+Grog Posted August 21, 2012 Share Posted August 21, 2012 Timfish came by today and we chatted for a while. I probably took up too much of his afternoon; but, I'm a chatterbox. We tested my new LED set-up with a PAR meter and tested my old T5 setup as well. LEDs are 4 Current USA True Lumen Pro 48" strips, 2 each of actinic and the 12000k. The old T-5 fixture is an Oddysea fixture with 4 ATI bulbs (2x actinic and 2x Aquablue special) running the stock Odyssea ballast. My tank is a 33 long, 48 X 12 X 12 First picture shows the readings from the LEDs. Ignore the values in parenthesis, I'll get to that later. Second picture shows the readings from the T5. T5 not pictured, I reused the picture from above. After noticing the difference in the readings we discussed a bit and wondered if the readings were different because the T5 were on legs, and about 3" above the surface but the LED were on the lip of the tank. In the original photo, the values with parentheses are the second set of readings with the LED elevated to approximately match the elevation of the T5. Thoughts? I would consider the output similar. Can be greater if you are flush on the tank, like I am, but can be slightly less if you mount in a canopy or reuse some other mount point. I'd call that a wash and say they are a 1:1 replacement for the T5 bulbs in a tank of this geometry. Other notes: Heat in my tank has dropped. Depending on time of day, I'm 2.5 degrees cooler now. Power consumption is lower. T5 were 216W and the LED are 120 total. Oh, one last thing, I'm very happy that Claudia (my Condy) was in full bloom today and looking like her beautiful self Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 Tank looks great. I am confused with the one to one comparison. With 216W of T5 and 120W of LED, I would say the ratio of power consumed is closer to 2/1. If the PAR is comparable between the two different light fixture, then I would rate the LED fixture, twice as efficient as the T5. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted September 4, 2012 Share Posted September 4, 2012 This is super nitpicky, but the text color is really hard for me to see :/ Other than that, thanks so much for your comparison! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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