GEISSEMAN bulbs which are the most common aftermarket bulbs that you can get with a fixture like ATI.

Hope this helps you get the most out of your T5HO bulbs!

TropTrea · 02/15/2013, 11:01 PM

Nice comparison.

The big difference here is really the shape of the reflectors. The Current and many other brands use a flat reflector while ATI and a few others use a wrap around reflector. With the flat reflector as much as 30% of the light generated from the tube reflected right back into the bulb rather than down into the tank. With the wrap around reflector this loss is greatly minimized. Another point is the material and the reflectancy of the reflector material. Years ago some of the cheapest lighting fixtures used white reflectors, which had much less reflectancy than the polished alumnium reflectors. Some also used a nicely polished steel reflector that were great when new but once water or salt creep hit them they started loosing there reflective ability rapidly. Remember to clean your reflector often.

Years ago Sanjay wrote some interesting articles on this same principle for Metal Hide bulbs. In his comparisons between a well designed reflector and the worst there were coparitabe numbers where if the best was 100 units the poorest were as low as 50 units of light hitting the same spot in the tank.

As far as cooling is concerned this is something that varies lightly between different type of bulbs. Every bulb does has a peak operating temperature that will give you the most light. On the other hand the higher the operating temperature is the less life you get out of your bulb.

A warning on the removal of the plexiglass protective shield that I have experienced. I had removed mine ears ago and found that design of the fixture uses the fans to not only cool the T-5 bulbs but also the ballasts. Shrtly after remving the shield I started to loosing ballasts because on my fixture the ballasts were no longer getting cooled. Therough the years I have made numerious modification to my fixture with different ballasts, diffeent fans and even different reflectors from original. Remember when you change one thing you could be effecting other things as well.

When a bulb deteriorates it's deteriation occurs in two different ways. The actual spectrum of the light will slowly shift so slowly that it unnoticable to the eye. The other thing that happens is that once the burn in phase of the bulb is completed the total amount of light from the bulb will slowly decrease. Again this decrease is seldom noticable to the human eye, since it is so slow and gradual.

My practice is to change 50% of my bulbs every 6 months. While it is agruable if one should use a bulb for 9 months or a year this assures everything is changed once a year and that at least 50% of the bulbs are 6 months old or newer.

meshwheel · 02/17/2013, 10:39 AM

Nice write up Mike! I find it surprising you did not get more comments on this thread. Seems cooling the end of the bulb is very important. Any idea of fan sizes and speeds between the ATI and Aquatic Life fixtures. I own a Apogee PAR meter.
Do you know if the Aquatic Life reflectors are similiar to the ATI reflectors? They look to be the same shape and material....
Thanks!

JonnyD91 · 02/17/2013, 11:45 AM

Quote:

ATI fixtures have a switch on the fans A/C plug where you can change the voltage and fan speed. The recommended voltage for most in house temperatures of 68-80*F s 9v. If your fixture is in a cooler area you may be best served at 6-7.5v or less in extremely cold areas.

I never knew this. I have had mine on 12V for the past 4 years. The PS i got was just a generic one that could be used in many applications. Thought it should always be on 12V

Michigan Mike · 02/17/2013, 12:02 PM

Thank you Dennis. Nice observations by the way.

Michigan Mike · 02/17/2013, 12:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meshwheel

Nice write up Mike! I find it surprising you did not get more comments on this thread. Seems cooling the end of the bulb is very important. Any idea of fan sizes and speeds between the ATI and Aquatic Life fixtures. I own a Apogee PAR meter.
Do you know if the Aquatic Life reflectors are similiar to the ATI reflectors? They look to be the same shape and material....
Thanks!

Thanks meshwheel.
The Aquaticlife reflectors are not the same as ATI, the material & design is different. They are satisfactory but not silver coated 98% reflective parabolic style (Sunpower) or parabolic (powermodule) like the ATI fixtures.

Aquaticlife is more like Current's reflectors, they are molded & bent to wrap around the bulb, but aquatic life's design is better contoured to reflect the light downward better than Current's but I believe the material is similar.

