Is t5 ho lighting okay?

I'm getting a 55 gallon for christmas, and originally planned to do my first saltwater aquarium (fowlr). But I'm going to hold off intel I master freshwater, and my spelling lol.But I want to advance in freshwater and do live plants. I was wondering it t5 ho was enough to do low tech /high tech I'm more high tech so they grow faster. but I'm not so sure on everthing. I'm thinking of doing sand as my substrate something that made specially for plants.

Also I confuzed how ferts work and if I neeed them or, how to use them. So overall I need to if t5 ho is good lighting and how to have a high tech setup,also how to use ferts. and how I know if I even need to use them. so I need to know about everthing in general, and if I need co2 injections and how and why. I think I asked my all of questions. THERES ALOT. thanks!

and if u have need any more info just ask ill leave a reply.

 

Hi,

Honestly I think T5HOs are the best lights for both Freshwater and SW. LEDs are great as well but I'd hold off on them until you know exactly what you want. Aquatraders is a good place to look at T5s right now. They have a couple really cheap fixtures up.

Freshwater and Saltwater, although they have their similarities, are very different IMO. A Saltwater FOWLER would be pretty easy to do. Lighting for Saltwater and Freshwater is pretty different. In FW, from my experience, you don't want a lot of blue light but in Saltwater you do. So you should decide what you want to do first before buying a fixture.

If you do a hightech Freshwater tank you'll need high light, CO2, and ferts. Ferts can be pretty confusing. I don't think I understand some of it most of the time haha. Dry ferts is the best way to go IMO. Catsma is really good with those so hopefully she'll pop buy and explain them.

 

is led enough for the plant low tech or high tech ,becuase there was a kit that came with a nice led hood?

 

will this be enough by itself for corals?

 

LEDs can be enough for a high tech plant thing but if you wanted to do that I would do a DIY LED fixture. Can you post a link for that LED fixture that comes with the kit?

That's a great light but no, I don't think that'll be enough light for most corals. How big of a tank are you talking about?

 

that's basiclly the tanks at the except its 55 gallons. not sure if that helps but also can u leave a link or on some t5 ho light fixture for 48 inches that would work with corals

 

will this be enough by itself for corals?

Are we doing Freshwater or SW? (let's try keep the right topics in the right forums)

T5HO can be used for either, just change the tubes to suit the system. The fixture linked includes 10,000K and Actinic, which is a Saltwater setup. For Freshwater planted, I would consider 2 x 6700k tubes. Depending on height, this would give you a medium to high light setup, which means CO2 may be required.

 

I think for a 55 gallon you need more bulbs. A four or six bulb fixture should do it. But then again, I'm not that great with lights.

When growing plants you want daylights. With corals you want more blue light.