ATI dimmable T5 lighting

[Tom Barr]

I did some energy calculations and then some cost different for the initial purchase and decided to get these lights instead of LED's, perhaps later, the LED will surpass T5's but these are really a winning fixture. Warning, they are not cheap.

I am using some on my 70 Gal manzigumi.

It took me awhile to figure the controller, but once I did and got that dialed in good and the bulbs burned in for about 50 hours, this light works like no other I've had. I also did some measurements vs the Tek, and it's basically 25-50% more light. I confirmed it with the PAR meter.

Usually I am highly skeptical of such marketing talk, and rightly so, I will say it's correct in this case.

So why was I really interested in this fixture?
1. Reef folks have been hounding me.
2. Is the light that much higher vs the other decent T5 brands?
3. The dimming option.

The dimming option is really cool and ends up costing you much less and is far more natural and you can vary things around a great deal. It has 2 channels, so say you just want 2 or 4 bulbs on initially, and have then come on at say 8 am and then run up to say 50% power at 10am, then from 10am till say 12, have the other bank of 2 or 4 come on and run up from 0-50% in the next 2 hours, then all the lights from 12-2 pm from 50-100%, then from 2 to 4- back down to 50%, and then 4-6pm, down to 0%.

You can split the channels up anyway you chose, but by using only low dimmed light the first and last parts of the light cycle, you can crank up the middle portion, but also still have plenty of time before/after work to see the tank.

I use about 20% less energy using this fixture than the LED option with similar PAR over 10 hours. Peak lighting is about 100 umol higher also.

[oldpunk]

Those powermodules are sweet. I'm glad to here they actually do put out more light. (Opposed to just costing an arm and a leg.)

[Mark Lem]

Sold on them but what to do for a 6 ft tank

[Gerryd]

Sold on them but what to do for a 6 ft tank

2 X 36" fixtures end to end...........

[Tom Barr]

Yep, 2x 36" fixtures is about the only way, be nice if they sold a nice little connector set to screw both together.

[Mark Lem]

sounds good

[2wheelsx2]

This is a very interesting option. I was going to go all LED, but maybe this is the way to go for my lower light setups that I'm supplementing with T5NO's.

[Gerryd]

Yep, 2x 36" fixtures is about the only way, be nice if they sold a nice little connector set to screw both together.

Yes, I was thinking that a metal fabricator may be able to come up with something elegant...Or I could DIY something ugly yet effective

I really like the dimmer and timers and the way they seem to interact...

Question:

So if going from 4-6 pm (lights out) you can say go from 50% power to 0% and it will AUTOMATICALLY reduce the pct over those two hours until completely OFF. And the reverse?

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I don't need a new light (I have a good one plus a spare) but this feature alone would be worth a lot to me. No need to adjust the fixture height to adjust PAR.. Also the lower % will allow for more viewing time as the lowest I can go now is 8x39....It seems that I would have greater control over the timers themselves than my current unit.

I am going to check these out for sure. No rush for me but I think I may go this route....in the near future..

Off to find the owners manual online so I can check them out.

Update:

I see that Marine Depot has the 36" 6x39w for $470. The width is 13.4" as opposed to 12" for my current 8x39 unit. So less bulbs but the same POSSIBLE spread? hard to say/know for sure w/o buying and testing, but that is a lot of $ if I don't think they were worth it I would need 2 units, BTW, so the cost is considerable...

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Thanks for posting this Tom. Good info backed up by the PAR meter as well as experience with other T5 fixtures and other lighting types...

[Tom Barr]

Y Question:

So if going from 4-6 pm (lights out) you can say go from 50% power to 0% and it will AUTOMATICALLY reduce the pct over those two hours until completely OFF. And the reverse?

Yes, it reduces the power and more smoothly than any LED can.
And it does the same thing in the AM when the lights come on.

So those 2 hours(time for this is arbitrary, but the user can use whatever, I just use this as an example) are low light...........then you get say 2 hours of mod light and then 2-4 of high and then reverse and taper off again.
No one sells something like this really I know of in this market.

You also can add additional color temps and bulb types this way rather than 2-3 -4, you can add 4-8 etc.

Make sure the ATI is the dimmable version with controller.

I would bet you'll get the same PAR with less bulbs, maybe more.

Given the width of your tank, 8x 39W might be a better option.

[Gerryd]

Hi Tom,

You also can add additional color temps and bulb types this way rather than 2-3 -4, you can add 4-8 etc.

Can you elaborate here please? I get we can mix and match k temps on bulbs, but what do you mean by 2-3-4 or 4-8?

Make sure the ATI is the dimmable version with controller.

Yes, got that now. Quite a price difference!

Given the width of your tank, 8x 39W might be a better option.

Well, I see the 6x39 has the same width as my 8x39 and it is less expensive for the 6 bulb model..times 2 fixtures I though I may be able to use the lesser bulb fixture..I am okay getting the 8x39 though...just to be safe.

New questions please:

1. How quiet is it? Compared to say a nice quiet canister. My fixture you can definitely hear the fans when the unit is ON....and are for sure louder than my eheim canisters

2. Do ALL bulbs per ballast need to be installed for ANY in that zone to work? My current fixture is like that and NO bulbs can be left out. My other fixture with an older ballast allows this. This is a flexibility issue.

3. How many actual power cords, etc that need to be hooked up? One power cord per ballast along with the controller wire? That is 2-3 wires per fixture.

I see 3 cords in the first pic???

Thanks in advance!

Gerry.