Michigan Mike · 02/17/2013, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonnyD91

I never knew this. I have had mine on 12V for the past 4 years. The PS i got was just a generic one that could be used in many applications. Thought it should always be on 12V

A lot of people do not know about this info, that's why I wrote it up, glad you learned something!
Unless your room temp is very high then 9v is probably your best setting. Not sure of when 12v would be best but people down south with no air conditioning may find 12v the best setting. Maybe some FL,LA,TX residents can confirm this with PAR meters but I can't say for sure.
12v is pretty loud though.

JonnyD91 · 02/17/2013, 12:14 PM

On a side note, is it possible to replace the fans in an ATI sunpower fixture?

GSMguy · 02/17/2013, 12:18 PM

Great write up mike!

Michigan Mike · 02/17/2013, 12:22 PM

Hagen GLO single & dual fixtures.
Single.

Dual

Dual tilted

As you see a single bulb in a parabolic reflector is best. 2 bulbs in one relector isn't optimal but could be better than other reflectors that claim to have independent reflectors when in fact they are just bent around the bulb and poorly designed.

Michigan Mike · 02/17/2013, 12:29 PM

JohnnyD91-Replacement ATI fans are easily replaced & cost $15. I'm not sure about replacing them with another type of fan as the ATI fans are great.

Thanks GSMguy.

88rxna · 02/17/2013, 12:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meshwheel

Nice write up Mike! I find it surprising you did not get more comments on this thread. Seems cooling the end of the bulb is very important. Any idea of fan sizes and speeds between the ATI and Aquatic Life fixtures. I own a Apogee PAR meter.
Do you know if the Aquatic Life reflectors are similiar to the ATI reflectors? They look to be the same shape and material....
Thanks!

I too own the aquticlife t5 light fixture and would like to know how these reflectors and fans rate? Im hesitant to remove the shield though...does it really benefit that much?

Michigan Mike · 02/17/2013, 01:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 88rxna

I too own the aquticlife t5 light fixture and would like to know how these reflectors and fans rate? Im hesitant to remove the shield though...does it really benefit that much?

I would only remove a splash shield if it was an uncooled fixture that you added a fan too - like the original TEK. Otherwise you could run into issues like TropTrea mentioned earlier.

meshwheel · 02/17/2013, 03:53 PM

Mike,
I cannot imagine there is that big of a difference in the reflectors. The aquatic life look like polished mirrors as well. Anyone done any testing to compare the 2?
If it's a big difference, that is certainly a game changer. It seems ATI has dose their homepwork to squeeze every bit of par out of their bulbs.
German stuff, in general turns me off. Replacment parts are always a rip off, and many times hard to come by. Very much so with skimmer parts!!! Been there done that!
There's not too much to repairing one of these fixtures. Just curious if the reflectors efficiency is negligable between the 2 brands!

TropTrea · 02/18/2013, 12:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonnyD91

On a side note, is it possible to replace the fans in an ATI sunpower fixture?

Yes it is possible. Fans can be purchased in numerious dimensions and at various voltage ranges both AC and DC. However in the case of ATI fixtures I would have idea why someone would want to change to a different fan. You can get replacement ATI fans whiich are probably the best you can get for there fixtures.

fishgate · 02/18/2013, 08:16 AM

Great writeup! Thanks! I just got a new 4x80 watt Sunpower fixture so this is very timely for me.

Michigan Mike · 02/18/2013, 10:23 AM

BTW Current no longer uses the flat reflector design like they used too in their nova pro. They stopped making the old 8 bulb fixtures & started to bend the reflector around the bulbs and said the new 6 bulb fixtures where more powerful than the 8 bulb fixtures because of the new reflector design.
Zoo Med still uses a flat reflector in their T5HO fixtures.

JonnyD91 · 02/18/2013, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TropTrea

Yes it is possible. Fans can be purchased in numerious dimensions and at various voltage ranges both AC and DC. However in the case of ATI fixtures I would have idea why someone would want to change to a different fan. You can get replacement ATI fans whiich are probably the best you can get for there fixtures.

