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Cheap HO T5 fluorescent tubes - Update with photos

JamesC

JamesC

Member
Joined
3 Jul 2007
Messages
1,213
Location
Bexley, Kent
This is an update to a thread I posted earlier about HO T5 tubes I brought from the Lamp Specs website. This is the thread - http://www.ukaps.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=523. Since I posted the earlier thread I have also purchased some Grolux's.

Decided to have a bit of fun tonight and took some photo's of my tank with the various tubes to give everyone an idea to what the colours look like. I set the White Balance to sunshine which seemed to give me the most accurate representation of the tank colours to the photos. Please excuse my tank as it's in a state of change at the moment as I'm trying out various new plants and getting ready for a change.

These are the tubes I tested:
Osram Lumilux T5 840 Fluorescent Tube 54W
Osram Lumilux T5 880 Skywhite Fluorescent Tube 54W
Philips de Luxe Pro T5 965 Fluorescent Tube 54W - Known as Colour 96 on Lamp Specs website
Sylvania Grolux T5 54W

Now for the photos.

Philips de Luxe Pro 965
965.jpg

Osram Lumilux 840
840.jpg

Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite
880.jpg

Sylvania Grolux
Grolux.jpg


Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite + Osram Lumilux 840
880-840.jpg


Sylvania Grolux + Philips de Luxe Pro 965
Grolux-965.jpg

Sylvania Grolux + Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite
Grolux-880.jpg


Hopefully this will provide you enough info. Didn't want to do any more as the fish were getting a bit freaked out. The Grolux's by themselves look way too pink but mixed with either the 965's or 880's they look very good IMO. If you just look at the wood you can really see the difference between the various tubes. In natural sunshine I'd say the photo using the Grolux's and 880's is the closest match to the colour of the wood.

James
 
Brilliant, James. Thanks for sharing this.

I love the look of the 965s.

Super looking tank BTW!
 
Thanks everyone. The 880 and 840 mix does give some some very bold greens and is the combination I've been using for the last week. One interesting thing I've noticed after having another look at the photos is the tube at the back left of the tank is white but shows the colour of the fluorescent tubes in the various photos very well. With the Philips 965's it comes out looking quite white. With the Grolux's it comes out quite a pinky purple colour. Look at the last photo of the Grolux + 880 and it is a bright white. This combination to me gives what I'd say is the most natural look to the tank and is probably the one I'm going to use.

One thing you can't tell from the photo's is how red the shrimp and fish are when the Grolux's are added. If you look at the Grolux photo there is a patch of Willow Moss just right of centre that has cherry shrimp on it. One cherry shrimp stands out in particular being bright red.

James
 
Hi James,
Love the pictures, gorgeous tank! I got some 8400s from lampspecs but I use CFs and I couldn't find the 880 in this format or any lamp higher than 6500K in CF. Am I not navigating properly or is it just not available? Any alternative suppliers for 8000K CFs?

Cheers,
 
I couldn't see any either in the Compact Fluorescent range. The linear T5's seem to have far greater choice.

James
 
This a fantasic bit of work, well done for doing it, not sure i would have the patience to do it myself, based on your pictures I have gone for the Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite + Osram Lumilux 840 lamps 🙂

JOHNNY
 
Used these guys a few weeks ago for the first time, because i saw this thread. Ordered 3x 39w tubes, delivered within 3 days, unfortunately one of them was faulty so i phoned them and they ordered and dispatched a new tube to me while i was on the phone 😀 , which was delivered within two days 😀 Cannot fault this company at all, great products, excellent customer service, would recommend them every time.
 
Good work James. Thanks to your article I've bought the Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite + Osram Lumilux 840 (T8s though). The colour rendition is great.
 
I just replaced mine with Sylvania Grolux + Osram Lumilux 880 Skywhite and now the tank is looking great and plants are pearling more than before.
Thanks for the article 🙂
 
Does anyone know where I could get a bulb similar to the 880 in the 18" 15w T8 format? The highest K I can seem to find is 865 = 6,500K which is quite a way off the 8000k of the 880. Osram def don't do them, I've checked their webpage.

I currently have 2 arcadia freshwater and a (dying) hagen aqua glo. I wanted to replace the aqua glo with something equally pinkish since it's the first to turn on and last to turn off, simulating a nice dawn and dusk period. And figured (in for a penny in for a pound) I might as well pick up replacements for the freshwater's while I'm at it so that when they start to flag I can have spares ready to swap them over too.

Has anyone tried the Osram 865s? Any idea how they compare to the 880.

I don't know why but I always had Daylight as being about 7,500K not 6,500K, maybe not in the UK eh?! 😉
 
I like the GE 10,000 K T8 tubes. They are very similar to the Interpet Triplus tubes - http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs- ... ium-10000K.

I like the 840 tubes to come on first thing and off last as they are a bit orangy and give the effect of sunset and sunrise.

I find the Osram 865's are quite green compared to the 880's. Apart from that there isn't a great difference between them.

Get a cloudy day and the Kelvin value goes right up. It also changes during the day depending on how much of the atmosphere and pollution the light has to travel through.

James
 
JamesC said:
I like the GE 10,000 K T8 tubes. They are very similar to the Interpet Triplus tubes - http://www.lampspecs.co.uk/Light-Bulbs- ... ium-10000K.
Click to expand...
Excellent, thanks for the fast reply (also good that lampspecs have them as they also do cheap energy saving and halogen bulbs which I also need 🙂 )
I like the 840 tubes to come on first thing and off last as they are a bit orangy and give the effect of sunset and sunrise.
Click to expand...
One of the things I like about my hagen at the moment is that it's dying so is a nice gentle prod into the world for the fish... I may end up with 3 lots of timers at this rate and have some LED lights to do the morning and evening when I want to watch the fish but don't want too much light for the plants. Then have a single tube come on for half an hour either side of my full 10 hours so the change is graduated.
I find the Osram 865's are quite green compared to the 880's. Apart from that there isn't a great difference between them.
Click to expand...
Well I'll add a couple to the basket as well since they're half the price of the 10000K ones, I may end up with 3 different bulbs at this rate! (and half of lampspecs in my house!)
Get a cloudy day and the Kelvin value goes right up. It also changes during the day depending on how much of the atmosphere and pollution the light has to travel through.
Click to expand...
Good glad to know I'm not going mad then! The white balance in the cameras I was working on was set to 7,500K for daylight and I kept seeing these bulbs at 6,500K and was beginning to wonder if my code was wrong! 😳
 
I'm another fan of cheaper tubes. I have an Osram lumilux 865 T5 HO in the front of my tank, and the colour of it is identical to that of my more expensive ZooMed UltraSun T8 tube, just considerably more intense obviously. The plants love it as well, I have plant tubes in the back (T5 Aquamedic Planta + T8 Zoomed Flora Sun) and these combine very well with the daylight tubes, all of the colours are crisp and bright, greens, blues and reds really stand out.

When it comes time to replace my Aquamedic Planta I'll probably go with a grolux, I have a lot of reds in my tank which these type of tubes really help to bring out.

Ade
 
What a fantastic and very helpful thread. This is my first visit here and I'm already very glad I dropped by! 😀 Thanks all...
 
Minders said:
What a fantastic and very helpful thread. This is my first visit here and I'm already very glad I dropped by! 😀 Thanks all...
Click to expand...
Hi Minders, welcome on board. 😀

Glad you found this useful, I've learnt so much from these guys too, it's a great source of information. 8)
 
Hi James,personally i think this thread is one of the best written on this forum and i think you deserve a massive pat on the back,regards john 8)
 
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