Tek T-5 fixture

[clone]

Ok so ive had a Tek 48" 8 bulb for about a year and a half now. Here is my OPINION.

The fixture itself is nice looking, doesnt look cheap, the reflectors are nice and shinny, and it has two on/off switches. I am an SPS kinda guy with some mix (chalices,zoas,acans) for the first year this fixture couldnt color up anything for me, all my sps faded out, my zoas not so much color and acans bearly came out. Now a Teeb advised me maybe its your water quality. I figured nope im doing everything I did with my previous tank, so that cant be the problem. Tested my water and everything came out better than perfect. I changed out bulbs, still nothing, and I am useing quality bulbs. So after a year of faiure I was ready to switch back to MH, but before I did that Teeb again helped me out, but this time by giving me a AZOO fan with 4 small fans. I drilled my fixture on the side and hung it so it would blow across the length of the bulbs. This helped out significantly, within the first 2 months I started to see a change in a ora red planet that I have. within 6 months it has grown about another 2 inches all the way around and is now deep red with a green base.
My bulb combo is ATI B+,ATI Actinc,B+,UVL 75/25,B+,Actinic,B+,B+.
Now that I added that fan I have got all my colors back.
If your looking into a Tek fixture be sure you add some kind of cooling to it.

[Europhyllia]

Don't they have fans already now too in the fixture?

[clone]

yep they do, the new elite ones, but mine is the older one. So if any of you guys are having issues like I did this is a cheap way to take care of it.

[justahobby]

So the heat was cooking the bulbs?

[Big_Pun]

t5 life span and effectiveness are effected by heat. I have a fixture that over drives so my bulbs are only good for about 6 months.

[clone]

So the heat was cooking the bulbs?

yep after cooling them at all time they seemed brighter.

[tonyydeee]

I heard cooling them from the center was bad.

You should only cool them from the ends with the label.

(what I've heard)

[Rvela]

Did the bulb temp affect the temp of your water negatively? What was/is your tank temp? Weird...but if it works thats great.

[Troy Valentine]

I am also running into the same problems with my older Tek fixture. It seems to be slowly getting dimmer with the 5 month old ATIs I have been running. I will add a fan tonight and see what happens.

Thanks for the post......

[clone]

yep not sure why Roy its just one of those small tweaks that makes the huge difference.I guess the bulbs were getting to hot and werent shinning *** bright as they could. The heat coming from the bulbs wasnt at all causeing the problem I had, the fixture has never changed any temps over a degree at most.
yeah try it out Troy, ill take a pic later so you can see how its set up.

[SABOB]

Clone, please post pics on your fan install.I recently purchased a 4 bulb Tek and looking for a way to mount fan for cooling purposes.Grim Reefer on RC recommende a 6 inch clip on mounted above fixture blowing down at a 45 degree angle.

[clone]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/45092691@N07/5443091193/