# He t5 longlast



## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

hello there fish people

I'm looking at buying two 

Ge t5 longlast 6500k 865

But have heard the produce a lot of par, will they be to much for a 240l juwel Rio
I can't seem to find any other bulbs in my price range I refuse to spend 30 quid on two juwel highlife day/nature, would buy arcadias but also not paying 15 quid a bulb the ge I can get for 2£

Cheers


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## Alastair (15 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> hello there fish people
> 
> I'm looking at buying two
> 
> ...



Hi Ghosty, 

They are brilliant t5s, I used them in my chocolate puddle journal and the colour they give off is perfect. As long as your co2 levels, flow and ferts are at the correct levels you've nothing to worry about. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

Hey there Alastair 

I'm setting up a new 50g, and am going to be using soil, so ferts are fine, as for flow, the juwel Rio comes with a 600lph filter so I'm adding a 1000lph power head with dity spray bar

Due to the filter being in the right back of the tank, I will be using a spray bar on the left side of the tank pushing towards the right, would this be enoughy flow? Or should I order a stronger power head ?


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

I'd be checking the length of the 865 is the same as the juwel and arcadia


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

ohhhhh your right
Ge t5 54w is 1149mm
Juwel is 1047mm
That's crap, I can't afford the price tag for those bulbs, 1.03 cm to long for the Ge, surley I can retro fit the juwel lighting system


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

I retro fitted some waterproof lamp leads into a similar lighting unit a couple of years ago and its still going strong.


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

This is silly now, I keep hitting hurdles 

So my only options now are to eiether retrofit the light unit, by a cm, or spend a fortune on bulbs

Surely I can squeeze the bulbs in, if not how did you do it, is it just snap the bulb clips on one end away fro the unit and soldering or welding them back at the desired distance


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

no i bought 2 sets of waterproof lamp holders with 2m long leads and fitted them straight to the existing ballast and sealed it all back up
http://www.reptilecentre.com/arcadi...GRs81ii-DCTTXWNJdxlwQBoCWQPw_wcB#.VQXkMGxajug
I did have to shorten the leads a bit


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

Hello there again big clown
I might a critical mistake, the person selling me then aquarium just decided to inform me that the lighting system is.
38w t8 twin
So now I have to replace the whole light ballast
Would I be able to cut the juwel light unit out and fix a Hagen goo twin 54w t5 system in and seal it back up with some heavy duty silicon? then zip type the new t5 end caps to the old t8 end caps?


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

beware of the uv light degrading the plastic zip ties. I dont think the hagen ballast will fit in the jewel light unit but the rest is possible.
just to point out all this will cost more than just buying juwel or arcadia tubes 
 just replace them when the tubes fail.
cant you get 865 tubes that are t8


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

Yh for 30quid I can get the proper juwel day and nature, but I'm looking to have a Pygmy chain sword carpet and I don't think the t8s will supply enough light to do this, I less I add reflectors maybe,
I can get ge longlast bulbs t5 for 3 quid each so antenna for two plus pnp
Hagen glo twin t5 ballast 35 quid
By the time IV replaced two juwel bulbs twice the t5 ballast paid for itself plus replacment bulbs are not limited to juwels stupid bulb lengths
What do you think

Edited


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

yes i would think 2x t8 would be enough for this plant even without reflectors, some members have had success with it in low tech tanks too


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

The cheapest t8 I found was 3mm to long would I be able to fit this into a 1047mm juwel fixture or am I limted to the juwel bulbs


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

that gamble is up to you, personally I think 3mm is a lot of extra strain on the end caps


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

Well it would be a strain of 1.5mm, maybe I can file down a little of the metal pins on each? but then again the vibrations more then likely would shatter the bulbs, and yes right now I can afford 30quid price tag juwel want for the two bulbs but in the futur theist wil be differant

As I can get a twin t5 ballast for 30 pd quid and two t5 he longlast for 10 quid including pnp
So for an extra 10 quid I get t5

What do you reckon the best option is


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

Right just checked on blt lighting were I can get the cheap ge bulbs and a ballast is 17 quid, then going over the interned adding single core cable, plus then 4 water proof end caps, equals more then a Hagen glo

