# 80W T5's - Opening the box from Reefgeek



## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

Today I received an order from reefgeek.com that truly made my day. I placed the order on Wednesday, received it on Friday. Free shipping. Lowest prices around on the lights too.

I took the following pictures because I'm very impressed with the packaging. Very few online stores sell 60 inch long T5 bulbs. I guess shipping such a long and fragile item is very risky. Reefgeek seems to have experience packaging them, and although the box came sqiushed on one side as if someone at UPS dropped it there was no damage whatsoever. Judge for yourself:

Picasa Web Albums - Nikolay - Giesemann T5's

1. There is a thick cardboard tube stabilized inside the box with styrofoam sqares.

2. The cardboard tube has a white plastic cap that is easy to pull out. It was secured with scotch tape. I pulled it before taking the picture - originally it fit snug.

3. Behind the cap there was a padding of bubble wrap. The end of the reflectors with bulbs inside where wrapped in more bubble wrap. Here I have unrapped the end - originally it fit like a cap over the reflectors.

4. The bulbs are taped together and placed inside the reflectors. By design the T5 reflectors are a bit shorter than the bulbs so they can be attached on the bulbs themselves. To protect the entire length of the bulb Reefgeek taped the reflectors so they stick a bit (are not aligned).

5. There was a warning note about unpackaging the long bulbs. And rightly so - I was very excited to open the box and could have easily broken something.

6. Reflectors outside the box, taped together.

7. The reflectors come with the blue protective film that needs to be removed before use. They also have special pre-cut slots to mount the bulb clips.

8. For a planted freshwater tank I got four Giesemann Midday bulbs and two Aquablue Plus bulbs. The Midday bulbs will provide light that is appropriate for the photosyntesys. The Aquablue bulbs are about 11 or 14K and will ballance the colors toward more white, which I tend to prefer.

9. The ballasts, endcaps and bulbs clips where in a separate box.

10. Waterproof endcaps and bulb clips in a ziplock bag.

11. Fulham Workhorse 7 ballasts. Each one will power two 80 watt T5 bulbs.

That's it about opening the box. I will be making a fixture similar to this one:
RETRO-FIT T5's

Sometime next week I will post pictures of that. Currently I have T12 VHO's over my 6 ft. tank and I will post comparison pictures - T12 (Coralife and URI Aquasun) vs. T5.

Once again - I'm very impressed by the prices/service/packaging that reefgeek provides!

--Nikolay


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## nellis (May 6, 2006)

Very cool mounting system, I can't say I've ever seen anything like this, but I like how clean you've made it look. Any final shots?


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## niko (Jan 28, 2004)

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...ium-projects/37989-diy-t5ho-for-a-6-long.html

--Nikolay


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