T5 heat = metal halide heating, oh, and HIDs?

[sikpupy]

Heard 6 T5's = around 2 70w halides, does this sound right?

Anyone ever try using car HIDS

[tydtran]

You have to be careful about what you are comparing. To a first approximation, just compare wattage directly - equal wattage means equal heat production.

6 X 54 watt T5 would be way more heat than 2 X 70 watt MH.
6 X 24 watt T5 would be about the same as 2 X 70 watt MH.

[TheH]

tydtran: This would imply that T5 and MH are equally efficient at converting electricity into light, wouldn't it?

[kookerson]

FWIW Im running 2 Current USA 2x24 watt T5 Fixtures over my 20H and they are hot........not warm, but hot, which is why I figure I might as well upgrade to a halide.

[tprize]

I have run T-5's my whole life, and I have found them to run cooler then MH's because the heat is more spread out over the bulb and easier to dissipate. My T-5's are not hot at all.

[pb4ugoout]

I was wondering about the car hid thing myself. Although I think it would be more expensive in the long run. Unless you had access to that stuff cheaply in bulk you're talking about around $50 per bulb with a ballast. And that is the cheap chinese stuff. Who knows if you are really going to get the true color temp you order. Each bulb is only 55 watts a piece. So you'll need 5 of them to equal the light output of one 250w MH. The car bulbs would cost you 300. A single 250w MH is cheaper than that. You would also have to come up with a good way to mount them. You would have to purchase sockets and wire it all up with a 12V power supply. Would be pretty hard to make it look nice. I think the only advantage would be that you are spreading out the light more but I just don't think it is economical or easily do-able.

[Milhouse]

Originally posted by tprize
I have run T-5's my whole life, and I have found them to run cooler then MH's because the heat is more spread out over the bulb and easier to dissipate. My T-5's are not hot at all.

You haven't been alive very long huh?

On a side note.....I have acrylic shields over my T5's. I have glass over my MH(I know part of the reason is because of UV). If I had the MH near the acrylic shields it would most assuredly start melting it.

[sikpupy]

maybe, possible, I dont know thats why I am asking but car bulbs seem to put out quite a bit of light. then again, I am not driving around with metal halides to compare either.

[nikon187]

Watts and Par are two different things. 5 55w HID and a 250w MH may use around the same watts but do not have the same usable light avalible to corals.. I have seen some 6 bulb T5 setups that rival 250w MH for par.

[Tom Fay]

As far as heat is concerned, a T-5 (or any fluorescent bulb) will be cooler at the surface than a metal halide of equal wattage. The total amount of heat dissipated from each bulb will be similar. Obviously 150 watts of heat coming out of a bulb four inches long is going to be much more per square inch than from three separate bulbs each four feet long. The total amount of heat is the same. This misleads people into thinking that metal halides are hot and T-5s are cool. Obvioulsy 150 watts all blasting out of a 4 inch bulb will melt plastic (and burn your finger), but spread that out over four feet and now the plastic only gets warm. It's like, would you rather have a 100 dollar bill or 20 five dollar bills. It's all the same. None if this has anything to do with PAR or usable light. I see alot of people on this forum convert from 2x250 MH to 4x56 T-5 and them proclaim "wow T-5s are cool and MH are hot!". They just dropped their power consumption from 500 watts to 224 watts.

[mat167]

My friend is setting up an HID system, I'll pass him the message to update how it's going

[hummermaniac88]

Actually I have done and semi succeeded the HID harness off a Car HID kit. I will post more details and how to or maybe set a DIY later. If theres interest...

[sikpupy]

hummermaniac88, interest or not, the info would be an invaluable asset to the forum for others to read in the future. If you get all your notes when you have time, put them together and post them, I for one would be greatly appreciative of the knowledge and information you could share.

[madadi]

i had 8T5s 4inches off the water surface and tank did not heat up much at all. the 8T5s were run on icecap ballasts. with two 250s it was much hotter even though the lights were closer to 10inches off the water.

this argument keeps dragging on and on because people that never even tried T5s keep insisting that 100w of T5s make the same heat as 100w of MH.