But will be able to fit into the juwel lighting box, I jphavent a clue what my best option is, I thought I was getting a bargain getting a juwel 240 for 150 but have blow my 150 budget by
100£ lol


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

if you use the hagen ballast, i think the leads are long enough to put it in the cabinet.

pros for t8 no work needed, tank should be easier to keep algae free
cons not as much light and tubes more expensive

pros for t5 more light. cheaper tubes
cons tubes and ballast need fitting, expense(buying ballast, tubes mountings , etc.), the more light you have the faster things can go wrong


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

Alage shouldn't be a problem, I have a lot of plants coming in, a lot of swords and hydros, plus a god amount ps Sagittarius sub, plus my bn pleco

Just trying to make this whole thing cost effective and buying 30 quid of bulbs see,s a lot compared to me spending an upfront cost with the added bonus of a vaster market of bulbs

Do you reckon I could perhaps cut the old juwel light unit out cutting the bottom of the juwel light housing and then using some uber strong inside were juwel out there ballsy and attach the end caps together,?

Btw I'm a tradesman so I have a van full or random crap also a shed full so I'm sure I can sort it,


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## Andy Thurston (15 Mar 2015)

you would be better off going in through the top if you can it will be easier to seal it back up when you're finished and less likely to get condensation inside if you don't manage to seal it 100%
being a tradesman you should be able to do a decent conversion its up to you. I only changed my lamp holders because they broke and I couldn't find replacements at the time


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## Ghosty (15 Mar 2015)

Maybe your right going in through top would be an option, I suppose it all depends on how big the Hagen is I may just remove the whole juwel lighting system, and keep only enough plastic of the housing to maintain the Canopus structure, and attach the Hagen as it wouldn't need to be sealed, I could silicon any hole in the Hagen ballast to make it water tight, and attach it with some burn in adhesive, that way no one will know, 

Just seems more cost effective to have the ability to have the option of t5s and t5ho, so when I decide to go high tech I have the option to up the bulbs to t5ho, instead of using juwel t8s

The diy conversion will be in my journal witch will start as of Tuesday,, thank you for the help b,clown

All ne sure to mention you and others in the journal


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## EnderUK (16 Mar 2015)

As someone who hacked a Roma 125 to bits to get T5 in I probably wouldn't bother, a lot of hassle getting it right. If you do it plan exactly where all the cables can and will fit. I'd recommend getting some water proof cable glands as well as the silicon looks messy and if you don't get it right will leak.

I use T5 HE in my tank and they are probably comparable with T8 on PAR but with less energy cost. Probably save your money and get a good set of reflectors.


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## ian_m (16 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> you reckon I could perhaps cut the old juwel light unit out cutting the bottom of the juwel light housing and then using some uber strong inside were juwel out there ballsy and attach the end caps together,?


Nope, been there done that with Juwel light unit. FAIL. Do not access the ballast from the water side.

I was given a Vision 180 T8 light unit that someone had tried repairing by getting access from underneath. I replaced the ballast (T8) and got it working, but despite trying I was never able to completely seal the unit, despite having access to some wonderful plastic hot melt glues as work. I suspect the joints you make are under tension and always cracked open. Eventually the water got in and ballast stopped. The Juwel plastic is not amenable to gluing in damp/wet situations.

My second failed T8 unit I cut open from the top, dried it out, glued it back with hot glue (silicone doesn't generally stick to plastic) and it lasted 7 years before the ballast "detonated". Just bought a proper Juwel replacement unit £100 rather than waste time with trying to repair it.

I wouldn't bother even attempting to repair/change the bulb lengths. Just get a proper Juwel Rio T5 light from Ebay £100 including tubes. Plug in. Job done. Watch that algae grow...if not careful.


