hop2jr

My tank is 30"L x 12"W x 18"H 29gal I bought a hood with light for all-glass and was bummed when I recieved a 20watt light in it I want to have low to med plants. I was checking around and wondered if anyone had the 30 inch Current USA SunDial T5 HO 4x24W w/ Timers & LED cost a bit but would give me 1.65watt/gal if I run 2 x 24watt bulbs at one time is this enuff? I don't want to get into a CO2 system and I'm only going to have 3 RO 4 plants. Anyone have any luck with it and how are the Lunar lights?

Gargoyle

T5 HO will be WAY to much for that tank with 3 or 4 plants.. Go to Drs Foster and Smith. They have a Dual T8 fixture by all glass for a 29 and you get the glass top. That'll set ya up good.

hop2jr

So u r saying that I don't need 2watts per gal? with that fixture it had moonlights timers and 48watt would be on at one time. was going to have lunar lights for night then have timer kick on the blue florcents for dawn that white florecebts forday back to blue then the lunars if I by everything separate It's almost the cost of this fixture. is there a 30
' light with all this out there at a lower wattage the 48watt at once with separate control of each lamp + lunar lights?

Gargoyle

Well T5 HO light the GPH rule is out the window... These things put out lumen ratings that'll blow your mind.

A little example and this is not totally accurate but a T5HO @ 40 watts would be the same as about 80 to 100 watts of T8 lighting or so... Speaking in terms of lumens. So with that being said it would be possible that you would get some pretty intense algae growth with only a few plants to suck up that light..

If you really like the fixture you can get it just be careful with the light.. Do like a 6 to 8 hour light schedule and see what happens.. Then adjust from there if need be or you want to.

hop2jr

What kind of CO2 system would be good for a 29 gal with mabe 8 plants and a java moss corner? I figured if I have 1 plant I'll get more and thought that fixture would kill 3 birds with 1 stone as they say. Back to the web I guess Thanks! Let me know about that CO2 System?

Gargoyle

You could do a regular old fashioned DIY set up if you like. Thats what I do and even though it takes some practice once you have it down a DIY C02 system could support a 55 gallon tank pretty well.

Here are some resources that I used while creating my DIY C02 set up..
Comprehensive DIY C02 Index - Recipes, reactors, & more - The Planted Tank Forum
DIY CO2 System for Planted Aquarium
Measuring CO2 levels in a Planted Tank

Those 3 links should give you all the info you need to start up. The middle link is the one I used the most. Lots of info and design ideas.. Kinda fun to build it and watch it work too.

hop2jr

Thanks for all the info learning new things every day. Going to start another 29gal tank and want it to be planted and lite so time to start CO2 too I guess I'll let ya know how it goes.