Palmerc Reef Inmate T5 lighting hood

palmerc

palmerc

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Well I finally got around to installign my Reef Inmate 8x54W T5 lighting hood.

I received this at end of April, so its installation was long overdue.

I have a softies only set-up and have been running on only 2x54W T5's since April. My corals were starting to look real down after being deprived of sufficient light for so long.

I installed only 4 of my old T5's which I was running on my quad unit, as I did not want to blast the corals with too much light after such a long time of reduced lighting.

I am very impressed. I requested a plain white interior for the hood (no reflectors) and I swear the light in my tank is much brighter than I obtained with my quad units which had a polished aluminium reflector. I think this is due to the design of the hood. It has has sloping sides which help reflect more of the light internally.

I will post pics of the hood in place and the tank once the corals have settled (I did a re-aquascape yesterday as well so they need a bit more time to adjust)

Here is a pic of the hood itself in the meantime. As you can see the workmanship is excellent. Can recommend Reef Inmate for anyone wanting a custom-made lighting hood

T5x8.jpg
 
Dude it's about time you installed this unit. I was waiting for you to install it before I ordered mine but you took too long, I should get mine this week, only diffs is I asked for single reflectors and it's in silver not white :)
 
I have been waiting for you to post this ! I am sure your tank will flourish now !
Any reason you did not want to go for a MH unit as well ?
What T5's tubes are you going to run ?
PS got my package Thanks !
 
Smithers said:
I have been waiting for you to post this ! I am sure your tank will flourish now !
Any reason you did not want to go for a MH unit as well ?
What T5's tubes are you going to run ?
PS got my package Thanks !
Click to expand...

Hi Gavin,

The majority of my tubes will be the Giesseman (15000K I think they are) - I will use some of my old tubes as well until it is time to replace them.

Reason I did not go for MH as well was cost as well as the fact as I do not intend keeping any corals needing super intense light.

Reef Inmate actually offered me a hood with 4x54W T5 and 3x150W halides that he had in stock when i placed my order intially but this was about R2000 more than the hood I got.

Clinton
 
SIMS said:
Dude it's about time you installed this unit. I was waiting for you to install it before I ordered mine but you took too long, I should get mine this week, only diffs is I asked for single reflectors and it's in silver not white :)
Click to expand...

Cool. Since the dude at work did not help me with a bracket/similar for the hood (reaosn why it took so long) yesterday i set-up a pulley system so I can raise it when needed to work in the tank.

Must say that this is really just for convenience because depending on your bracing/cross bracing the hood is light enough (onyl 8kg's) to rest on the bracing without any problems. And it is then easy enough to just pick it up and place to one side when you need to work in the tank itself.
 
When I get the unit I'm going to make a open hood and somehow fit the light in - but 8kg's is not too bad. We want to see pic's!
 
I like the look of MH's and some T5's. Give's a nice look. Have you had a look at the Geisseman Pure Actincs ? They give a really nice look coupled with an blue actinic.
 
Smithers said:
I like the look of MH's and some T5's. Give's a nice look. Have you had a look at the Geisseman Pure Actincs ? They give a really nice look coupled with an blue actinic.
Click to expand...

I have not seen them in action, but depending on how the colour looks with the 15000K I may add 1 or 2. I was just wary of purchasing any actinics before I installed the 15000K as I do not want my tank looking too blue.
 
SIMS Northlands sells the Pure Actincs. They are not cheap but they really do give a nice light. I have a AM Blue and a GM Pure actinic and together they make the corals glow.
 
Yes the T5 ballasts are built into the unit.

The units with MH's have a seperate box containing the ballasts, which can be mounted to the wall.
 
SIMS , I have a couple , The ATI Pure Blue is well Very blue, The ATI Reef Spezial is a Blue white colour. Very crisp and makes the 10k AM tubes look yellow.
The GM Pure actinic is a purple colour, combined with the ATI pure blue it makes the colours on the corals very intense. These 2 tubes are the last to turn off and the first to turn on.

I have not used any of the other GM tubes. IMO a combo of the ATI Pure blue, reef spezial and GM pure actinic is the way to go.
 
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OK well that's what I'll do then - what mix do you recomend? 4 Reef Spezial, 2 GM and 2 ATI pure blue?
 
I quite like that mix SIMS. The reef spezial gives an amazing light. I am sure you will be very happy with that mix. BTW how deep is your tank ?
 
lights will be 5cm above the water and from tube to bottom of the tank will be 73cm
I hope this will be ok - I plan on a 70w MH to give the "shimmer" effect
 
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