Phishies Inn

I was on the hunt for lighting and I noticed this at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Coralife-Doubl...1817801&sr=8-3

Looks pretty good, and I know this is silly but that IS a double strip right? Two bulbs? The price seems awfully nice, but then again I don't know much about light pricing.

The other thing I had to ask is, will any T5 lights work with that? They aren't a "special", brand only size? I only ask because I know companies will make products cheaper if they know the customer only has to buy MORE of their own stuff :P

Angela_96

This is not a bad price for the fixture but has it got the options you want. Even though it has a daylight bulb and an actinic bulb you will probably not be able to turn them on separately and does it have separate power cords if you want to place them on timers. does it have or need mounting brackets. also you may want to look into cooling fans for the light fixture, some have them built in. drs. fosters and smith website has some very good artical on aquarium lighting, it might get you on the right track, if not go to a respected aquarium store and ask them. by the way the bulbs can probably be purchased from several different companies, all you need is the length, type, and spectrum.

Phishies Inn

Oh well I didn't really want to turn them on seperately, I was going to buy 2 new bulbs to go with it...a couple of 54 or 56 watts. That's why I asked if it would work with those fixtures

MrWaxhead

The coralife T5 units only have one ballast and both bulbs fire at the same time, and you will not be able to run 54W bulbs in that unit as you had hoped, as its not a t5ho ballast, so you can only use 28w bulbs in it. Coralife does have another model that better suited to freshwater / planted too.
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...lestriplight48
Colormax Full Spectrum and one 6700K T-5 (5/8 diameter) fluorescent lamp in this package, so you would not have to change out the bulbs and the unit is identical other then the bulbs for $46.79

MrWaxhead

If you wanted to go with 54W bulbs you would need a t5h0 unit something like this.
http://www.bigalsonline.com/BigAlsUS...000kfreshwater

I personally find t5h0 units run very very hot, and tend to use two sets of regular t5 units running four 28w for 112 watts compared to two 54w for 108 watts. As then I get more even light coverage and they run much much cooler.

Plus watts to gallon rating was based of t12 bulbs so you have to take into consideration the lumen to watt ratio of bulbs when figuring out watts per gallon.

Say if you had a 55g tank with 2 sets of coralife bulbs for 4 28 watt bulbs or 112 watts, that would like 2.24 watts per gallon, but its not as regular t5 bulbs get multiplied by 1.37 compared to a t12. So that 112 watts is actually 153.44 watts of t12 rated wattage as t5s are (1.37) as effective lumen to watt. Bringing your watts per gallon to 2.78 watts per gallon.

If you took the same 55g tank with 1 set of t5ho with two 54watt bulbs for 108watts you would break down like this.
108 x 1.22 (1.22 is the lumen to watt rating for t5ho compared to a t12)for 131.76 watts of power divided by the 55 gallons for a rating of 2.4 watts per gallon.

So a pair of T5 units will give you much more even lighting with lower heat for 2.78 watts per gallon for just under $100.

A single T5ho will only strongly light the front or back half of your tank and produce more heat and give you 2.4 watts per gallon for just over $100

Phishies Inn

That makes sense. What fixture(s) would you recommend? My tank is just about a foot wide so they would need to be narrow enough I could fit two

Edit: The only bulbs Petsmart has for Coralife, their 48" bulbs are 40 watts, not 28. Where are the ones you're talking about?

Edit 2: I was looking at http://www.petsmart.com/product/inde...amily&keepsr=1

But I have no idea what wattage the bulbs are If it's the same one DrF&S is selling, there are 3x32 watt bulbs. 96 watts. Considering I'm using low light plants I think they'd be okay with a little over 1.5WPG.

But yeah, if you can find the 28 watt bulbs I'd try and go that route

MrWaxhead

The coralife bulbs from petsmart sound like T12 bulbs if they are 48" and 40watt, basically you need 28Watt T5 bulbs (they do not have to be coralife bulbs) for the unit you posted a link for, personally I would not buy that unit and turn around and buy new bulbs for it. I would buy the coralife unit that already has the bulbs you need like the one in the link I gave you, if you want to go the coralife route. Or you are spending even more money on bulbs beyond the unit when you do not need too. And coralife units are very small you can easily put two units over the span of a 48inch long 12 inch thick aquarium. In fact you could comfortably put three over as they are only 3 inches wide. T5 bulbs are tiny only 5/8s of a inch thick.

The second edit you made features three T8 bulbs which are good bulbs as well but slightly thicker, T8 bulbs are 1 inch thick. T8 bulbs are also alot more efficient in the watt to lumen area compared to a t12. I don't know what size your tank is, but if its 48 wide and 12 inches deep front to back, I would assume 40long, 50 or 55gallons. So if your tank was say 50g this unit would be basically the following for a watt to gallon rating. 96watts x 1.35 (the factor used to figure out t8 bulbs compared to a T12) which gives you 129.6 watts of t12 rated lighting, or 2.59 watts per gallon on a 50g tank. If your tank was a 40 long it would be 3.24 watts per gallon and 2.36 watts per gallon over a 55g.

Basically you just have to use the right form factor of bulb based off the ballast used in the unit you buy. And if plants are a factor, you want bulbs that peak in the right light spectrums from a continuous band of colors ranging from violet to red (wavelengths of 380 nanometers to 700 nanometers) Photosynthesis occurs most efficiently with peaks in the red and and a lesser extent blue parts of the spectrum and most bulbs primarily peak in two wavelengths so finding a bulb that peaks in the red wavelength and somewhat blue is most beneficial. Using a Full-Spectrum (Tri-Phosphor) Lamp meaning it peaks in three ranges of the spectrum really covers your bases. The bulbs Kelvin rating will determine the colour that your fish and tank tank on, 6500K is a very common rating in a planted tank as its almost white in colour. Lower K bulbs like 3200K will tend to punch more the red range and higher K bulbs like 10,000 will punch more in the blue range. That becomes more of a personal preference then anything, and in some cases some fish are calmer under certain K spectrums. But as long as the bulb is in the right spectrum of light the plants will grow fast and healthy.

I personally like to mix my K temp up a bit but primarily use 6500K bulbs, but I will sometimes mix in 3200K bulb to punch the reds in my fish and red plants etc. But its always best to find what you like and stick with it once you start as plants tend not to like change, and will sometimes stunt their growth for a bit on a drastic change.

Phishies Inn

Blargh, maybe I'm just not searching the right places but none of the sites I look at seem to have T5 bulbs Where do you get yours?