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## Ghosty (16 Mar 2015)

hey there Ender and Ian

I'm not looking to replace the juwel system im removing it and fitting my own t5ho

So my goal is to remove as much of the existing housing as I can leaving only the top, witch the canopy flaps attach to, then I will retro fit a Hagen glo into it, to be honest I went to lfs today got a Hagen glo out its box and fiddled about with seeing if it would work, and it's easy

There is a plastic brace in the ceneter of the 240, if I remove the juwel lighting housing ballast. Everything other then the t8 end caps, the Hagen will easily mount to the underside of the canopy, 
Then I will be able to use the old t8 and mount my t5 end caps to them, that's the easiest bit

I have planned and planned and seams ok to me, even if it doesn't I have the option of going from the cabinet over and throught the top so should be easy enough
I literally do this sort of stuff all day everyday

However if I was going to replace the juwel ballast with one witch would fit inside the housing it would have to be done from the top,but it would be easy eiether way, you would need an adhesive that melts the plastic, not a glue to hold, that just wouldn't work, an adhesive that bonds and melts plastic to plastic, then let dry and seal with any silicon that hasn't got any mood resistance properties would be safe, condensation will remove most glues easily enough other time,hence why glue wouldn't work, 

I will be starting a journal this evening, I have my soil soaking in water, what a bloody mess my 2 yr old found the bucket, fun

And alage won't be a problem, as some floating plants will dull down the light some what, and lots of plants will take care of the rest, I have had a lot of questions and I apprecaite ever bit of advice given thank you all, 

Once again sorry for the rambling,

Any opinions would be appreciated

Ghosty


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## Ghosty (16 Mar 2015)

Bump sorry Ian I may not have been clear enough, I have no intentions of repairing or changing bulb length at this point I'm replacing the system for one of witch im not limted on bulbs, im purchasing a Hagen glot5ho, and will use the ge longlast t5" it's cost effective in the long run,mso it's just a case of a retro fit


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## Andy Thurston (16 Mar 2015)

I wouldnt fit the hagen ballast under the hood the water will damage it as described by ian in his post


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## Ghosty (16 Mar 2015)

the Hagen ballast is water tight, from what I read of their website and pdf, and I have used there t8 ballasts in my vavarium and there completely sealed,

I will look into this further but as its a sealed unit I am sure it's up for the purpose,for under canopy installation
If anyone has any direct experiance with this system please share your view


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## Andy Thurston (16 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> the Hagen ballast is water tight, from what I read of their website and pdf, and I have used there t8 ballasts in my vavarium and there completely sealed,
> 
> I will look into this further but as its a sealed unit I am sure it's up for the purpose,for under canopy installation
> If anyone has any direct experiance with this system please share your view


thats not how I read it on their website it says remote balast with waterproof end caps
https://ca-en.hagen.com/Aquatic/Lighting/DIY-Lighting-Systems/A1558


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## Ghosty (16 Mar 2015)

Fair enough

wouldn't be hard to place a bead of silicon round any seal of the ballast,

Wallah water 'tight'

It's an electric ballast with a moulded plastic housing,

But then there is the option of under cabinet instilation, but that means wires everywhere, so that's not going to happen, making that ballast housing water tight is easy enough., I'm abit old with wire, have enough of them round my house as it is, lol

Everything can be adapted for a differant purpose


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## EnderUK (16 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> Fair enough
> 
> wouldn't be hard to place a bead of silicon round any seal of the ballast,
> 
> ...



Those look like cooling vents on top? Probably don't want to seal them up if they are. The unit doesn't look bad, why don't you just stick it on top of the hood?


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## Ghosty (16 Mar 2015)

Hello Ender,
That is a very good idea tbh makes the whole process easier,
As for whether there vents it didn't cross my mind that they were when I had it in my hands today, i. At lfs tomorrow trading in some fish for more plants and gravel, so will check if it is and post up my findings will also post a pic, once mine arrives to double clarify, I suppose the ballast on top of the tank will be the better option
I just like the idea of a vast market of t5 plus the option of going high output when and if I decide to go high tech. 
Plus the ge bulbs look awesome for 2 quid


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## ian_m (17 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> 1.03 cm to long for the Ge, surley I can retro fit the juwel lighting system


No 10cm too short.
T5 standard is 46" Juwel T5 is 42" (4" = 10cm) so doubt you would fit T5 standard tubes even with serious mods.

