100 watts of lighting now!!! Very Nice

I have just recently re-vamped my lighting in my JBJ Nano to accept 100 watts of pc and t5 lighting....It now covers a more coomplete area of the stock hood, and with a new reflector, it lights much much better!!! I keep it open about 1.5" for circulation and have a small 6-7" clamp type walmart fan blowing on it to keep the temp in line...runs about 78 degrees and my 3 acro frags absolutely love the light!!!no warping, no melting, just lots of light!!! The new reflector is a Hamilton hammer tone reflector (usually used with halides) and it spreads the light real well...A nice inexpensive Home Depot bought electronic ballast and 2 10w t-5's help light this monster. The bulbs are coralife (energysavers) 28w 10,000k and an 03 actinic, the stock 24 watt JBJ 50/50 bulb, 1 10,000k Helios t-5, and finally 1 03 actinic Helios t-5...I glued the front lid shut so there are no issues with it in the future....Really lights up nice

here it is lit up on my desk before installation...Notice the thing I made sure to do that most miss.....the bulbs run length wise (front to rear) instead of width wise (side to side) no dead spots in the tank now...everything in the tank seems to like the lighting and the acro are really extending well...I have also noticed substantial growth in the base of my pagoda cup coral....

here is a pic of the tank actually lit

nice.. what specs on that home depot ballast for the t5s? i could use some actinic over my 6 but the hoods too small for pcs..

yowza

here is the actual ballast i used

cool, let me see the picture of where you placed the fans.

no fans are mounted into the hood....i have a walmart clamp fan pointed at the front ans that is all i need to keep it cool...

oh yeah.

this thing rocks with all of the extra lighting...the corals all seem to be very happy...i would like to move a few pieces into my 50gallon and add a black tubestrea (sunburst coral) to compliment the orange one...

Best nano-cube light mod, EVAR!

You could probly fit in a few more of those T-5s.

Can you post a link to the bulbs. They don`t come up in my searches.

actually, i could pull out the t-5's and put in another 56 watts of pc's (2x28w) or i could go one up on that and put in 5 32w pc's!!! for an astounding 160w of light for about 7.5 gallons of h2o, or averaging 21.33 watts per gallon!!!! imagine the stonies you could grow!!! as far as a link...i will have to get you the info tomorrow... i too can't locate anything online, and i threw out the packaging, but many of my lfs have them, so i will post the info tomorrow...someone else makes them, i know that, i am just not sure who???they are cool though, because you can daisy chain them together with a pigtail cable...they just link like christmas lights.

What is the heat output like on those t5s? I would imagine they would be alot cooler compared the the hot PCs you have next to em.

Why not just solely use t5s? I bet you could fit a whole mess of them in there, that way you could really keep hardcore stonies.

i like the output of the pc's better...the t-5's are 11" and are 10w each...so the space they occupy for 2 is equal to 1 pc with more output, on the flipside though, you do notice a difference in the heat...the 03 also brings out tons of color in the corals...i will shoot a shot with just the 1 t-5 actinic and let you decide...

here is a shot with only 1 10w t-5 lighting it...it is a very nice light for only 10 watts!!! also, the info to the maker appears to be the same people behind via aqua stuff...www.commodityaxis.com

Wow, those sunpolyps look pretty rad under that t5 03.

I think I'm going to start playing around with these small t5s.

yeah, and as soon the actinic is on, they start coming out in a big way...i am not sure what the deal is, but most people say they are hard to get to come out, but mine must be happy, because they are out alot...full light, actinic, whenever.

i have had many wuestions about the setup and i can say that i run no splash guard, and no attached fans, and this thing is crankin' as if the corals were under halides...the t-5's have their own internal ballasts and chain together, so there aren't a crap load of cables

I would have thought that a pc and a t5 of the same wattage, the t5 would be better. from what i have read! maybe im wrong though!

from what i have seen so far in my tank, the t-5's at 10w each are putting off almost as much light as the 28w pc's...so you could definately go that route...from what i have heard by asking alot of questions, they don't do as well for growth rate...i think they compliment each other well and i like them both...i just threw them in to try them out...if you are looking for maximum light in a tight space, are great, but that wasn't my concern...what i may do, since i have an extra hood laying around, is get 8 t-5's (80watts worth) and put my hood back the the 80 watts of pc i had it previously setup with, and do a direct comparison...take the pictures, and post a poll...we will see...i am guessing that 80 watts (8 little bulb/ballast combos) will be alot brighter than the pc's, and they will cover more are completely...there are also the heat issues...i noticed the t-5's to touch are much cooler than the pc's, but that is 1 t-5 to a 28w pc..you would need to grab hold of 3 t-5's to do an honest comparison...

I like your parabolic reflector ifynanceu. Good job on the light mod. I hope you get the comparisons of the 8 t-5's up soon, because I want to see them!

My money is on the t5's im pretty sure they will blow the pc's away. but it remains to be seen

it will probably be next month...i have a fishing trip that i am going on next week that is costing me a bit...also, i just got hooked up with another fellow nano'er from nr and we have a mean mod in store for everyone with a jbj nano...will keep all posted as it progresses...should be sweet!!!