The Aquatic Life Hybrid T5HO Hybrid Lighting

What’s going on Reef keepers? Jeff here, with another article to dry your thumbs on. Lighting play a very important role in maintaining a successful reef tank. For years experts have claimed T5 lighting was the best for maintain a proper lighting spectrum which has a huge effect on coral growth. One of the biggest problems with T5 lighting is that it can be not aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The color depends on your flavor of T5 bulbs but for the most part it’s a very flat lighting option.

For the longest time people countered the flat lighting of the T5 with using a hybrid system which included metal halide. The problem with metal halide lighting is that bulbs consume a lot of power and put off a lot of heat.

Over the last few years metal halide’s have started to take a backseat to LEDs. One of the major benefits of LEDs is they use far less power and can achieve the same effect as metal halide’s without the need for changing bulbs. Overall this reduces the cost on the power consumption and of things as well as bulb replacement.

The idea of combining T5 and LEDs is not a new one but there has not been a commercial option to date. There has not been a fixture offering the best LEDs with supplemental T5 lighting on the market. The Aquatic Life Hybrid T5HO with LED mounting system from Aquatic Life changes that.

Aquatic Life Hybrid T5HO 4-Lamp Light Mounting System Video

Premium Aquatics gave me the chance to take a look at Aquaticlife T5HO Hybrid 4-Lamp Mounting System and right out of the box I’m very impressed with what they have accomplished. This saltwater aquarium lighting fixture is going to change the game and I’m going to be trying it out on my 220 gallon reef tank and give it a chance to show me what this light can do. I took a lot of pictures of my corals the day I put the light on to document they growth over the next month or so.

I would imagine that there will be a delay in growth at first but the corals will kick into high gear once they are acclimated to the new lighting. Within the first few days I’m already impressed with the T5/LED combo for the coral coloration alone.

For LED’s I’m trying on the Kessils Tuna Blue 360WE. Which these LEDs will get their own review down the road. The great thing about Kessil’s is they are pretty much dummy proof 🙂 Which is a prefect fit on the Aquatic Life Hybrid T5HO.

If you enjoyed our article or you are new to Mad Hatter’s Reef please take a moment to sign up for our FREE newsletter and like our Facebook page to stay up to date on all things related to saltwater aquariums.

Related Articles: