# T5 Replacement LED Tubes



## REDSTEVEO (7 May 2015)

Hi all,

Anyone know which one of our sponsors sells the LED tube that slots straight in to the existing T5 Light Unit?

Thanks,

Steve


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## tim (8 May 2015)

http://www.aquariumgardens.co.uk/aquatlantis-easy-led-895---6800k-1296-p.asp


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## ian_m (8 May 2015)

Also

http://www.allpondsolutions.co.uk/aquarium/aquarium-lighting/aquatlantis-led-lighting/


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## Worshiper (8 May 2015)

I echo the previous comments! I just bought one of these and plants seem to be doing much better. All of them are pearling but I am not sure if pearling is a sign of good health although they haven't done this before on T8 Sun glo.

The light is equivalent to 2 T5HOs as per their ad. I have contacted them for PAR readings and will put them here as soon as I get them.


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## Edvet (8 May 2015)

I saw a SERA add which shows them.


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## REDSTEVEO (8 May 2015)

Worshiper said:


> I echo the previous comments! I just bought one of these and plants seem to be doing much better. All of them are pearling but I am not sure if pearling is a sign of good health although they haven't done this before on T8 Sun glo.
> 
> The light is equivalent to 2 T5HOs as per their ad. I have contacted them for PAR readings and will put them here as soon as I get them.



Cheers,

Worshipper, when you say you just bought one of these, which one are you referring to, any pictures possibly?

Steve


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## REDSTEVEO (8 May 2015)

WOW They aint cheap these lights, £161 to £224 depending on which one you go for!



Steve


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## REDSTEVEO (8 May 2015)

Saw this on tinternet but not sure.

http://www.ledheads.co.uk/led-tubes/t5-1200mm-18w-cool-white-led-tube-light.html

Steve


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## ian_m (8 May 2015)

REDSTEVEO said:


> Sw this on tinternet but not sure.
> 
> http://www.ledheads.co.uk/led-tubes/t5-1200mm-18w-cool-white-led-tube-light.html
> 
> Steve


Next move on...cheap, china and decent light output are words not found together.

1. They state they are T8 replacements so expect low light. Bad start.
2. They don't state lumens. 2nd bad start.
3. Do use 3014LED, not a brilliant choice, generally 50-60lm/W (unless Cree or Lumileds etc but not at that price). So for 900mm tube @ 14W @ 60lm/w -> 840lumens. A 900mm T8 tube is 850lumens. So surprise surprise the same.
4. The 900mm Aquatlantis LED is 3824lumens. No competition....


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## Worshiper (8 May 2015)

REDSTEVEO said:


> Cheers,
> Worshipper, when you say you just bought one of these, which one are you referring to, any pictures possibly?
> Steve




I got something better than pics for you 

A video:


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## Tim Harrison (8 May 2015)

This is the cheapest I could find, there is a controller too. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aquatlantis-Easy-LED-freshwater-438/dp/B00FKWT522/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1431098916&sr=8-2&keywords=Aquatlantis Easy LED


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## REDSTEVEO (8 May 2015)

Troi said:


> This is the cheapest I could find, there is a controller too. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aquatlantis-Easy-LED-freshwater-438/dp/B00FKWT522/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1431098916&sr=8-2&keywords=Aquatlantis Easy LED



Thanks Troi, the 1200mm version is £224.49 on the Aquatlantis website and only £143.93 plus £10.60 delivery on Amazon. The dimmer control unit on Aquatlantis website is £59.99 and only £41.84 on Amazon plus £10.60 delivery on Amazon, so quite a saving. I wonder why that is?

The T5 tubes I have got are 1149mm which is an odd size so I am not sure which size LED I would need.

Steve


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## REDSTEVEO (8 May 2015)

Worshiper said:


> I got something better than pics for you
> 
> A video:




Great Video Worshipper thanks, any pictures of your tank with these lights working?

Cheers,

Steve


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## REDSTEVEO (8 May 2015)

ian_m said:


> Next move on...cheap, china and decent light output are words not found together.
> 
> 1. They state they are T8 replacements so expect low light. Bad start.
> 2. They don't state lumens. 2nd bad start.
> ...



Hi Ian, yeah I thought as much, if it sounds too good to be true it probably is.

Steve


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## daizeUK (9 May 2015)

Oh I like the look of these AquaAtlantis units!

I've been looking at upgrading my old T8 Juwel Lido unit to the new model Juwel High-lite T5's.  The AquaAtlantis LED works out about the same price as the Juwel High-lite unit and would give about the same amount of light.

Am I right in thinking that the AquaAtlantis LED is not as high-power as a TMC Gro-beam?  I'm planning to go low-tech dirted so I think the Gro-beam would be too strong but this could be perfect.


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## ian_m (9 May 2015)

daizeUK said:


> The AquaAtlantis LED works out about the same price as the Juwel High-lite unit and would give about the same amount of light.


No it doesn't you will need two AquaAtlantis units to match the Juwel T5HO lumen output.


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## daizeUK (9 May 2015)

ian_m said:


> No it doesn't you will need two AquaAtlantis units to match the Juwel T5HO lumen output.



Are you sure?  The AllPondSolutions blurb says that "Using one Easy LED Universal system is the equivalent of using two T5 luminaires on your fish tank."  Worshiper above also mentioned it is equivalent to two T5HO's.

The 438mm length is rated at 1738 lumens but I don't know how that compares to T5


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## naughtymoose (9 May 2015)

Apparently (I was told by a Fluval employee) Fluval are in the process of making LED tubes for their tanks.


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## Vinkenoog1977 (9 May 2015)

daizeUK said:


> Are you sure?  The AllPondSolutions blurb says that "Using one Easy LED Universal system is the equivalent of using two T5 luminaires on your fish tank."  Worshiper above also mentioned it is equivalent to two T5HO's.
> 
> The 438mm length is rated at 1738 lumens but I don't know how that compares to T5


The Juwel Daylight tubes are 1200 lumen each.


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## Rahms (9 May 2015)

I'm sure I've read at least 100 times on here that lumens are not a good measure of PAR


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## parotet (9 May 2015)

Each time there is a thread about LED lights the conclusion is more or less the same: good and reliable LED units are expensive. Other combinations are really difficult to find (cheap+good+non Chinese+high output, etc). IME most LED units are really difficult to justify in terms of economic saving if you are already using a T5 luminaire... For example a cheap but reasonable T5 2x24w for a 60 cm tank can be purchased by 70-100 euros. It's LED equivalent begins at 200 euros (not to mention options like ADA, Giesemann, Arcadia, Kesil, etc that can easily cost 2-3x)
So you still have around 100 euros plus the cost of the LED unit to spend on electricity bills.
But I admit this rational point of view can change suddenly when you are at the LFS looking these cool lights... 

Jordi


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## Rahms (9 May 2015)

parotet said:


> Each time there is a thread about LED lights the conclusion is more or less the same: good and reliable LED units are expensive. Other combinations are really difficult to find (cheap+good+non Chinese+high output, etc). IME most LED units are really difficult to justify in terms of economic saving if you are already using a T5 luminaire... For example a cheap but reasonable T5 2x24w for a 60 cm tank can be purchased by 70-100 euros. It's LED equivalent begins at 200 euros (not to mention options like ADA, Giesemann, Arcadia, Kesil, etc that can easily cost 2-3x)
> So you still have around 100 euros plus the cost of the LED unit to spend on electricity bills.
> But I admit this rational point of view can change suddenly when you are at the LFS looking these cool lights...
> 
> Jordi



agreed! I'm definitely saving money using my £60 UP aqua unit.  But in the most obvious way possible: I'm getting less light


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## REDSTEVEO (9 May 2015)

Personally I have never bothered looking at PAR or Lumens, I look at the Kelvin rating 5000 to 7500 fine for plants, 10,000 to 12,000 kelvin for marine tanks and corals.

Job's a goodun.

Steve


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## daizeUK (9 May 2015)

I've only ever used T8's so I'm used to thinking in terms of WPG.  Currently I have 2x 15W over a 31 USG tank so I know I have 1 WPG.  My aim is to upgrade to 2 WPG.  I could consider buying T5HO's and immediately recognise that 2x 24W T5HO would give me 1.5WPG.  It's a simplified view but at least I can understand this.

My problem is with LED's where thinking in terms of WPG doesn't help.  I'm struggling to visualise how each LED unit fits in with the scale that I understand.  If I buy too strong a light I could end up in unwanted high light territory while too weak a light might not be worth the upgrade.  PAR isn't always available so how do I tell?


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## Rahms (9 May 2015)

daizeUK said:


> I've only ever used T8's so I'm used to thinking in terms of WPG.  Currently I have 2x 15W over a 31 USG tank so I know I have 1 WPG.  My aim is to upgrade to 2 WPG.  I could consider buying T5HO's and immediately recognise that 2x 24W T5HO would give me 1.5WPG.  It's a simplified view but at least I can understand this.



Yes its a _very_ over-simplified view. T5HO is more efficient than T8. 1WPG of T5HO is much more than 1WPG of T8.



daizeUK said:


> PAR isn't always available so how do I tell?



You find PAR values, wait until you see someone elses results, or take the leap.  The leap isn't really much of a risk with the big expensive units (most will release PAR values anyways), its just the cheap ones where you can end up gutted


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## daizeUK (9 May 2015)

Rahms said:


> Yes its a _very_ over-simplified view. T5HO is more efficient than T8. 1WPG of T5HO is much more than 1WPG of T8.



Thanks.  I need to get WPG out of my head completely then


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## Worshiper (9 May 2015)

daizeUK said:


> Are you sure?  The AllPondSolutions blurb says that "Using one Easy LED Universal system is the equivalent of using two T5 luminaires on your fish tank."  Worshiper above also mentioned it is equivalent to two T5HO's.
> 
> The 438mm length is rated at 1738 lumens but I don't know how that compares to T5



Got a reply from Aqualantis team when I queried the PAR readings.

"For the Easyled marine Blue, the PAR at 0,4m (400-700nm) is 13,11 W/m2."

Not really sure what it means though

I have queried if there are any differences in the white tropical one. I will add more on the thread when i get them from the team.