I have a picture somewhere my mate bought a tank where someone had retrofitted a bigger T8 tube that poked out the sides of the tank hood. Looked c**p. He changed to a smaller length T8 tube, that only covered about 2/3rds tank width, ran for years, but not much plant activity as very low light. In the end changed to a T5 tube, but Juwel length so fully covered tank width.

This is the reason Juwel produced these lengths so that you can fully light useful tanks sizes.

This is the end of the Juwel 240 light unit, I can't see how you are going the extra 5cm of the standard T5 tubes ?



 



Ghosty said:


> an adhesive that bonds and melts plastic to plastic


I did, I used a super duper commercial high temperature hot glue, we use at work, that did melt into the Juwel plastic, but over time it or Juwel plastic cracked and let water in, when used on the under (wet) side. Was absolutely fine when used on top side that is not exposed to water, lasted years...however didn't last long as the replacement lamp holders I used (Ebay) never sealed properly, as I said, as the silicone does not bond to the plastic, eventually water getting in at lamp fixings. The Juwel lamp holders use a silicone gasket to seal against the plastic. There are numerous threads (of failure) where people have bought failed Juwel light units from Ebay, and tried and failed to fit T5 (Juwel length of course) lights. Water eventually gets the better of them, as it did for me, the moment you touch or modify "anything" on the Juwel wet side.


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## Ghosty (17 Mar 2015)

Hey Ian

Lol how I missed that I have no idea, but hang on
The tank is 1210mm/121cm/47.6 inches
The ge bulb is 1149mm/114.9cm/45.2inches
So I fact I have 610mm/6.1cm/2.4inches end to fit end caps, so it should actually be a nice fit
Just means my bulb mounting will have to be altered
Images that I buy the ballasts and bulb get it deleivery and find the bulbs to leave no lol, that would suck


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## ian_m (17 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> The tank is 121cm, 47.6 inches


This is the external measurement. The internal will be probably 3cm shorter, I doubt you will have room for 45.2" tube and suitable end caps.

If you read the Acardia T5 controller instructions it states place the lamp holders at L+35mm, so they need to be fixed at 114.9 + 3.5 -> 118.4cm. Internal tank width is probably 118cm, so a tight or no fit....

Unfortunately you will need to try. Remember tubes are glass and don't take kindly to being forced into too smaller holes.

Personally, I would just buy the proper Juwel length tubes (and light fitting), the tubes last years (at least the Arcadia ones do). That's at least what I did after my T8/T5 light playing and failing.


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## Ghosty (17 Mar 2015)

Even if the tank is 3cm of a 121 guideline measurement,, 
Even if that is the case, the bulb is 114cm long 1149mm, plus I'm installing it into the canopy, so it is a good fit, I have taken into consideration in accurate measurements and also, the fact that the juwel canopy is 2cm bigger every side, so it's not like I'm fitting IT into a tank of 118cm im fitting it into a canopy that is slightly bigger

Thank you for the concern though but I am happy in the fact that it will fit,


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## ian_m (17 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> Thank you for the concern though but I am happy in the fact that it will fit,
> Ghosty,


Let us know how you get on then...and I don't want to see holes drilled in the side of the tank as your tubes are too long


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## Ghosty (17 Mar 2015)

Lol

will post up the pics Asoon as everything arrives, got my mud soaking, my clay I'm struggling to get, lights, power head, plants, filter bags all being ordered tonight, I'm collecting the tank tonight, Asoon as I got it il start a journal,

I can I when myself wacking out my drill after being vexed cause the bulb to long lol, Or some dodgy invention


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## ian_m (17 Mar 2015)

These will drill through glass if you need to extend outside the tank....
http://www.365drills.com/order.htm


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## Ghosty (18 Mar 2015)

Ha, 

Would be funny to see someone with bulbs sticking out the side of a tank 

Got the tank today so starting a journal now, siCheers for the help Ian, Ender and big clown, hope to see you in the journal

Cheers

Ghosty


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## ian_m (18 Mar 2015)

Ghosty said:


> Would be funny to see someone with bulbs sticking out the side of a tank


That was exactly my mate had when he bought his tank 2nd hand years ago. Ends of tubes poking out coated in tape...nice...


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