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Lighting upgrade for Vision 180

ian_m

ian_m

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I have run for two years an algae free (apart from odd BBA) high tetch CO2 added Juwel Vision 180 tank fitted with Arcadia T8 tubes (2 x 25W).

Looking to add more light as definitely having difficulties growing some "higher tech" plants at substrate level. Its not CO2 or ferts or flow issue as same plants thrive & pearl if hung a couple of inches below the lights (even less flow here than at substrate level), take them lower and growth slows and plants eventually "stop" and die. Bring up and spring back to growth again.

Was there not a journal somewhere where someone added two extra T5 tubes to his Juwel Vision 180 T8 hood ?

Anyone tried two fitting TMC Grobeam 600's to the tank lids ? (would they fit, they are quite small ?).

Should I just bite the bullet and buy replacement Juwel T5 lighting unit (2 x 35W) ? (annoyed as just replaced the T8 tubes early Dec).

Has to be WAF friendly (wife acceptance factor) wire, cables, light gaps etc hanging out of the tank is not going to be allowed. (I have enough fuss of a having a red fire extinguisher not matching any other colours in the lounge).
 
I fitted two t5 to my vision 260, using arcadia set. Drill 4 holes in the flaps and off you go.
 
darren636 said:
I fitted two t5 to my vision 260, using arcadia set. Drill 4 holes in the flaps and off you go.
Click to expand...
This is my current option as not too expensive for T5 starter unit and 2 T5 tubes and will allow me to get some use out of my new T8 tubes.
 
darren636 said:
I fitted two t5 to my vision 260, using arcadia set. Drill 4 holes in the flaps and off you go
Click to expand...
This is my current option as a T5 starter unit and 2 T5 tubes won't break the bank and at least enables me to get some use out of my new T8 tubes.
 
Bit the bullet and did it properly. Got a Vision 180 T5 lighting unit from Ebay for £94.
 
BigDaddy said:
I think its so expensive what they charge for a basic light unit
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Not really in the end. A quality twin T5 tube ballast (Arcadia) with water proof end caps is £40. Quality Juwel length tubes are £15 each, so up to £70 before you have even contemplated how you are going to mount it "nicely" on you tank.

With Juwel solution.
1. Order from Ebay.
2. Arrives a day or two later.
3. Remove T8 light unit.
4. Put in T5 unit.
5. Watch plants pearl like crazy....

 
BigDaddy said:
Seal it back up and leaves you £78 to buy some bulbs
Click to expand...
Oh I wish, you have obviously never tried repairing and resealing a Juwel light unit. Repairing was easy...resealing was not.

Been there done, that 3 times. Not as easy as you make out to keep it reliable. I have repaired 3 off units in last 10 years....
Juwel Rio 300(or 240) Light fault - replacing 2x T8 to 2x T5HO

Repeating the main points:

- You have to open both ends of Juwel unit to get access to all the end cap wiring if changing to a low cost ballast. Juwel run their lamps in series with electronic start, cheap ballast run tubes in parallel with heater start, completely different wiring. The Juwel T8 fittings have only one wire connected (as they use electronic start, rather than heater start), so you can't even use their T8 fittings with the above ballast.
- Resealing the unit to keep water 100% out then becomes impossible.
- The T5 (and T8) fittings are incompatible with the cut outs Juwel use for their T8 holder, ie you need to bolt on T5 fitting where Juwel have cut holes. Resealing the unit to keep water 100% out then becomes impossible.
- I have repaired 3 Juwel units now, the only successful one was where I cut a an access hole from the top (to let moisture out), thus repair was away from water/moisture, this lasted 7 years.
- All the others, requiring any breach/making of seal above the water eventually leaked. Don't say use more silicone as it doesn't stick the PP plastic used in Juwel units and eventually comes loose and/or lets water by.
- I bolted plastic plates to hold the tube holders bonded with silicone, which leaked, see above. The stainless steel bolts I use rusted and failed (should have use marine stainless in tank apparently) and the replacement nylon screws I used were attacked by the UV from the plant light...
- Best glue was a plastic hot glue that melted the Juwel plastic, but eventually slightly cracked when on under side of unit and let water in.
 
I've repaired several of these and never had one fail for any of my Vision 180's but I strip off the whole length of the light (lid side) as one section, replace any parts and reseal again with clear silicone

Same as this
attachment.php
 
When I accessed the lighting units via the top they re-sealed/re-glued OK, 7 years before starter died and that wasn't moisture that killed it, old age I assume. It was just the ones I repaired that were accessed from the bottom or via the side I had the sealing issues. Being an engineer, one of them repairs I even potted the starter (Juwel one) in polyurethane to keep moisture out, but water got in via the wires and killed the starter. Ho hum.

Anyway T5 unit works fine. Like the new Juwel reflectors, using reflective film, easy peasy to clean, remove film, wash in sink, put back.
86000.png
 
I've hopefully got another coming broken unit coming in a few days and I intend to strip that one out and replace it with LED tubes and a dimmer/variable unit instead of the standard ballast and fluorescent tubes
 
BigDaddy said:
I've hopefully got another coming broken unit coming in a few days and I intend to strip that one out and replace it with LED tubes and a dimmer/variable unit instead of the standard ballast and fluorescent tubes
Click to expand...
Careful most of the LED's T8 & T5 tubes I have seen are not as bright as their fluorescent equivalents, though do consume less power and act as serious wallet width reducers :oops:

This was one option I looked at, but in the end I wanted more light of a known stated lumens (742mm T5 @ 920lumens for 35Watts) rather than "our LED is equivalent to a tube", which from all the ones I have seen are clearly not. My LFS had a Rio 300 with one 2 off T5 and 2 off LED T8, was really obvious which were LED and which were tube. Too dark in my opinion for £200 of LED strip :eek:

Actually really obvious just looking at the figures, Arcadia LED for Rio 300 is equivalent to 35W T8, but standard T5 is 54W and high output, so bound to be considerably brighter.
 
This conversion is going to eventually be used a very sparsely if at all planted tank with various tree roots and leaf litter that will have a natural tea coloured water so the need for super bright LED's isn't too much of an issue as its not the look I'm after

But I understand what you're saying with fluoro tubes plus I won't be spending £200 on lights, the tank and unit only cost £95 due to damaged light unit. This is one major plus to the Juwel light issues that people are put off by the price of a new unit or trying to fix it so you can pick up cheap tanks
 
BigDaddy said:
This is one major plus to the Juwel light issues that people are put off by the price of a new unit
Click to expand...
There is an broken Vision 180 T8 unit on Ebay for 99p as well as a broken T5 unit for £2.30 !!. This is where one of my replacements came from, cost me nothing as when I received it, it had been "butchered" in a botched attempt to repair it, not mentioned in advert so got full refund. This was the one I tried to convert to T5 tubes.
 
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