Anybody ever hear of a brand called UVL for T5 Bulbs?

[that Fish Guy]

At the last Frag Swap I went to I saw people buying UVL Brand T5 Bulbs.
Then I saw them at a LFS.
Has anybody ever heard of these?
If so are they any good?
I have always stuck with ATI like everyone else.

[DrSalty]

I run some UVLs on my T5/MH fixture. They work great. I also have ATIs as well.

[TAZ_67]

I didn't care for the color I was able to achieve with using all UVL's. I am not saying that they are bad just not my preference. I prefer the ATI's much better.

[PrangeWay]

UVL is legendary in the VHO world for making the best actinic bulbs concieved by man.
They also make the best T5 actinic bulbs by far.

In general I run ATI or KZ for blues/aquablues, than the UVL actinic bulb.

[Peter Eichler]

UVL made (makes?) probably the best actinic T5 and also made some high par bulbs like the aquasun. They bulbs are best used in conjuntion with ATI bulbs IMO.

[that Fish Guy]

Interesting.

Does anybody have any pictures of these bulbs over and aquarium?

I am trying to make my 29 Gallon as blue as possible.

What I call "Frag Swap Blue" if you know what I mean.

[donald altman]

I conconur UVL actinics are the best actinic you will find.
The aquasun is a nice bulb as well.. but you MUST suppliment them with blues... imho ATI blue+

[Peter Eichler]

Originally Posted by that Fish Guy

Interesting.

Does anybody have any pictures of these bulbs over and aquarium?

I am trying to make my 29 Gallon as blue as possible.

What I call "Frag Swap Blue" if you know what I mean.

Unless you're aiming for lower par numbers, I think sticking with mostly ATI blue+ is your best bet.

[D-Nak]

To give you some history behind the light, UVL (UV Lighting International) is the company that now makes what used to be the URI (Ultraviolet Resources International) actinic bulb. As others have said, back in the days when VHO was king -- the URI VHO was the best bulb money could buy. Somewhere along the way, URI stopped making aquarium bulbs and now only makes bulbs and accessories for tanning beds.

[Dave Thebrewguy]

Originally Posted by Peter Eichler

Unless you're aiming for lower par numbers, I think sticking with mostly ATI blue+ is your best bet.

And that's exactly why PAR is overrated as a way to measure aquarium lighting.
The UVL bulbs in question put out light in the 400-450nm range that chlorophyll A requires, along with being beneficial to many other pigments. PAR meters are notoriously ineffective at measuring light in this part of the spectrum, especially the cheap (<$1000) ones that are often used by hobbyists. OTOH, take a bulb that puts out these same wavelengths but at lower levels and add a big spike of green light that does nothing to support photosynthesis and you get higher PAR numbers.
PAR is a measurement of light over a fairly large range and there are large chunks of that range that are not actually useful to anything in your tank. I could easily build you a fixture that would give you any PAR numbers you want, without giving off any usable light at all. This doesn't mean that PAR measurements are useless, but without understanding the spectrum that the numbers represent they don't really mean anything. I'd rather have 100 PAR worth of the right wavelengths than 200 PAR of the wrong wavelengths.

[Bruno3047]

I LOVE the UVL Super-Actinic 420nm. Reasonably priced and brings out amazing colors:

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...7&pcatid=16887

BTW. Mine is almost 2 years old and still brings out better hues than the brand new similarly-priced TrueLumen actinic that came with the fixture.