My fans have dust buildup. Neglected to keep them clean. Now they have a high pitched whine. I want to do a direct replacement.

Michigan Mike · 02/18/2013, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonnyD91

My fans have dust buildup. Neglected to keep them clean. Now they have a high pitched whine. I want to do a direct replacement.

Reefgeek has fans, powermodule & Sunpower fans.http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/t5-...scent/ati.html

This video will help you a lot about changing out your fans! Watch it before trying it yourself! Use tape!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQI_rRq3xUU
You may be able to clean them, I would try to clean them before buying new but they really don't cost that much anyway.
Good luck!

JonnyD91 · 02/18/2013, 01:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Michigan Mike

Reefgeek has fans, powermodule & Sunpower fans.http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/t5-...scent/ati.html

This video will help you a lot about changing out your fans! Watch it before trying it yourself! Use tape!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQI_rRq3xUU
You may be able to clean them, I would try to clean them before buying new but they really don't cost that much anyway.
Good luck!

lol, actually for a fan that size 15 bucks is expensive. I have to change bulbs and give the whole fixture a good cleaning. So i will pull the whole thing down first and clean it up, and see if that fixes the issue.

TropTrea · 02/18/2013, 05:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JonnyD91

lol, actually for a fan that size 15 bucks is expensive. I have to change bulbs and give the whole fixture a good cleaning. So i will pull the whole thing down first and clean it up, and see if that fixes the issue.

For my modified fixture I spent a lot more for fans than that. When I removed the plexiglass cover I started getting ballast overheating issues. So I installed 2 fans on each end of the fixture, about 3 years ago. Since then I have not burnt out a ballast. However my bulbs are also probably running considerably cooler than what is recommended. Since I have 120 volt AC fans there is no way I can adjust them however if I could I'm sure I could probably slow them down and gain at least another 5% out of the PAR.

With the ATI fixtures though they are so well designed I would not change anythng on them.

ReeferBatman · 02/26/2013, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 88rxna

I too own the aquticlife t5 light fixture and would like to know how these reflectors and fans rate? Im hesitant to remove the shield though...does it really benefit that much?

I took a picture of my own aquatic-life fixture reflection off water for you guys.

Michigan Mike · 04/30/2013, 06:08 AM

Thanks for sharing Reefer Batman.

If anyone else has pics, post em up!

TimeConsumer · 04/30/2013, 07:32 AM

SS Tek:

Michigan Mike · 05/10/2013, 12:17 PM

Nice pic of the Sunlight Supply reflector reflection! Thanks Time Consumer.

10/05/2012, 04:52 PM	#1
Michigan Mike Freedom costs a buckofive Join Date: May 2012 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	Get the most out of your T5 bulbs Here is a simple way to get increased PAR and bulb life out of your T5HO bulbs. T5HO Bulbs have what is know as the cold spot. The cold spot is on the end of the bulb where the manufacturer's label is on the far end of one side of the bulb. This area is very important to understand to get the maximum life and intensity out of your bulbs. To have a properly functioning bulb you must cool this "cold spot" or label end of the bulb. Too much cooling and the bulbs wattage will increase and PAR will drop, sounds backwards, huh? The optimum temperature is around 95F. Anyone with an ATI fixture know the importance of proper cooling. ATI fixtures have a switch on the fans A/C plug where you can change the voltage and fan speed. The recommended voltage for most in house temperatures of 68-80F s 9v. If your fixture is in a cooler area you may be best served at 6-7.5v or less in extremely cold areas. Only a PAR meter will tell you exactly how much PAR your gaining or losing but this is a generalization to help you make an informed choice for your setup. Notice the holes above the label ends of the bulbs? Cool air is blown past the ballasts and onto the cold spot of the bulb, notice the labels on the bulbs are all on the same side where the cool air is hitting the bulb? That's what we want! What about those of us that don't have an ATI fixture? There is a simple way to get the increased PAR and extended bulb life too! It's as easy as removing any splash shield that may increase internal temperatures of bulbs and ballasts and adding a small fan pointed at either the fixtures vent holes near the bulb's label ends (cold spots) or blowing across the label ends themselves. If you have a PAR meter handy ( not many of us do unfortunately ) you can test the bulbs before and after and find the best spot and fan speed to get the best results. Unfortunately some fixtures with waterproof end caps like HAGEN GLO fixtures make this more difficult. There are more factors like good independent reflectors to add to the list of things to get the most out of your T5 bulbs. Here's a 4 bulb ATI Sunpower, notice the reflectors and the reflection on the water... Notice how consistent the light is. Now Current's reflectors( a popular brand ) And the reflection on the water... Here's another example of poor reflectors... Notice the difference between good and poor reflectors? The bulbs blend in on the ATI's reflection while the other poor quality reflectors don't direct the reflected light into the tank. You are losing A LOT of light that should be directed into your tank, instead it is wasted with poor reflectors. Also good bulbs are a must! ATI,KZ,GEISSEMAN have proven themselves and are much better than cheap bulbs that come with most low/mid end light fixtures. I recommend not getting a fixture that comes with bulbs unless they come with ATI or GEISSEMAN bulbs which are the most common aftermarket bulbs that you can get with a fixture like ATI. Hope this helps you get the most out of your T5HO bulbs!

