Euroquatics first revealed their exciting new E5 Retro Series LED lamps for T5 fixtures since late september of last year but the wait is finally over. The E5 Retro Series LED tubes are now available from Marine Depot in four colors and four sizes.
The price for Euroquatics’ E5 Retro Series ranges from $49.99 for the 24 inch lamps, up to $79.99 for the 60 inch tubes, but the most popular bulb will likely be the 48 inch tube at $69.99. Rated at 30 watts for the four foot lamp, compared to a 54 watt fluorescent lamp, the E5 Retro Series tubes promise to bring the efficiency of LEDs to our conventional high output T5 fixtures, with 45% less power consumed.
The E5 Retro Series lamps cost approximately three times the cost of a traditional T5 lamp but are expected to last for eight years! Not only will these LED E5 tubes last a lot longer than regular HO T5 lamps, but they won’t quickly lose light output the way that fluorescent lamps do as their phosphors get used up.
So far we’ve only seen a hint of what these lamps can do at Reefapalooza where Euroquatics demonstrated the PAR output of these lamps next to conventional T5 tubes. Alas this was only the cool daylight colored tube so we’re really curious to see how their all-blue ‘Blue Pop’ model with an emission peak of 450nm stacks up with the deep blue LED light we’re already used to enjoying from many different manufacturers.We’re really excited about the availability of the E5 retro tubes and it’ll be super interesting to see how reefers mix and match the normal T5 tubes with the new LED T5 tubes to develop ratios of each which lead to best color and best growth. [Marine Depot]
