Lighting upgrade - T8 to T5

darrencon

darrencon

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Hi All

I upgraded my lighting on the weekend. I had 3 T8 lights, 2 white and one blue.

I have a jebo style tank and my T8 lights were built into the hood. What a mission to remove them....

I now have 2 T5 lights. One white and one blue..... man what a difference. My tank looks so much brighter. I was a bit concerned as the lights are shorter than the tank (my old T8's were almost the same legnth of the tank) but I looks great.

Was quite cheap too IMO... cost me R900.

For those who are still using T8 lights, I encourage you to upgrade...;)
 
T5's are the way to go - T8's are being phased out - certainly in the UK, the T5's are more powerful, and much more economic, there is a company that makes conversion kits to go from T8 to T5, all you do is plug in the converter into your T8 fitting (as you would the T8 lamp, and the slightly shorter T5 fits into that, then you remove the starter from the T8 fitting as the converter has an electronic starter built in.
 
Nice upgrade, you will definitely see the benefits :thumbup:
 
Yeah - Darren - I also made the move about 7 months ago (To T5's from T8's).... It does make a HUGE difference - and the nice thing being that the 54watt T5's are much 'stronger' and is "High Output" where the T8's are "normal output" - this opens up a new world regarding what you can keep (soft-corals, LPS...... etc)....
 
Yip Tom put six(i think) in his Jebo lid

T5's are really impressive compared to T8's
 
@Darrencon - where did you get the electronic ballasts fromand globes.

I too have a Jebo tank - the 2m one, that has currently 8 x T8's built into it. How did you do the conversion? Have a pic by any chance to show me?

I want to put my electronic ballasts outside the hood - heard they add to the heat.
I was thinking of installing 6 x 39w or 4 x 59w ones
 
Just have a question here - I need to upgrade my lighting as said earlier - heard about a system from Boyu with MH, T5's and moon lights with cooling fans installed in it. Should fit above / on my current hood with only minor adjustments (must remove some of the hood panels for this)

Does anyone know how good these boyu systems are? Can get my hands on it rather cheap too
 
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