(relaxed instrumental music)
- Today on BRStv Reef FAQs, we answer
why are advanced reefers still talking about these T5 bulbs?
(energetic instrumental music)
Hi, I'm Ryan, your host at BRStv Reef FAQs.
Today we answer probably one of the more
confusing questions for any new reefer,
in an LED focused world, why is it reefers are still talking
about these seeming archaic fluorescent bulbs?
I can tell you right now, it's not
because they're inherently better than LEDs,
it's just because they're a lot easier
to achieve results with and often a lot cheaper.
I think I can sum this up in one statement
that a vast majority of advanced reefers will agree with,
in terms of properly lighting a reef tank,
if it isn't T5s, it should behave like T5s.
So the answer of why so many reefers
still use T5s lies within that statement.
In fact, I think it's possible
to get even better results with LEDs
as long as we keep that in mind.
The question is just is the juice worth the squeeze,
both in terms of effort and financial investment,
which is an individual question
based on experience with the tank and budget.
So in that spirit, behave like T5s means five things to me.
Number one and above all else,
capable of producing the historical
super-high percentage results a bank of T5s have.
Meaning, select a proper fixture, a bulb combination,
plug them into a timer, and you can be sure
that lighting will never be the issue
that you're not successful with your tank.
We often refer to that as plug-and-play results.
Fact is with LEDs, while some reefers do get lucky,
on a whole, LEDs are not producing the same
high-percentage plug-and-play results.
LEDs can produce the same or even better results that T5s,
but it takes effort, experience, intuition,
often a bit of luck, and the best results
are often achieved with measurement tools
like a PAR meter for precise tuning.
And today, the primary goal with lighting a reef tank
is providing for the metabolic needs for the corals.
No amount of features is really worth sacrificing
the health of the animals that we care for.
As long as we approach it that way,
the corals will reward us with the best growth,
coloration, and fewest mortalities.
So that leads us into number two,
T5s provide super even coverage
without any meaningful hot spots.
That's because a T5 bulbs and reflectors
provide highly diffuse light that coats a tank
with very difficult to shadow and even coverage,
more or less just blankets the tank in light.
That larger form factor that produces
the difficult to shadow and near no hot spot
is probably the most important components.
The small form factor that most LEDs come in these days
inherently means the light will be brightest
directly under the light and fall off to the sides.
By definition, a hot spot.
More or less, a wide-angled spotlight
rather than a blanket of light.
The wide angle lenses do a great job
of visually making the tank look evenly illuminated,
but the nature of it is it's much easier to shadow.
This is particularly true as a tank ages,
as the corals get large, where the shadow
not just their neighbors but also themselves.
The shadow effect matters less
in a soft, ELPS, zoanthid, or mushroom tank,
but matters a lot more in a mixed or SPS dominant tank,
particularly as those corals get larger.
As that becomes increasingly obvious,
most reefers will either add a T5 retro solution
as fill light or add more LEDs,
creating a grid of intersecting lights.
I will share, there are options like the Orphek,
which are already a grid of intersecting LEDs by design
and much closer to that blanket of light
that T5s produce, but admittedly,
significantly more expensive than most T5 fixtures.
Number three, T5s produce those plug-and-play results.
It's because there's no need to use a PAR meter
to get the right light intensity.
In most cases, it's just a question
of four, six, or eight bulb fixture
depending on your light needs, then plug it in.
Intensity will never be your issue.
With LEDs, there are intensity sliders,
mounting heights for different shapes,
and dozens of different brands which all behave differently.
In an attempt to help demystify that,
we produced in-depth PAR testing
in a variety of tank shapes and light configurations
for the most popular LED light sources.
We also started renting PAR meters,
which makes it much more affordable to do accurately.
Number four, reason T5 produce those plug-and-play results
is because they're inherently well-blended spectrum,
meaning the bulb emits a wide,
even spectrum, covering a large range.
Even when mixed with other bulbs,
the diffuse nature of T5s makes them blend well.
With most LEDs, you're just packing a bunch of LEDs
in the individual spectrum peaks
close together and letting them overlap
to create a visually blended spectrum.
That kinda works, but you can often
even see the individual spectrums
shooting around the tank with the naked eye.
And you can certainly measure it on a meter,
which shows the spectrum mix rapidly changing
as it reflects off the surface of the water.
LED manufacturers have addressed this in a variety of ways.
Kessil's dense matrix array with all the LEDs
under a single lens works well,
Radion, with their option diffuser pane,
which blends all the spectrums.
And all the LEDs do this a lot better
the higher you raise them in the air.
Some of the best performance is when the LEDs
are 18 inches plus off the tank's surface.
Number five, and last reason T5s produce
those plug-and-play results is also related to that,
mounting height is easy because distribution,
coverage, and spectrum blending are just not a big concern.
My advice on mounting height is raise them up
until you get unnecessary spill light
out of the tank into the room.
That direction is easy and often much closer to the tank
than the ideal height for LEDs.
Many of the LEDs out there suggest
eight to nine inch mounting heights, but the fact is
that many elements of the overall performance
just get dramatically better the higher you raise them.
That's not true with all of them, but many.
Again, my general advice is to raise them up
until there's unnecessary spill in the room
and then check for hot spots with the meter.
So all that said, and understanding all those reasons
why a lot of advanced reefers still love T5s,
or at least understand their value
and emulate that with their LED implementations,
I'd say 90% of reefers are selecting LEDs
because of their shimmer, small form factor, adjustability,
lack of replaceable bulbs, and simple cool factor.
But becoming super common now after running into some issues
or simply hearing the advice of some reefers they trust,
they're circling back and adding all the benefits of T5
with the newer T5 retro options out there,
meaning keep the LEDs you already own
and add the benefits of T5.
We actually have a full BRStv Investigates
on the Aquatic Life T5 retro that shares the data
and demonstrates all the benefits
of this approach, so check that out.
And our entire lighting video library down there.
See you next Wednesday
with another batch of BRStv Reef FAQs.