# ATI dimmable T5's



## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

I did some energy calculations and then some cost different for the initial purchase and decided to get these lights instead of LED's, perhaps later, the LED will surpass T5's but these are really a winning fixture. Warning, they are not cheap.

I am using some on my 70 Gal manzigumi.

It took me awhile to figure the controller, but once I did and got that dialed in good and the bulbs burned in for about 50 hours, this light works like no other I've had. I also did some measurements vs the Tek, and it's basically 25-50% more light. I confirmed it with the PAR meter.

Usually I am highly skeptical of such marketing talk, and rightly so, I will say it's correct in this case. 

So why was I really interested in this fixture? 
1. Reef folks have been hounding me.
2. Is the light that much higher vs the other decent T5 brands?
3. The dimming option.

The dimming option is really cool and ends up costing you much less and is far more natural and you can vary things around a great deal. It has 2 channels, so say you just want 2 or 4 bulbs on initially, and have then come on at say 8 am and then run up to say 50% power at 10am, then from 10am till say 12, have the other bank of 2 or 4 come on and run up from 0-50% in the next 2 hours, then all the lights from 12-2 pm from 50-100%, then from 2 to 4- back down to 50%, and then 4-6pm, down to 0%.

You can split the channels up anyway you chose, but by using only low dimmed light the first and last parts of the light cycle, you can crank up the middle portion, but also still have plenty of time before/after work to see the tank.

I use about 20% less energy using this fixture than the LED option with similar PAR over 10 hours. Peak lighting is about 100 umol higher also.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

Those are pretty slick, do you have to use a dimmable bulb? or will they handle any bulb you can throw at them? 


Now to find a way to convince my wife that my tank needs this. I have been wanting to do day / night cycles for a while.


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## OVT (Nov 29, 2011)

You can do day/night cycles with 2 $8 analog timers. The dimming option is something else.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

Tom, you may want to put in red bold text that these things are *very expensive*. Haha!

In my few years here in TPT, you're the only other person I know that is willing to pay for a very high end light fixture. Most folks around here would even balk at the idea of spending over $100 on lights.


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## Raul-7 (Oct 17, 2003)

Noahma said:


> Those are pretty slick, do you have to use a dimmable bulb? or will they handle any bulb you can throw at them?


It uses any T5HO bulb, but ATI recommends 'burning in' any new bulb for 40-50 [yet they originally said 100 hours] hours before dimming.


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## Hoppy (Dec 24, 2005)

A true planted tank enthusiast is someone who buys a $500 light fixture because it saves on the electric bill:icon_mrgr


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## Craigthor (Sep 9, 2007)

I had looked at these for over m 150 but at needing 2- 3ft fixtures they are out of the budget for now. Just curious what controller you are running with them.

Craig


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

Raul-7 said:


> It uses any T5HO bulb, but ATI recommends 'burning in' any new bulb for 40-50 [yet they originally said 100 hours] hours before dimming.


....and burning in at 100% intensity if I understood them correctly. For folks like me that tend to experiment with different bulbs every now and then, this could possibly be annoying if the dimming function is part of the "cycle".

But that's just a relatively minor trade-off for what the dimmable ballast can help with
- Adjust your lighting intensity without having to raise or lower your fixture. Raising fixtures can cause light spill, and in my case, a noticeable amount of glare. Lowering fixtures will reduce light "spread" / "coverage" -- folks that use quality reflectors know that these reflectors "focus" down the light, and if it's too low, it will only light up a portion of the tank.
- Adjust your lighting intensity while still running the same number of bulbs. Let's you mix and match different high quality T5HO bulbs with different spectrum / colors. Example - run 4 diff bulbs, but reduce the intensity to 50% = equivalent to running a 2 bulb setup, but still have the coverage and desired bulb combination of a 4bulb setup. (This only applies to the few folks that know more than the "oh just get a 6500k and a 10000k" )

Of course, that's just on top of being an ATI fixture -- which the most efficient T5HO fixture available in the market, thanks to active cooling and the best individual reflectors.

