• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

Ice cap T5 bulbs

G

gogol

Anyone here has any experience with Ice Cap bulbs ? Are they any good and worth saving the $5 over ATI bulbs. I was looking to get 2 Actinic Blue and 2 Actinic Blue Plus. Does Ice cap have any equivalents to them ?

My stock T5 bulbs from the fixture seems to be dying and I see some algae outbreak. I am getting an octopus 1000 skimmer (my first skimmer), which I hope will improve penetration and stem the rot till I come to a decision regarding the replacement bulbs. My fixture is 36" 4XT5 (Only Actinic for now)+ 1X250 MH.

Note: For all of you who are wondering how I managed to burn my T5 before my MH, the answer is that I was really afraid two turn on the MH in the summer heat .. [I KNOW I am an idiot]. So I only used the actinics and the corals didnt seem to mind much.
 
Y

ynotme4886

I've seen the icecap t-5 bulbs and they look great.....will definitely use them when its time to replace my current bulbs.

I use their 20k 150w halide bulbs and love them.

They do have equivalent bulbs to the ATI's but I forget the names of them all. I did see them all the last time I was at Icecap and they looked really good.

I am local to Icecap so picking stuff up from them is easy....I dont have to pay shipping from a vendor and Chris is a great person to deal with.

I give em two thumbs up :D
 
V

vangvace

Icecap's bulbs are made by UVL, but the big difference is that the icecap bulbs are supposed to be beefed up for over driving them with their ballasts.

Icecap to UVL btw...
Reefcrest = Aquasun

Midwater = Actinic White

Deepwater = 75/25

Twilight = 454
 
G

gogol

Vangvace, what about this bulb

Actintic has a 420nm peak and will appear a bright blue with an IceCap ballast. It is made to maximize coral flourescence and in general will really make livestock colors pop
Click to expand...

Also I do not have Ice Cap ballasts, should I stick to ATI instead ?
 
H

Hirobo

I have geismann and the uvl's with out the internal reflector i like the uvl's with out the built in reflector
 
V

vangvace

You should be fine running the Icecap bulbs. I don't have any personnel experience with the bulbs though if you are using them for mainly actinic reasons I would consider running

Blue+
Deepwater or midwater (Deepwater has more blue to it of the two but both will pop colors the actinics miss)
Blue+
Blue+ or fielders choice.

This will give you the blue support you are looking for when the halides are on while giving you a nice color when it's off.
 
G

gogol

Blue+
Deepwater or midwater (Deepwater has more blue to it of the two but both will pop colors the actinics miss)
Blue+
Blue+ or fielders choice.
Click to expand...

Since IceCap doesnt have a Blue+ are you suggesting I run:

Ice Cap Actinic (420 nm)
DeepWater
Deepwater
Ice Cap Actinic

Also, I have only 2 switches in my fixture. One controls all 4 X T5s and the other controls 1 X Halide. There are 2 T5 holders on either side of the halide with the ability to house 2 T5s each.
 
V

vangvace

Nah, I was actually talking about running the ATI Blue+ bulbs. The PAR and color are really tough to beat.

I would swap out a deepwater for a twilight (460nm) on your all Icecap setup and run with either 2 Actinic (420nm) or 2 Twilights. Without having seen the bulbs I'm not sure which pair I would go with though.

Are you going for something like this picture with your halides off color wise?
FTS-Nov29-08.jpg
 
G

gogol

Vangvace,

That is precisely the colour I would like when MH is off. So if I go with an all ATI setup:

Blue+
Blue+
?
Blue+

Now do I use the Aquablue Special or Korallen Zucht Fiji Purple in the place of '?'
 
V

vangvace

Ric, No way that's my tank. There's no algae in it. :)

That tank's light setup is:
2 x 24W Blue Plus T5 HO Fluorescent by ATI
1 x 24W Super Actinic T5 HO Fluorescent by UV Lighting
1 x 24W Fiji Purple T5 HO Fluorescent by Korallen Zucht

You can swap out the Super actinic and Fiji Purple with Icecap's twilight and deepwater bulbs respectfully with the same effect. 

Edit: If you're going to go with 3 Blue+ I would go with either the KZ Fiji Purple, Icecap deepwater or UVL 75.25 as the fourth bulb.
 
G

gogol

I think I would go with PA. Also, how broad are Ice Cap clip on reflectors? I need to fit two of them in a 2-inch space would that fit?
 
Y

ynotme4886

I've use reefgeek for my bulbs....I know they are not a sponsor but the way they pack their bulbs for shipping, a gorilla or a ups guy could jump on them and they wouldnt break.

They have great bulb packaging
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top