fishneedit.com's CHEAP T5 units

[Bushman]

OK, there are some very....and I do mean VERY amatuer pictures of the light in my gallery. Have a look, but don't expect much from the quality. Sorry.

[areze]

I got my unit today.

I cant reccomend them.

out of the box 2 out of the 8 bulbs lit up. upon further tinkering I got the half working light fully working(bulbs just werent seated well, fair enough)

further to the point, the other one doesnt work, 1 of the bulbs showed up cracked, meh, the bulbs are like 8$ from the guy, I really dont care about what the shipper did, honestly they were well packed and that sort of thing happens; not worth concerning myself with. doesnt change that whatever I did, swapped bulbs and such, that unit does not light.

the general build quality is very low, it holds itself together, thats about the best I can say of it. as to the brightness of it, I too have never had T5 lighting, only MH. I can say without the slightest question that these wouldnt come close to remotely matching 1 of my 250w metal halides as I might expect them to. I dont know what thats really saying about them... but whatever.

I guess the bottom line is I paid 140$ for each fixture, where an icecap 660 would have been over 400$ plus bulbs.

of course that does nothing to quell my suspicions that Im not getting any more light than a RO flourescent. and the reflectors, while they are bend slightly between the bulbs... they look NOTHING like this

[x2uranium]

I must say.. You cant even look at bulbs when an Icecap fires them.. they are amazing ballasts I use them for both T5 and MH

[x2uranium]

Also just use their fixture and wire in an icecap ballast, Im sure they would be worth it then.

[Creetin]

I bought one to try out. Seeing the price i knew some stuff would be skimped on like ballast,bulbs ect. I need a temp light for a q tank for incoming corals and this fits the bill. Cheap, and t-5. LOL
If i have to change bulbs,ballast, and even endcaps it still will be a good deal. Plan on using workhorse or advance ballast, and change over to ATI bulbs.
What do i expect for 90 bones.

[Bushman]

Agree Creetin, this light was about what I expected for the dough I spent. Who knows, we may get lucky and the thing last much longer than what we expect it to. With that said, just can't say I'm disappointed with it. Now, if it breaks next week.....I'll be singing another tune :-).

[areze]

well I threw the working one over my fuge, and its a bit more visible there without the MH basicly slaughtering it.

Im going to go with an icecap 660 retro for my actinic on my tank now. Im going to be getting the broken one fixed then Ill either double it up on the fuge, or it will be for sale.

[Creetin]

Areze, I would just look at a advance ballast for yours. I have had the icecap ballasts on t-5's. Now i run a sfiligoi soleset. My icecaps got drowned out by my halides too!

[areze]

I am not sure Id trust it with another ballast, there are no fans in the unit, only a little venting. but even with the ballast mounted remotely the whole thing is kinda iffy. 130$ for the fixture just to replace all the guts? meh. it really does look pretty good on my 75g fuge though, even with 3 actinic and 1 white bulb. I think putting 8 on the fuge will make for a great back room fuge and Ill add a frag rack and grow some corals as well.

[areze]

for the sake of informing others, they are sending out a replacement unit tomorrow with a return label included. while Im skeptical on their quality I will say that customer service is great.

I ordered some VHO lighting("real" brand icecap 660 and super actinic bulbs) today and I am very interested to compare the 2 when it arrives.

[daveonbass]

well I bit the bullet too for the price. I am only using it for temporary lighting till I move everything over to a bigger tank from this one...but here are my before and after pics.

old 20K MH


fixture with the stock bulbs. 20k white x2 blue x2


fixture with bulbs from reefgeek


front
ATI blue plus
ATI aquablue
UVL Aquasun
ATI blue plus

Over all I like it and it's completly silent...which I am not used to anymore...haha

it will do for the price. But my next tank will have a ATI powermodule fixture instead.

dave

[widmer]

Hey thanks for the replies guys. Can anyone tell if the reflectors around the lights are pretty well shaped to actually reflect light off the back sides of the bulb? Or are they there just for looks? Cause if they're pretty good, then those alone almost would justify the price of the unit...