Overkill for a planted tank? For most folks, yep :tongue: :hihi: :biggrin:


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

OVT said:


> You can do day/night cycles with 2 $8 analog timers. The dimming option is something else.


Not like these, this is so subtle, it's like the sun itself setting.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Noahma said:


> Those are pretty slick, do you have to use a dimmable bulb? or will they handle any bulb you can throw at them?
> 
> 
> Now to find a way to convince my wife that my tank needs this. I have been wanting to do day / night cycles for a while.


You can use any normal T5 bulb.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

zergling said:


> Tom, you may want to put in red bold text that these things are *very expensive*. Haha!
> 
> In my few years here in TPT, you're the only other person I know that is willing to pay for a very high end light fixture. Most folks around here would even balk at the idea of spending over $100 on lights.


WTF? All you have to to do it look at them ADA lights..........and you get get one for a 2ft region!

When folks start talking that type of $, I have more options and demands.
My tanks are all custom made starfire rimless, same with the stands etc.

The ADA fan boys spend this coin every day.
Overkill? Yep.....same with ADA.........but I get 2x the light and can dimmer it all sorts of ways, no overspill in the house etc......more effective use of the energy since the fixture can be closer to the water and I can simply use the dimmer functions.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Hoppy said:


> A true planted tank enthusiast is someone who buys a $500 light fixture because it saves on the electric bill:icon_mrgr


Initial cost is not as bad as the significant other complaining about the electric bill, I'll get them solar panels up in a year or two.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Craigthor said:


> I had looked at these for over m 150 but at needing 2- 3ft fixtures they are out of the budget for now. Just curious what controller you are running with them.
> 
> Craig


They come with the controller built in and it's user friendly.

ADA grand solar's x3......if that was out of your budget, these are quite cheap.


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## lbacha (Apr 13, 2011)

Dimmable ballasts aren't cheap and hard to come by I'm thinking of getting a ecozone controller for my terrarium which has a dimming ability I've seen a demo and you are right the dawn dusk affect is awesome, no more instant on/off shock of the lights. I like the controller because I can set different settings everyday via the Internet to simulate seasons, as well as dimming the lights for simulated storms I'm going to setup. 

Len


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## Raul-7 (Oct 17, 2003)

lbacha said:


> Dimmable ballasts aren't cheap and hard to come by I'm thinking of getting a ecozone controller for my terrarium which has a dimming ability I've seen a demo and you are right the dawn dusk affect is awesome, no more instant on/off shock of the lights. I like the controller because I can set different settings everyday via the Internet to simulate seasons, as well as dimming the lights for simulated storms I'm going to setup.
> 
> Len


Not really Progressive Reef sells them: http://www.progressivereef.com/proddetail.php?prod=10VDimballast&cat=237 . It's owned by a former moderator here, IIRC.


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## redfishsc (Aug 29, 2010)

Tom, THANKS for posting this!! I've always loved the ATI units even though I've never owned one. I've seen several in person and always loved the build quality.

They have the parabolic reflector as close to perfect as any company possibly can. Looks like the perfect choice for what you're doing. 



Do you suspect bulb life to be any better when running them at a lower wattage, or do you think the dimming is actually hard on the bulb?




plantbrain said:


> I use about 20% less energy using this fixture than the LED option with similar PAR over 10 hours. Peak lighting is about 100 umol higher also.



Just for curiosity I'm wondering what LED option you're referring to. I'm not familiar with any form of light we have **commonly** available to us right now that meets/exceeds the efficiency of the better LED brands (Cree XPG, XML, and Luxeon Rebel ES) which can produce upwards of 130-160 lumens/watt.


Most numbers I see on T5HO put them in the 80-100 lumens/watt range, which is about the same (or higher) than many off-brand and "C-list" brand LEDs produce. 


In any case, with the superiority of the ATI reflectors, I'm not surprised that it's kicking LED arse. It seriously would take an array of top-performing Cree XPG or XML to compare to this cool fixture.


