LIGHTING QUESTION T12 or T8 better?
- Thread starter slowlyburn
- Start date
T5 might be better. T12's are quite thick and you can get more wattage for the amount of space available when you use T5's. I dont know much about T8's, sorry.
T8s are more efficient, use less wattage to get pretty much the same amount of lumens as a T12. Basically you can get the same appearance of light amount from a T8 as a T12 but just using less watts with the T8. Between the two go with the T8 if your balast are designed for them. If your going into T5 HO, your getting into something different. They do also have T5 regular output. The T# represents the thickness of the tube, the smaller the number the thinner the tube, can't remember the exact specs.
Id go with T8's for various obvious reasons that ideal concepts stated. You can get the same brightness with less wattage and space. the T5HO put out a lot of heat, and they use a lot more wattage.
With the right reflectors T5's have less of a diameter, therefore put more light back into the tank instead of getting it scattered elsewhere.
t5HO are the best flouresent lights, they put out more light per watt than MH ,iirc, however need a very good indiviual parabolic reflector to utilize it all. the whole reason that t8 bulbs are more efficient than t12(they produce about the same amount of light) is that the t8 bulb is thinner so less of the light it produces gets bounced back onto the bulb(called restrike) a good reflector cuts down on restrike drastically but it is very hard to find a good parabolic reflector for a t8 or t12, almost all flouresent reflectors made for aquariums are designed for t5 or pc bulbs.