LED bar or T5 question.

[Unstoppable algae!]

Around 6 months ago I swapped my AI 26hd for 2 Orphek bars & 1 Quantra bar over my 65 mixed reef as I didn’t like the hot spots from AI’s. I was very happy with results and used an old 4 bulb T5 to “blanket” cover the tank as the par was a little low.

A ballast went out on my T5 fixture, for me to replace the ballast & replace 2 bulbs is over $100.

My question, should I keep the T5 with my 3 bars or put the money towards another LED bar?

I’ve been interested in the lumanbar v2 UV as they use some 380nm and maybe 1 more daylight orphek?

I currently have 1 daylight & 2 blue led bars

T5 is 2 blue plus 1 coral plus 1 actinic. Thanks all!

 

[ReefStable]

For the price, fixing the T5 is the most bang for your buck. But if it's not about the money, I would use OR3 as a primary and T5 as supplements.

 

[Unstoppable algae!]

For the price, fixing the T5 is the most bang for your buck. But if it's not about the money, I would use OR3 as a primary and T5 as supplements.

What do you think about 1 or 2 more LED bars and no T5? Par with 3 LED bars only is around 220, adding 1 more would be about 300 par where my sps are & I get even light coverage. Or would sps appreciate the T5 much more? Thanks again for reply!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

I agree with the previous poster, you'll save more repairing the t5 as opposed to getting a new LED. In my experience, the blanket effect of t5 is not replicable by LEDs, which tend to be more directional. That being said, I doubt there would be much difference if you went full LED or t5
Hold your breath, I bet you you'll get at least one Halide zealot coming in and overthrowing your thread lol. All lighting options are good and have unique benefits, it all comes down to personal preference.

 

[cilyjr]

I won't run LED without t5.
T5 are linear source lighting. That's why they do not produce the "shimmer" that point source lighting does. As a result, t5 will fill in the shaded under areas.

 

[ReefStable]

What do you think about 1 or 2 more LED bars and no T5? Par with 3 LED bars only is around 220, adding 1 more would be about 300 par where my sps are & I get even light coverage. Or would sps appreciate the T5 much more? Thanks again for reply!

I think that is perfectly fine. Most are running LED only with no issues. T5s aren't really needed anymore. They do add a little coverage and some UV, but if you're over 200 PAR, you're covered!

 

[Unstoppable algae!]

Thanks everybody for the advise! I am really leaning toward getting an LED UV bar (orphek 400nm or lumanbar with 380nm) and another daylight bar and having led only.
The other part of my worries the sps (which I want to move toward sps dominant) will appreciate T5 more.

I have been seeing a ton of thriving sps with only led, which makes me think orphek diodes will do the job?

 

[minus9]

If you're leaning towards LED bars, then I would go with Quanta Pro's, you don't have to mount them as high as Orphek's, plus they have better blending, spectrum and more power (more diodes too) compared to Orphek. I had Orpheks and XHO's, but the Quanta Pro's out performed them combined. Plus, if I'm right, Quanta is coming out with an actual LED fixture (non bar) in April.
I have a friend @Smite that's using T5's with Quantas and his tank is doing great.

 

[Oldreefer44]

I have both Quanta and Orphek bars and I would say the opposite. I feel the Orphek bars are more effective.

 

[Mwatts12]

What’s wrong with all of them!? I use XR30 g6, 4- bulb T5 and 2 XHO strips. All on for 8 hrs a day. Minus some Dino’s everything looks great. lol

I recently added the T5 and have been very impressed. I now completely understand what everyone says about them. I do not think I’d have a tank without some T5

 

[minus9]

I have both Quanta and Orphek bars and I would say the opposite. I feel the Orphek bars are more effective.

Interesting, I got rid of my OR2’s because the blending was horrible and you needed to mount them at least 14” or higher to get any kind of blending. You could actually see the different colors in the water. Not the case with Quantas. Maybe they improved with the OR3’s?

 

[Unstoppable algae!]

I feel the Orphek bars are more effective.

I would go with Quanta Pro's

Thank you both, I have the blue plus orphek (and love it) I also have the mess blue also great and I noticed it has more leds.

Have you guys heard anything about reefbreeders lumanbar? The Orphek UV has 400 420 420 and reefbreeder has 380 405 410 430. I have been wanting to add a UV bar & another daylight (I think orphek has a uv & daylight‍)

 

[Smite]

If you have both Orphek and Quanta already and prefer one over the other then you're good there.

