Catalina Solar T5 light

Well hell, at that price buy 2 and give me one
 
No really, all these high price lights I see, has me thinking that someone is laughing all the way to the bank. As long as there are people willing to pay that price, the price will remain insane. Give them a little time and you'll be able to pick one at half the price. Which is still spendy in my book.
 
Well that's the problem. I've been using shop lights for 7 years now and while they WORK, I need a little more wattage than I'm currently getting. I really want to get into the 3WPG range. not to mention, it's ugly LOL. I don't WANT to spend that much money, but that's actually about the cheapest I've been able to find for >450W.
 
I would get 3ft. 6bulb fixtures instead. The 80watt T5HO bulbs are actually 5ft long, so you wont have total coverage. And also what are you trying to grow btw, that you need 6 instead of 4 bulbs?
 
I have the 48" Solar T5 on my 75 gallon...they are really nice lights. They also have a 5 year warranty, and have very good customer service. My light arrived with all the bulbs cracked in the middle and they sent me replacements without any fuss.
 
Riiz said:
I would get 3ft. 6bulb fixtures instead. The 80watt T5HO bulbs are actually 5ft long, so you wont have total coverage. And also what are you trying to grow btw, that you need 6 instead of 4 bulbs?
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I thought about that, but there's a few issues. The big issue is in order to get the same wattage it would cost a lot more. I'm not to worried about the light tube being 6" short on either side. The way my aquascape is, the ends are all swords that don't care about the light intensity anyway.

I'm trying to incorporate some plants that have red in them. I already have 320W with the shop lights.
 
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have you thought about making a custom hood. using your existing lights and adding a few AH supply kits to it?

that way you dont waste the money already invested in lighting, and you can put whatever you want into the hood and not have to worry much about how it looks?

my .02
 
I have the catalina PC lights(should have bought the t-5)

they have been trouble free..catalina even replaced a bulb that was damaged during shipping.
no charge
 
What size tank are you putting this light on?? I would also say that 320 watts of T-5's would be much more intense and have greater par value than your shoplight setup. I have seen some great looking reef tanks with the amount T-5's that you are planning to put on your tank.
 
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