100w of T5s might convert 95% of energy into light leaving 5% heat energy.
100W of MH might convert 80% of energy into light leaving 20% heat energy.
it is true that T5s are more efficient.
i don't know the exact how much more but T5s ARE cooler! period!

with that said, i tried T5s and was not too impressed. T5s need to be changed just as often as MH bulbs to be efficient. 8T5s cost about the same as two MH 250. they use about the same wattage. i did save electricity though because with the T5s i did not use a chiller. EVER. stop fighting, its Christmas lol

[fishnut321]

isnt metal halide a form of hid lighting, just larger bulbs???

[mat167]

Rather, HID is a form of MH lighting, although they use different gases if I'm not mistaken. HID's are mainly Xenon based, and MH is based on a Halogen-Salt compound . It'd be nice if anyone could correct/confirm/supplement what I've mentioned.

[hummermaniac88]

Ok guys, heres the DIY thread! Enjoy!

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1538145

[Garage1217]

150w of MH spread over
[-----] distance = Melting burning hot.

150w of T5 spread over multiple bulbs &
[---------------------------------------------------------------] distance = close to the same heat and touchable in most cases.

Just a trick on the mind that they run much much cooler, but yes they do run a tad cooler because of efficiency.

MH = HID. Pretty much the exact same technology which is why most MH ballasts are labled as HID ballasts in the non aquarium world. Just much higher wattage bulbs than 35 & 50w automotive HID units.

Also you can buy 120v ballasts for your auto hid bulbs Would be cool to do an array of 14K automotive h4 bulbs in hella housings over a tank haha.

[hummermaniac88]

Why would you want 14000K bulb HID Bulbs? At 12000K they're pink...

[hummermaniac88]

Forgot to add that Xenon gas K colors are alot more different from Halid gas ones...

And, why would you want H4? The bulbs are the same for every bulb number, but H4 has this stupid shield on one side...

[Garage1217]

Depends on what brand you buy *LOL*

Usually 12K HIDS from the local rice mart are usually purple "in a spectrum chart, it is blue" not pink in most all cases. But depends on the company selling them and how bad they are lying in marketing the bulbs *LOL* here are some quick examples of vendors selling car bulbs. They all have no idea what the true spectrum is. Heck I have seen some advertise 30 & 40, even 50K bulbs hahaha.

[Garage1217]

Originally posted by hummermaniac88
Forgot to add that Xenon gas K colors are alot more different from Halid gas ones...

And, why would you want H4? The bulbs are the same for every bulb number, but H4 has this stupid shield on one side...

Not all do *LOL* Just because you found a single set at a single retailer does not mean that are all that way *LOL* I said H4 because they are the easiest bulb to get a quality rectangle shaped reflector housing for.

Only the latest H4 bulbs are coming with shield to help with cut off and many with motorized sockets to simulate hi & lo beams.

Man you are argumentative, sorry to drop in on your HID aquarium dreams *LOL* Have a great evening & sure hope it all works out for you!

[hummermaniac88]

I hope you realize that those are photoshop and do not represent correctly burned in bulbs... I was just asking questions and for explainations...no need for hostility...

[Garage1217]

I showed you pics to show you that no two vendors will show the same colors & call them the same names, & I simply corrected you on the h4 bulb styles, not being hostile at all.

The 2nd pic is the most accurate to all of the kits I have seen and owned personally. "referencing mobile HID local to me & all the cheap kits sold at the local rice marts.

In the second pic, they have even a tad less color than my own bulbs as the 6K's look like the 5k's in my tc & xd... the 8k's look like the 6k's in my mr2... the 10k's look like the 8k's I switched out for 5k's last year in the tc & the 12K's look less purple than the 12K's I tried to use for 3 months until I gave the bulbs away as they had horrible output....

Again, best of luck to your aquatic HID adventures!

[hummermaniac88]

I have actually a H4 kit laying around, I still don't understand how it would be easier to mount...Can you explain further?