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## zergling (May 16, 2007)

plantbrain said:


> WTF? All you have to to do it look at them ADA lights..........and you get get one for a 2ft region!
> 
> When folks start talking that type of $, I have more options and demands.
> My tanks are all custom made starfire rimless, same with the stands etc.
> ...


Ah yeah good point - IIRC each one of those metal halide pendants are close to $500. At that price, ATI fixtures definitely are better (unless you love the shimmer effect).


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## Storm (Aug 7, 2011)

I just checked and the ATI 3313, which is a 4x54 watt, 48" fixture, is only $549.99. That is dirt cheap for what you are getting. Compare it to 2 ADA grand solar fixtures that are needed to cover a 120P and tell me which one you'd rather buy? I'd love to have the dimming day/night cycles. You could even simulate midday cloud cover for a truly natural ecosystem. Not to mention that with 2 ADA grand Solaris you are running 150 watt MH x2 and 39 watt PC x4... Talk about a power hog! I'd be willing to bet that your average power draw with this fixture is around 100 watts.


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## Noahma (Oct 18, 2009)

OVT said:


> You can do day/night cycles with 2 $8 analog timers. The dimming option is something else.


I am refering to the smooth transition between the day night cycle by having the lights come on dim and intensify from moon light to day light, then from mid day sun back down to moon. I guess I should clarify by saying dawn dusk transition. I have the systems you mentioned setup on my tanks already, and the transition between moon light and full light is abrupt.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

redfishsc said:


> Tom, THANKS for posting this!! I've always loved the ATI units even though I've never owned one. I've seen several in person and always loved the build quality.
> 
> They have the parabolic reflector as close to perfect as any company possibly can. Looks like the perfect choice for what you're doing.
> Do you suspect bulb life to be any better when running them at a lower wattage, or do you think the dimming is actually hard on the bulb?
> ...


I'm not sure how the life of the bulb is influenced with the dimming, as long as I get 1-2 years out of them, I'm good, anything more? That's icing on the cake. I'll run them 5 years till they burn out.

While LED say these high numbers, it's a question over what area they produce this and how far away you are talking about to get that spread and evenness of lighting vs hotspotting.

*That's* ......the trade off.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

zergling said:


> Ah yeah good point - IIRC each one of those metal halide pendants are close to $500. At that price, ATI fixtures definitely are better (unless you love the shimmer effect).


Yep, the shimmer is nice, but......you have to deal with light overspray, not so with ATI, you can lay these bad boys 3-4" off the top and use the dimmer to control the light intensity.

You also do not get a nice cool dimmer controller either with ADA.

This reproduced a VERY natural very smooth sunrise and set set effect and midday exposure.

ADA cannot do that.

Bulb cost are also, well, 10X less also.

Since the lights are 10" or more closer, you get more PAR to the plants or use less energy to achieve the same PAR. I still keep the lights higher..........but in another room, I might change the hood for this reason of overspray.

The dimming effect is awesome, that much I cannot overstate.
I feel like the day length is extended ......almost.

I need to add it to my reef which I tore down for a bit and will reset up again.
Skimming sucks on planted marine systems as I'd predicted......


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Storm said:


> I just checked and the ATI 3313, which is a 4x54 watt, 48" fixture, is only $549.99. That is dirt cheap for what you are getting. Compare it to 2 ADA grand solar fixtures that are needed to cover a 120P and tell me which one you'd rather buy? I'd love to have the dimming day/night cycles. You could even simulate midday cloud cover for a truly natural ecosystem. Not to mention that with 2 ADA grand Solaris you are running 150 watt MH x2 and 39 watt PC x4... Talk about a power hog! I'd be willing to bet that your average power draw with this fixture is around 100 watts.


Well, you can also drop the T5's right on top of the water with good even spread, so you have mor ePAR, or you can dial down the power to say 50% dimmer....and use less energy.

And with 4 bulb color choices, you have more color options.
I like the ADA color bulbs........I have some exact copies on my 180 Gal....and I used the ADA bulbs once to compare.