[CoRPS]

anymore information on these fixtures? It's been a few weeks, is everything going smoothly? I'm thinking about picking up a 4x54w 48" fixture.

[areze]

the reflectors are basic. no advance design, not that I can see anyway, they are flimsy and oddly bent in places. the end caps are weak and not particularly well spaced to fit bulbs snuggly(nor hold them snugly.

the 1 of the 3 I got that did work is still working. I added VHO to my tank, 1 VHO is clearly brighter than all 4 of the T5s in this unit.

[CoRPS]

Wow. So what's my next best option. best bang for the buck. I would like to spend <$150 but I don't see that happening.

[shag26272]

Originally posted by CoRPS
Wow. So what's my next best option. best bang for the buck. I would like to spend <$150 but I don't see that happening.

maybe this

http://sunlightsupply.com/ngw/lighti...g&type=product
or
http://sunlightsupply.com/ngw/lighti...g&type=product

[areze]

yeah, I got a 4bulb VHO/T5 fixture retro kit from MD, ran me 280$. worth it though.

maybe replacing the bulbs improves this, but I paid 140, add 4 bulbs and Im up near 200 if not over then. assuming retrokit is acceptable, the VHO seems a better setup for 80$ more.

[Zestay]

whats MD?

[jennmac415]

marine depot

[daveonbass]

On the other hand...my fishneedit fixture is still working great...in fact my stuff hasn't looked this good for a long time. The corals are growing better and the tank has a much better overall look to it. I am glad that I chose to WASTE the money this time. USUALLY I recommend to spend more on a better product the first time. But it seems that I got lucky and got a good one outright. But again it's just food for thought. If you get a cheaper light like I did then if it works you are good...if not then you are not out much and you will either be able to sell it or always have a backup light.

just my 2 cents...

[Creetin]

I got mine in a couple weeks ago, The reflectors are mediocre, But i have heard UVL is coming out with new bulbs with the reflector in them so that would be the way to go with these!
I have ran tests with the ballasts they pull 44 and 42 watts when started up and 48 and 48 when warmed up so they are driving them correctly from what i can see. (4 bulb fuxture on 2 seperate ballasts) I am not going to have to change out the ballasts like i originally thought.
Areze you are comparing apples to oranges with a reg ballasts and one that over drives them.
Overall build,,, I think is good. I have owned/own high end fixtures. For the price i think its a good bargain for what you get.
I dont care for the bulbs. They remind me of PC bulbs.

Would i reccomend these over an icecap retro or a top shelf ATI or any other top shelf light? NO
But for the money i think it is a deal. This is just my opinion dont go out and buy one thinking its the catz ***. Its not. Its basic and gets the job done.

[areze]

yeah you might be right, I freely admit I dont know very much about either forms of lighting. I have always used MH lighting, so my experience with all this is very limited.

I mean, for 140$, Im not too worried about it. it is pretty much what I thought it was, but the 2 bad apples out of 3 is my real gripe. had I recieved 2 working lights, or atleast a working replacement. Id be happier.

they are going to allow me to return them though, so its not like there is any risk here, just a bit of hassle. one day when these bulbs are old Ill replace them and itll be all the better.

[Bushman]

Have had mine running for 3 weeks now with no issues. Maybe I got lucky, or maybe Areze, you got unlucky with yours. Still think for the dough these set you back, there's nothing wrong with them. A good point was noted above....you can always have these as a backup later if need be.

And, I'm VERY interested in these UVL lights mentioned!

[pbradley0]

Yah. I want to hear more about the UVL reflector bulbs. They'd make a fortune selling those. Anyone else heard of these or actually seen them in action?

[CoRPS]

I think I'm going to order from them

I don't really have $250 to throw down on a light at the moment, and only really plan on keeping softies. Thanks for all your input guys.