02/15/2013, 11:01 PM	#2
TropTrea Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: SE Suburbia Wisconsin Posts: 2,910	Nice comparison. The big difference here is really the shape of the reflectors. The Current and many other brands use a flat reflector while ATI and a few others use a wrap around reflector. With the flat reflector as much as 30% of the light generated from the tube reflected right back into the bulb rather than down into the tank. With the wrap around reflector this loss is greatly minimized. Another point is the material and the reflectancy of the reflector material. Years ago some of the cheapest lighting fixtures used white reflectors, which had much less reflectancy than the polished alumnium reflectors. Some also used a nicely polished steel reflector that were great when new but once water or salt creep hit them they started loosing there reflective ability rapidly. Remember to clean your reflector often. Years ago Sanjay wrote some interesting articles on this same principle for Metal Hide bulbs. In his comparisons between a well designed reflector and the worst there were coparitabe numbers where if the best was 100 units the poorest were as low as 50 units of light hitting the same spot in the tank. As far as cooling is concerned this is something that varies lightly between different type of bulbs. Every bulb does has a peak operating temperature that will give you the most light. On the other hand the higher the operating temperature is the less life you get out of your bulb. A warning on the removal of the plexiglass protective shield that I have experienced. I had removed mine ears ago and found that design of the fixture uses the fans to not only cool the T-5 bulbs but also the ballasts. Shrtly after remving the shield I started to loosing ballasts because on my fixture the ballasts were no longer getting cooled. Therough the years I have made numerious modification to my fixture with different ballasts, diffeent fans and even different reflectors from original. Remember when you change one thing you could be effecting other things as well. When a bulb deteriorates it's deteriation occurs in two different ways. The actual spectrum of the light will slowly shift so slowly that it unnoticable to the eye. The other thing that happens is that once the burn in phase of the bulb is completed the total amount of light from the bulb will slowly decrease. Again this decrease is seldom noticable to the human eye, since it is so slow and gradual. My practice is to change 50% of my bulbs every 6 months. While it is agruable if one should use a bulb for 9 months or a year this assures everything is changed once a year and that at least 50% of the bulbs are 6 months old or newer. __________________ Dennis B. Current Tank Info: Main tank 120 Gallon, 432 Watts T-5's plus 30 Watts of LED's, Frag 40 Gallon tank 234 Watts T-5's, 3 Frag tanks all 40 Gallon with LED lighting between 60 and 84 Watts. All LEDs are DIY Oh and then there is fresh water tanks 270 gallons

02/17/2013, 10:39 AM	#3
meshwheel Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,430	Nice write up Mike! I find it surprising you did not get more comments on this thread. Seems cooling the end of the bulb is very important. Any idea of fan sizes and speeds between the ATI and Aquatic Life fixtures. I own a Apogee PAR meter. Do you know if the Aquatic Life reflectors are similiar to the ATI reflectors? They look to be the same shape and material.... Thanks! __________________ ............And then the cops showed up

