Advice On Replacement Tubes

[tmreynolds]

I have a Juwel Vision 180, with the standard twin tubes built into the hood. They are 2 x 25W, not sure whether they are T8 or what?

Tank specs

Can I replace the standard "daylight" and "warmlight" tubes with something more suitable for marine, if so what do I need to buy? You can get reflectors which will will increase the light aswell.

I may want to get some soft corals in the future, you see?

Any help and recommendations appreciated.

 

[robbhp]

i think you will be able to replace both tubes with a daylight bulb and actinic . if you want to keep coral, allthough softys arnt that hard to keep i would have thought you would still have need to replace the t8 with some t5 units but i could be wrong LOL.would also help you out with space as the t5 bulbs are tiny. anyway hope that helps mate .

rob

 

[bobf]

i think you will be able to replace both tubes with a daylight bulb and actinic . if you want to keep coral, allthough softys arnt that hard to keep i would have thought you would still have need to replace the t8 with some t5 units but i could be wrong LOL.would also help you out with space as the t5 bulbs are tiny. anyway hope that helps mate .

rob

T8 and t5 refers to the thickness of the tube in 1/8ths of an inch. T8 is therefore 8/8ths of an inch, ie 1" thick whearas T5 tubes are 5/8ths thick - like rob says 'tiny'.

You will only be able to change like for like, (in terms of tube size and wattage, you can change the colour though) - a T5 tube will not fit in a T8 socket, nor the reverse. The wattages are different too, for a given length, hence it's not even as simple as changing the end fittings as the starters are different too.

T5 tubes are more efficient in producing a greater intensity of light, though they generally consume more power to do this.

 

[tmreynolds]

i think you will be able to replace both tubes with a daylight bulb and actinic . if you want to keep coral, allthough softys arnt that hard to keep i would have thought you would still have need to replace the t8 with some t5 units but i could be wrong LOL.would also help you out with space as the t5 bulbs are tiny. anyway hope that helps mate .

rob

T8 and t5 refers to the thickness of the tube in 1/8ths of an inch. T8 is therefore 8/8ths of an inch, ie 1" thick whearas T5 tubes are 5/8ths thick - like rob says 'tiny'.

You will only be able to change like for like, (in terms of tube size and wattage, you can change the colour though) - a T5 tube will not fit in a T8 socket, nor the reverse. The wattages are different too, for a given length, hence it's not even as simple as changing the end fittings as the starters are different too.

T5 tubes are more efficient in producing a greater intensity of light, though they generally consume more power to do this.

Ah, always wondered what T5 and T8 actually referred to

Yeah I will need to go like for like as the Juwel's end caps are sealed to be watertight.

So any T8 tube, colours of my choice, that is the same wattage and length should OK?

Also, is there any specific colour temperatures I should be looking for (my current tubes are 6500K and 2900K)?

Cheers

 

[Matthew5664]

look for a colour temp of about 10,000K. I would go for one Marine White and One Marine/Moon Blue (actinic)

 

[tmreynolds]

Cheers mate,



My current Juwel tubes and fittings etc are 25W and 36" long!

All the tubes I can find at 25w are 30" long.

All the 36" tubes are coming up as 30W, would these be OK instead?

 

[l337dave]

Cheers mate,



My current Juwel tubes and fittings etc are 25W and 36" long!

All the tubes I can find at 25w are 30" long.

All the 36" tubes are coming up as 30W, would these be OK instead?

yeah I recon the starter should be able to handle them - if it doesn't light them up then just take them back. you do need to make sure they are the same length for reasons I'm sure you're aware of.

on my old rio125 some of the 24" tubes were 20w and some were 18w and I think some of them were 15w too..!

on colour spectrum basically a higher K rating will give you more blue in the light, and a lower K rating will give you more intensity for the same wattage. (that's very general I know)

as to what you choose depends on if you are looking for growth or for viewing the coral. On the tank in the living room I've got a marine white (10k) a marine blue (20k estimate) and another tube that's somewhere between 6.5k and 10k and this gives me a good mix of light and I like the way that it looks. Very crisp but still quite warm as sometimes it's the only light on in the room.

on the prop tank that I'm setting up I'm going for four 6.5k t5's as I'll be doing shallow water species and this colour is very close to natural daylight in the top regions of the sea, it should give me the best growth. It won't look as crisp and living room tank probably very yellowy but this doesn't really matter as it's in the spare room and the point of the tank is growth.

another issue you might come across with 6.5k is that people say it could encorage more algea. I'll probably be able to comment on this when the prop tank has been up and running for a while.

hope this helps a bit!


dave.

 

[tmreynolds]

Yes that does help, however I've realised that its the whole multilux lighting unit that is 36", not the tubes, the tubes are infact 30" 25W, which makes more sense

Thinking about it, the tank is only 36" in length, so the tubes couldn't be 36"

Do you think it will look too blue though with just the actinic and 10000k marine white tubes in there?

 

[SkiFletch]

Not with T8 flourescents, they're nowhere near as blue looking to the human eye as T5s or halide lamps, trust me

With low lighting like that you'll be limited to low light corals like sacrophytons, mushrooms, zooanthids, kenya trees, xenia, etc. Pretty much softies only.