While I haven't ran Orpheks I've ran the knockoffs from ebay and I've also ran XHO led bars along side t5s and metal halide. The optics were too narrow on the orphek type for me, I believe they are 90 degree optics or at least were at that time. The XHO spread great with the reflectors but didn't have as much output/brightness. Although great color and pop. My OG Pop QuantaPros have both spread and punch. The last I checked, more LEDs per foot than Orphek for both better blending and par with 120 degree optics.
As for spread, my quantpro bars are on either side of my 10x54w powermodule (non led) that's 22" wide. The spread meets in the middle evenly and covers the rest of my 36" front to back tank.

They have enough punch to change the visual spectrum much more blue when up against all t5s. My t5 spectrum is 14k so it's very noticeable when the OG POP are on but the blend is great. I had them running alongside my metal halide rig over this tank for the last year as well, so 20" apart and they had enough punch to blue up 14k 400w halides x 2 and spread the whole 50x36" footprint. In my opinion they are the best LED bars built.

I love t5, hard to beat the spectrum I can achieve with 10 lamps. Quanta might get close, I hope he does a really in depth quality video of different bar combinations. Maybe with something like a PARwise ITC to show spectrums ect.

Good luck on your hunt, I'm sure you'll end up with the right bar and be fine growing sps with them. If I ever go all LED it will need to be a blanket type LED fixture or combo of different bars.

 

[ingchr1]

If adding more bars, I would go with Quanta as well. My fixture is two T5's and two Quanta Pros. I only have experience with XHOs and Quantas though.

Here's been my experience so far:

Just adding to the list of suggesting Quanta bars over the XHOs. I recently switched from XHOs to Meso Blue Pros. The Quatas have more intensity, better spectrum and some shimmer (which I was not expecting and pleasantly surprised by). Spread and dimmability are the only advantages the XHOs have over the Quantas. Now that I have the Quantas I no longer care about dimmability, so that advantage is no longer important to me. I have two bars and just stagger when they turn on/off. I also shortened my photo period a bit. Also, the owner (Luca) was more than helpful when I was deciding on which spectrum to go with in my setup.

Here's what happened to my XHOs after a mere three years:

Reef Brite XHO Short Life Span?

I have two 24" Actinic Blue Reef Brite XHOs. One has been in-service for ~3 1/2 years and the other for ~3 years. The older one I noticed browning and melting of ~1/3 of the LEDs. On the other light some of the LEDs are starting to brown, but none are melting yet. Might be in the market for new...

www.reef2reef.com

I recently swapped out my LED bars (different manufacturer, more output, different spectrum) and saw a significant change in my parameters. I discussed it in the quoted post below. One thing I did not mention in that post, was that my pH also significantly increased from what it had ever been in the past. From peaking at ~8.0 to peaking at ~8.25 and above.

Here is the pH graph. I swapped the LED bars on 6. Jan. On 25. Jan I reduced my photo period from 16hrs to 12hrs. Note that the spikes are when I dose soda ash. I have an AIO so my pH probe is in the same chamber that I dose into.

Graph to illustrate the spikes from dosing.

 

[nereefpat]

What specific fixture is this? A 50 dollar ballast to fix it, and the fixture would surely be worth more than 50$, right?

 

[Smite]

I got my quantapros mounted off my ati fixture again. 22” wide on a 36” wide (front to back) tank. Even spread and bright. Phone through orange shades fixture is 9” above rim of tank.

 

[Hugster78]

I got my quantapros mounted off my ati fixture again. 22” wide on a 36” wide (front to back) tank. Even spread and bright. Phone through orange shades fixture is 9” above rim of tank.

What bulbs are you using?

 

[minus9]

I got my quantapros mounted off my ati fixture again. 22” wide on a 36” wide (front to back) tank. Even spread and bright. Phone through orange shades fixture is 9” above rim of tank.

Looks awesome!

 

[Smite]

What bulbs are you using?

2 ati coral plus
2 ati actinic
2 G. Tropics
2 G. aqua blue Azure
2 ati Blue Plus

it gives a very full 14k look. The tropics are great for cutting out the windex look of bluer t5 lamps.

 

[Smite]

Looks awesome!

Thanks again for the mounts! Stoke to have the quanta back up