They do not make the copies any longer though.
So when those bulbs are toast, the ATI will be added to my 180.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Noahma said:


> I am refering to the smooth transition between the day night cycle by having the lights come on dim and intensify from moon light to day light, then from mid day sun back down to moon. I guess I should clarify by saying dawn dusk transition. I have the systems you mentioned setup on my tanks already, and the transition between moon light and full light is abrupt.


Yep, these ATI's are so smooth you'd think it was really a different time outside or something.

Premium Aquatics had the best deals when I bought them and often does in general for lighting I've found, good service etc.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

Raul-7 said:


> Not really Progressive Reef sells them: http://www.progressivereef.com/proddetail.php?prod=10VDimballast&cat=237 . It's owned by a former moderator here, IIRC.


Yep, adding a controller to this, you are set, but good reflectors etc and some other modifications might help more, not sure if the outcome etc at the end of the day retrofitting would be worth it, maybe though.


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## prototyp3 (Dec 5, 2007)

I was considering these lights, but ran into some forum complaints while researching them. Maybe I discounted them too quickly. Seemed to be overseas users having issues, so maybe it was an electrical incompatibility thing.

Is this the Sunpower or the Powermodule fixture? Do the fans run all the time, or will they slow down or turn off when you lower the light intensity?


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## ocellatus (Dec 18, 2011)

Would this fixture be a good choice on a 72x24x24 180g? I'd like to suspend it high enough to get good coverage without a lot of light spill, and dial it down so it doesn't over-par a 24" deep tank.

O


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

prototyp3 said:


> I was considering these lights, but ran into some forum complaints while researching them. Maybe I discounted them too quickly. Seemed to be overseas users having issues, so maybe it was an electrical incompatibility thing.
> 
> Is this the Sunpower or the Powermodule fixture? Do the fans run all the time, or will they slow down or turn off when you lower the light intensity?


Fans? I have not heard them, they do run....but I have not heard them, maybe I'm deaf.

This is the top of the line model they sell.
Tain't cheap, but I'm glad I listen to Ian in our local club, he jumped ship and went to the reef side. But he was always anal about good quality equipment and tanks etc.

I have to say he was correct on this and the tank issues.


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## plantbrain (Dec 15, 2003)

ocellatus said:


> Would this fixture be a good choice on a 72x24x24 180g? I'd like to suspend it high enough to get good coverage without a lot of light spill, and dial it down so it doesn't over-par a 24" deep tank.
> 
> O


You'd need two 36" hoods to do this.

But plenty of light.

I have a 180 myself.
I'm pondering replacing the old Coral light hood, I have not used the MH's in it, so I only use 4x 96W PC bulbs spaced 15" apart. 

I'd likely get two of the 8x39W modules, and then run only 1/2 the lights except for a midday burst for 2 hours at 100%. the rest of the time, it would be less.

I'd also get nicer spread and end up using less energy overall.

I'd upgrade the tank and stand also, but I loath to replace and remove those items, weight is a lot for open top 180's.

So maybe when I move.

But I can upgrade the light anytime.


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## talontsiawd (Oct 19, 2008)

I am really glad you love this product. I really was looking into this particular light and doing my best to justify the cost. I couldn't. It gives me something to look forward to in the future though. Great review.


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## BigfellaJ (Aug 26, 2012)

plantbrain said:


> Well, you can also drop the T5's right on top of the water with good even spread, so you have mor ePAR, or you can dial down the power to say 50% dimmer....and use less energy.
> 
> And with 4 bulb color choices, you have more color options.
> I like the ADA color bulbs........I have some exact copies on my 180 Gal....and I used the ADA bulbs once to compare.
> ...


What colours are you using? I am about to buy the 6x39W here n Australia for a 36x24x18 PT I am setting up?


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## ekaser (Nov 7, 2012)

*New lights for my 120*

I really like the ATI fixtures. I want to put them on my 48 x 24 x 24 tank. Any recommendations as to how many bulbs in the fixture?


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