02/17/2013, 12:14 PM	#8
JonnyD91 Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Manalapan NJ Posts: 1,444	On a side note, is it possible to replace the fans in an ATI sunpower fixture? __________________ Click my super cool username dropdown menu to see my new 90 Gallon In wall Build on my user home page :) Current Tank Info: 90G Reef - 2 MP40's - Apex Controlled - Reef Octopus PRO-SSS-DC1 Skimmer - 6 Bulb ATI Sunpower

02/17/2013, 12:18 PM	#9
GSMguy Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northern New Mexico Posts: 17,420	Great write up mike! __________________ Nick. Conehead. Shallow Reef club. Current Tank Info: 48"x27"x14" Envision Acrylic rimless, 6x39w ATi Sunpower, Custom ATB Deluxe Skimmer, 4x tunze nano stream,ATB flowstar 1500, ACJR, Tunze osmolator.

02/17/2013, 12:02 PM	#5
Michigan Mike Freedom costs a buckofive Join Date: May 2012 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	Thank you Dennis. Nice observations by the way.

02/17/2013, 12:22 PM	#10
Michigan Mike Freedom costs a buckofive Join Date: May 2012 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	Hagen GLO single & dual fixtures. Single. Dual Dual tilted As you see a single bulb in a parabolic reflector is best. 2 bulbs in one relector isn't optimal but could be better than other reflectors that claim to have independent reflectors when in fact they are just bent around the bulb and poorly designed.

02/17/2013, 12:29 PM	#11
Michigan Mike Freedom costs a buckofive Join Date: May 2012 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	JohnnyD91-Replacement ATI fans are easily replaced & cost $15. I'm not sure about replacing them with another type of fan as the ATI fans are great. Thanks GSMguy.

02/17/2013, 03:53 PM	#14
meshwheel Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2010 Posts: 1,430	Mike, I cannot imagine there is that big of a difference in the reflectors. The aquatic life look like polished mirrors as well. Anyone done any testing to compare the 2? If it's a big difference, that is certainly a game changer. It seems ATI has dose their homepwork to squeeze every bit of par out of their bulbs. German stuff, in general turns me off. Replacment parts are always a rip off, and many times hard to come by. Very much so with skimmer parts!!! Been there done that! There's not too much to repairing one of these fixtures. Just curious if the reflectors efficiency is negligable between the 2 brands! __________________ ............And then the cops showed up

02/18/2013, 08:16 AM	#16
fishgate Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Damascus, MD Posts: 3,340	Great writeup! Thanks! I just got a new 4x80 watt Sunpower fixture so this is very timely for me. __________________ 125RR in-wall, 40B Sump, CS180 BM Skimmer, ATI 4x80 watt, eheim 1262, custom wrap around rock wall, ReefKeeper Elite 120g in-wall, 40B Sump, PC 54wx4, Jabao DC-6000 (full siphon), future seahorse t Current Tank Info: 125g, 120g, 2x40b sumps, ATI 4x80 T5HO

02/18/2013, 10:23 AM	#17
Michigan Mike Freedom costs a buckofive Join Date: May 2012 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	BTW Current no longer uses the flat reflector design like they used too in their nova pro. They stopped making the old 8 bulb fixtures & started to bend the reflector around the bulbs and said the new 6 bulb fixtures where more powerful than the 8 bulb fixtures because of the new reflector design. Zoo Med still uses a flat reflector in their T5HO fixtures.

04/30/2013, 06:08 AM	#23
Michigan Mike Freedom costs a buckofive Join Date: May 2012 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	Thanks for sharing Reefer Batman. If anyone else has pics, post em up!

04/30/2013, 07:32 AM	#24
TimeConsumer Registered Member Join Date: May 2011 Location: New Orleans, La Posts: 1,919	SS Tek: __________________ Steve - Retired from reefing, for now.

05/10/2013, 12:17 PM	#25
Michigan Mike Freedom costs a buckofive Join Date: May 2012 Location: Michigan Posts: 3,002	Nice pic of the Sunlight Supply reflector reflection! Thanks Time Consumer.