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## Rahms (9 May 2015)

Worshiper said:


> "For the Easyled marine Blue, the PAR at 0,4m (400-700nm) is 13,11 W/m2."



I'm not particularly familiar with this so maybe wait for someone better informed to confirm or correct, but if you look at the wikipedia article for PAR there's a little conversion table in "Units." 3rd column, seems to indicate a factor of about 5 to convert to umol per m2 per s, which is what people usually use.  50+ at substrate is considered enough to grow everything quite well I believe


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## parotet (10 May 2015)

daizeUK said:


> PAR isn't always available so how do I tell?


Just make sure you buy high quality LED and also make sure they are dimmeable

Jordi


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## REDSTEVEO (10 May 2015)

I am informed that the price on the Aquatlantis site includes the end caps and the extendable brackets plus postage etc where as that on Amazon is just the light not including packaging and posting. The only option for dimming is to buy the additional controller which dims the light for an hour when it first comes on (sunrise) and an hour before it goes off (sunset).

Cheers,

Steve


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## REDSTEVEO (11 May 2015)

Hi All,

I have just contacted All Pond Solutions asking for some more information on the specs and pricing for the Easy LED 1200mm T5 replacements and sent some pictures of my current lighting sytem as below.

These are the Eheim Light fittings which take 2 x 54 Watt T5 Tubes. At the moment I have got a combination of Eheim and Guisemann tubes in each fitting. The reason the reflectors are upturned are because at the moment there is too much light when all four are on at the same time, so I have turned the reflectors up and put them on different times with a timer switch which gives a slighly more low tech appearance.

The reason I am looking at LED's is because the lighting from the tubes I am using at the moment is slightly too yellow for me and gives the water a slight colour of "wee" appearance.






The length between the glass braces is 127cm and the height clearance under the glass covers is only 5.5cm so I need to make sure the Aquatlantis Easy LED 1200mm will fit under the covers.








All thoughts comments welcome.

Cheers,

Steve


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## Rahms (11 May 2015)

if its too yellow, just get a more white bulb? look in the "cheap tubes" sticky in this forum for some ideas


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## REDSTEVEO (11 May 2015)

Hi Rahms, its not just the 'yellow' I like the efficiency of LED's and the ripple effect you get with this kind of light also. Ultimately though I suppose it is how the plants react to LED light and whether there is a marked difference or not.

Steve.


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## ian_m (11 May 2015)

REDSTEVEO said:


> Ultimately though I suppose it is how the plants react to LED light and whether there is a marked difference or not.


Light is light. Plants respond and grow in light, it doesn't matter if it comes from  T5 HO tubes or expensive LED's. Choose tubes and/or LED's that makes your plants "look good".


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## REDSTEVEO (11 May 2015)

ian_m said:


> Light is light. Plants respond and grow in light, it doesn't matter if it comes from  T5 HO tubes or expensive LED's. Choose tubes and/or LED's that makes your plants "look good".



I agree, I also like the option of being able to allow the lights to come on and go off slowly - sunrise and sunset effect.

Steve


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## REDSTEVEO (14 May 2015)

All Pond Solutions got back to me and said they have no idea how the guy on Amazon can be selling them so cheaply, no profit whatsoever.

On the plus side the depth of these Aquatlantis LED's are only 5cm which means they would fit under the glass lids okay. Still not sure about the £224.00 though

Steve


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## Worshiper (14 May 2015)

REDSTEVEO said:


> All Pond Solutions got back to me and said they have no idea how the guy on Amazon can be selling them so cheaply, no profit whatsoever.
> 
> On the plus side the depth of these Aquatlantis LED's are only 5cm which means they would fit under the glass lids okay. Still not sure about the £224.00 though
> 
> Steve


No idea myself  I too was surprised when I ordered it from Amazon.
They are located in Germany. So it may be profitable for them due to the purchasing power of the pound.


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## daizeUK (4 Jun 2015)

Worshiper said:


> Got a reply from Aqualantis team when I queried the PAR readings.
> 
> "For the Easyled marine Blue, the PAR at 0,4m (400-700nm) is 13,11 W/m2."
> 
> ...



Did you ever get a PAR reading for the tropical version?

I'm struggling to make sense of these numbers but I think it's saying the PAR at a depth of 40cm (16 inches) is 13.11 W/m2, which converts to about 60 PAR as we recognise it?


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## Worshiper (5 Jun 2015)

No DaiseUK. they haven't responded to my query!  however, the plants have been pearling and seem to be doing well now so I guess that the light is doing what it needs to. 

Also worth noting that my plants have low light requirements (E tenellus parvulus and P. Helferi). not sure what plants you are trying to grow.


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## Neo22 (26 Oct 2015)

Ive just ordered some of these. Cheapest place I found was http://www.aquaristikshop.com/aquaristic/sera-LED-X-Change-Tube-cool-daylight/388110/#

They work out quite a bit cheaper than pond solutions. I order 2 x blue 745mm tubes and a double controller which came in at £229 all in with p&p compared to £322 from pond solutions. I've used the above shop before in the past as well and they have always been reliable.


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