Aquatic Life T-5 HO Dual Lamp

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HI Platies,
The Aquaticlife you're posting about is a really good quality fixture. It has excellent reflectors which is very important. It's part of what you're paying for on an Aquaticlife. I have the same fixture in the quad bulb and I love it. It's better than any of the other fixtures I've had. On your depth of tanks that should put you in solid medium to med/high light. It would be a good choice. OS.
 
Old Scales said:
HI Platies,
The Aquaticlife you're posting about is a really good quality fixture. It has excellent reflectors which is very important. It's part of what you're paying for on an Aquaticlife. I have the same fixture in the quad bulb and I love it. It's better than any of the other fixtures I've had. On your depth of tanks that should put you in solid medium to med/high light. It would be a good choice. OS.
Click to expand...

How often would I have to replace the bulbs? Are there any other good fixtures you know of?
 
I replace my bulbs just about exactly once a year. Some say they'll last up to 18 months but I'm just being safe. I do notice a slight improvement when I replace them. The only other high end fluorescent I've dealt with is Corallife. A medium quality fixture that is a much cheaper T5HO fixture is Zoo-Med. They're OK but don't have near as good of reflectors as the high end however, and one would put you in a lower end of medium light.
Nowadays, with the advances in LED's you could get a Build My Led fixture for around the same price as a high end fluorescent. Hope this helps. OS.
 
Thank you for your help! What types of ferts would I have to dose with the Aquatic Life fixture? I would have jungle val, crypt parva, and amazon swords. I read that you have to dose more fertilizer in higher lighting? Is this true?
 
Yes with higher light the plants are more "active" thus needing more carbon(Glut or CO2) and nutrients. Api CO2 Booster, Seachem's Excel, or Metricide14 ordered from Amazon are liquid carbon that can be used on your set up. You really wouldn't have to have pressurized CO2. Then you need to dose Macro and Micro fertilizers of your choice. The liquid carbons also help fight algae that becomes more of an issue with higher light. You test for nitrates and phosphates regularly to know how much fert to dose. A good generic target is 10-20ppm NO2 and 1-3ppm PO4. Also with higher light you don't need to have the lights on as long.(Algae) 6 to 8 hrs is usually enough. Here, a timer on your lights is invaluable. Good luck and welcome to the dark side of the force. OS.
 
Also, how long do LED fixtures last? I checked out the Build My Led fixture website, and they were kinda pricey. Do you know if the Finnex Fugeray Planted Fixture or the Ray 2 would be good? What lighting would each give me?
 
Old Scales said:
Yes with higher light the plants are more "active" thus needing more carbon(Glut or CO2) and nutrients. Api CO2 Booster, Seachem's Excel, or Metricide14 ordered from Amazon are liquid carbon that can be used on your set up. You really wouldn't have to have pressurized CO2. Then you need to dose Macro and Micro fertilizers of your choice. The liquid carbons also help fight algae that becomes more of an issue with higher light. You test for nitrates and phosphates regularly to know how much fert to dose. A good generic target is 10-20ppm NO2 and 1-3ppm PO4. Also with higher light you don't need to have the lights on as long.(Algae) 6 to 8 hrs is usually enough. Here, a timer on your lights is invaluable. Good luck and welcome to the dark side of the force. OS.
Click to expand...

I thought that root feeders like crypts and val "melt" when dosing CO2. Is that correct?
 
Old Scales said:
I replace my bulbs just about exactly once a year.
Click to expand...

Just about exactly once a year.. :ROFLMAO:

Platiesareawesome said:
I thought that root feeders like crypts and val "melt" when dosing CO2. Is that correct?
Click to expand...

Crypts tend to melt whenever they are disturbed. Some vals will melt with the liquid CO2 such as excel.

Platiesareawesome said:
Also, how long do LED fixtures last? I checked out the Build My Led fixture website, and they were kinda pricey. Do you know if the Finnex Fugeray Planted Fixture or the Ray 2 would be good? What lighting would each give me?
Click to expand...

I would expect a quality LED fixture to last 3 - 5 years. The Finnex fixtures don't have the most par rating at distance so I would think you would want 2 of them for a tank. The build my led fixture would probably work though.

I am running the linkable dual t5ho over my 55g and it has been working great. It puts me pretty solidly in the middle light rang for my tank but that's not a big deal for me as it still lets me grow a ton of plants. I was dosing 30ml of excel daily along with EI ferts to give me an algae free tank. I have a second one in the mail now because I just added pressurized CO2 and want to grow some higher light plants :)
 
Thanks for the help! :) What light level would the finnex fugueray give me? I would be happy with low-medium light. Also, what exactly are macro and micro fertilizers?
 
To Mebbid and Platies

Just about exactly once a year.. :ROFLMAO:
Mebbid,
Just about close to exactly is almost right to nearly what I said isn't it? Hee Hee.

Platies,
Macro ferts are nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium.
Micro ferts are trace elements like iron, boron, copper, molybdenum, etc.
Plants need all these to be healthy.
The macros are dosed separately from the micros because they don't store well mixed chemically. Also different tanks need different amounts. OS.
 
Old Scales said:
Just about exactly once a year.. :ROFLMAO:
Mebbid,
Just about close to exactly is almost right to nearly what I said isn't it? Hee Hee.

Platies,
Macro ferts are nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and magnesium.
Micro ferts are trace elements like iron, boron, copper, molybdenum, etc.
Plants need all these to be healthy.
The macros are dosed separately from the micros because they don't store well mixed chemically. Also different tanks need different amounts. OS.
Click to expand...

What would be examples of micros and macros? (By that I mean what brand)
 
Sorry. Are you considering liquid or dry ferts?
I've used the PPS-Pro dry ferts from Green Leaf Aquarium so long I'm not up on all the latest available liquid fert brands. We need Mebbid and some others to input. OS.
 
I have 2 dual fixtures with t-5 bulbs for salt water , bulbs were replaced every 6 months
I don't use it any more since I went led , don't know life of fresh water bulbs though would think probably the same ,loved the fixture , only thing was it go expensive replacing bulbs lol
 
Honestly, with the amount of light that you are putting over your tank the liquid ferts are going to burn a hole in your pocket. They are great for low light tanks but they just aren't concentrated enough for higher light imho. If you were still dead set on liquid ferts I would probably go with the comprehensive seachem flourish and supplement that with the seachem potassium.

There is a fairly even division between people that use both EI and PPS Pro on this forum and both are very good systems. You just need to figure out how much to mix in the bottles and dose accordingly.

In EI you rotate between dosing micros and macros every day while in PPS Pro you dose both daily. EI uses up quite a bit more fertilizer than PPS Pro does but there is less fine tuning involved. PPS Pro is more of a way of finessing your fertilizers and uses quite a bit less because of it.
 
I'm still debating between a T-5 fixture or a LED. So, the Aquatic Life fixture would give me med-high lighting, correct? What would a finnex fugeray planted+ give me? Ray2? Build my LED?
 
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