 

[l337dave]

Yes that does help, however I've realised that its the whole multilux lighting unit that is 36", not the tubes, the tubes are infact 30" 25W, which makes more sense

Thinking about it, the tank is only 36" in length, so the tubes couldn't be 36"

Do you think it will look too blue though with just the actinic and 10000k marine white tubes in there?

ok I've just done an experiment for you put an actinic and a 10k on my tank and it was quite blue (didn't like it my self) but it was quite crisp looking for want of a better word

the actinic will make some things in your tank glow and for me doesn't give a very 'realistic' light but that's just down to the personal choice I guess. 8)


dave.

 

[tmreynolds]

Yes that does help, however I've realised that its the whole multilux lighting unit that is 36", not the tubes, the tubes are infact 30" 25W, which makes more sense

Thinking about it, the tank is only 36" in length, so the tubes couldn't be 36"

Do you think it will look too blue though with just the actinic and 10000k marine white tubes in there?

ok I've just done an experiment for you put an actinic and a 10k on my tank and it was quite blue (didn't like it my self) but it was quite crisp looking for want of a better word

the actinic will make some things in your tank glow and for me doesn't give a very 'realistic' light but that's just down to the personal choice I guess. 8)


dave.

Dave, was that with T8's?

Cheers guys,

Not with T8 flourescents, they're nowhere near as blue looking to the human eye as T5s or halide lamps, trust me

With low lighting like that you'll be limited to low light corals like sacrophytons, mushrooms, zooanthids, kenya trees, xenia, etc. Pretty much softies only.

Yeah, I think with this setup, its gonna be softies only, this won't be for a few months though.

 

[l337dave]

yeah that was with t8's.

I've just had a look and it's the same lighting rig that you have (the juwel 2x25 one) so i'd guess it would look nearly exactly the same when you get it set up.

my tank is a rio180, I have the 2x25 on the bar like you and a blue (on a seperate starter) that is clipped to the back one. (you could probably get another tube and starter for ~£30 if you wanted)

Coral wise I have the usual, leathers, GSP, mushrooms, zoa's etc and all seem extended and happy.

One thing that will make a differance if you can get them is proper reflectors for each light - There a lots of figures on the internet and some say that as much as 70% of the light is wasted without one. I've got no way of measuring this but reflectors visually make a big differance.


dave.

 

[tmreynolds]

yeah that was with t8's.

I've just had a look and it's the same lighting rig that you have (the juwel 2x25 one) so i'd guess it would look nearly exactly the same when you get it set up.

my tank is a rio180, I have the 2x25 on the bar like you and a blue (on a seperate starter) that is clipped to the back one. (you could probably get another tube and starter for ~£30 if you wanted)

Coral wise I have the usual, leathers, GSP, mushrooms, zoa's etc and all seem extended and happy.

One thing that will make a differance if you can get them is proper reflectors for each light - There a lots of figures on the internet and some say that as much as 70% of the light is wasted without one. I've got no way of measuring this but reflectors visually make a big differance.


dave.

Cheers,

I have ordered marine white 9500k and actinic tubes, aswell as the Juwel reflectors

How did you attach the 3rd tube on the rear exactly?
If its too blue, I may have 2 x 9500k daylights in the hood, with 1 actinic tube as extra, if I can work out how to attach the 3rd (with your help )

 

[l337dave]

Are they the arcadia marine whites? I really like the way they look

If it was me I would go with the 2 whites on the tank bar and then an actinic as well on a seperate controller. I have the blue on my tank come on 1 hour before the main lights and go off one hour after to give some concept of sunrise and sunset. Before I did this the tank was plunged into darkness at 22:00 if the room lights weren't on. At somepoint I'd like to add another tube and have the '3 sets' come on over an hour.

It's very easy, all you need are some clips, they look like 2 C's attched at the closed ends, like this:

this end holds onto your current tube ---> )( <--- this one on your new tube.

I've got mine attached to the back tube, you just need to fiddle with it till it sits under the reflector and still lets the lid close ok.

then you just need another starter to run it:ebay link

T8 stuff is really cheap and at 24" - 30" it really isn't that much worse than having T5's

Hmm you've got me thinking about another tube for the tank now...


dave.

 

[tmreynolds]

Are they the arcadia marine whites? I really like the way they look

If it was me I would go with the 2 whites on the tank bar and then an actinic as well on a seperate controller. I have the blue on my tank come on 1 hour before the main lights and go off one hour after to give some concept of sunrise and sunset. Before I did this the tank was plunged into darkness at 22:00 if the room lights weren't on. At somepoint I'd like to add another tube and have the '3 sets' come on over an hour.

It's very easy, all you need are some clips, they look like 2 C's attched at the closed ends, like this:

this end holds onto your current tube ---> )( <--- this one on your new tube.

I've got mine attached to the back tube, you just need to fiddle with it till it sits under the reflector and still lets the lid close ok.

then you just need another starter to run it:ebay link

T8 stuff is really cheap and at 24" - 30" it really isn't that much worse than having T5's

Hmm you've got me thinking about another tube for the tank now...


dave.

Great stuff Dave cheers

They are indeed the Arcadia marine white and actinic tubes. Should get them today.

I will see how one of each looks with the reflectors in the standard hood, then maybe add another white if necessary?

I already have a LED moonlight kit which comes on before lights out, looks 8) aswell

Thanks for your help.