Ok here is a crash course in lights. Please read this. Then reread this. Then comprehend it completely. Then ask for clarification on any specific points if needed.
High output light is not needed for your pods, bacteria, or even most algae to grow. So if you do as you say and let your tank lay barren for 6 months to a year there is no need to rush into buying these or any other lighting system right away. You can rather save up your money and tuck it away for the time when you are ready for new lighting. Also 6 months to a year in terms or reef lighting is really a long time and there can be leaps and bounds in the way that we light our tanks.
That being said, here is why I feel myself and others on here are wary of these light fixtures that you are finding off of Ebay.
1. I just looked through everything that the seller has listed on Ebay for sale and didnt see the individual bulbs from any of the fixtures on there.
2. while doing this I noticed a couple of things, the pictures for a great portion if not all of them are representing a Corallife fixture or other fixture yet, in none of the descripitions does it list a brand name. Also, there are 0 bids on every item that the seller has. If these were such a screaming hot deal I would think there would be atleast 1 bid on 1 fixture.
3. Ebay doesnt always fully represent themselves or their "goods/products" and what you get isnt always quality. If you recall you purchased a skimmer from there
that was a really good deal. It was a Seaclone protien skimmer that if I remember correctly didnt have all the parts for it. - Lesson learned just because something says its for a reef tank or reef capable it isnt, and not everything is the same as the picture, just go to McDonalds expecting to get something just like the picture, wont ever happen.
4. If these bulbs can be found nearly anywhere around town then I suggest you literally look. I know I just looked through your dear foster and smith website and none of their HO T5 bulbs are 72 inches. So what happens when one breaks, or goes out. Then you cant find one from anywhere in town, or Dr Foster&Smith, so you are forced back to this Ebay supplier. That is IF you you can find them and get contact with them again because, they dont have any of their bulbs up for auction or sale on Ebay. And IF you succeed at that then you get them shipped to you and they could break, because shipping a glass cylider that is 1/2" by 72" isn't that easy. IF they dont break then you still have to wait probably atleast a week to get the bulb in.
5. Why dont these fixtures have any sort of brand naming on them or in the description? If they are so good and can produce results why aren't they named, that way they can get more sales? They are not a tried and true product, and the only feedback you can find on them is the sellers feedback which might not even be pertaining to the product you are buying. Or, could be from frankly put people like yourself whom see a fixture that is 1/2 the cost and buy it because they figure it is the same thing only a lot better and dont thing anything more about it.
6. If you go to page by page on the sellers feedback you will notice for the first 5 or 6 pages maybe 4 or 5 of the people giving feedback have listed what it is that they bought. And by page 10 the 5 or so reviews a day has dropped dramatically but, the number that have what they bought increases. This could be coincidence, but I just smell something fishy with that.
Now onto the fact of lighting and how lighting works for the aquarium and what we need it to do.Not everything is created equal. If that was the case there wouldnt be so many brands of stuff at so many price points.
1) Starting with bulbs. The higher quality bulbs cost more. This is not because of the fact that they are a "name brand" but rather because the gases are purer and more consistent in the way that they are composed. That is why actinic (thats what the blue bulbs are called) bulbs tend to cost more, and mh bulbs that are cheap but say they are 20,000K really look about 12,000K is because the gas used to produce the blue spectrum costs more. In order to make these bulbs cheaper they dont use as much of this gas.
2) With reflectors. There are so many designs as to how to build reflectors and materials it isnt funny. But one thing everybody can agree on is that we want as much light put back into the tank as possible. That is why on almost every single name brand fixture they put that their reflector's metal has a 95% or higher reflectivity. Your ebay fixture doesnt list this or any other stat or numerical value other than length of fixture, and wattage, and number of bulbs.
Individual reflectors are better and the higher end fixtures have these (and is part of why they cost more), and your Ebay fixture does say that it has individual reflectors. However, the picture is that of one that has 8 bulbs, looks like a retrofit kit, and I am pretty sure I have seen that picture somewhere else that wasnt that website.
3) Ballasts. There are a lot of different kind of ballasts out there. I honestly dont know too much about them. However, there are different kinds, the better ones light the bulbs better and do so while drawing less energy. It says that the ones you are looking at are "highly effecient" what does that mean? What is that compared to? again not enough details and too much ambiguity.
4) Fans, it has fans, not much else is listed. How quiet are they? Where are they positioned? What are they cooling the center of the bulbs, the ballast, the end of the bulbs? How many fans are there?
5) As far as moonlighting 20watts of moonlights across 6 feet seems awefully high, especially for the kinds of LEDs depicted in the picture, which I beleive to be 5mm diodes. Enough said I dont feel that they are properly representing these.
There is a ton more that could be explained but if you have those specific questions I or anybody else on here I am sure would be able to full heartedly answer these. This should be enough to get you to hopefully start seeing the light.
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Originally Posted by Ichthy
