Lighting a custom 26 gallon

harbingerofthefish · Post by **harbingerofthefish** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 1:49 pm

Yo people,

long long time no see. after the canes my 7 tanked and i just lost the drive. it turns out now i have it back. i recently go ta nice job in memphis, tn and can afford to set a tank up again.

so years back i had mike (reeferpuffer) order me a custom 26 gallon (24x16x16). I have most of the equipment to get it running, pumps etc...

lighting is my concern (thus in this forum

)

i have a 2x55w 1x36 blue pc combo but it's just not going to cut it (so if anyone needs it it's for sale

)

I don't think i want MH light but was looking into T5 HO. reading about them it seems, unless im way off, that the 24" 24watt bulbs put out like 40w. so a 4x combo puts out 160w. I saw a post on nanoreefs that they were saying a 2x24 combo would be fine for a 20 long (12" high). that doesn't make sense. using a 4x24 combo would be about the same lighting as my existing hood.

so something like
6x24 combo seems, if my math is on, like 240w making it roughly 10 watts per gallon. I don't want to fry anything and i want to only keep softies and lps no sps or clams. looking at that though it's 700 bucks with shipping. a 250 mh is cheaper than that.

so what i'm asking really is what should i do, is my assumptions on t5 output correct, and does any one have a hammer they want to mail me

-alan

p.s. and um, am i doing the BB links wrong?

DrHank · Post by **DrHank** » Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:23 pm

That system is serious overkill for softies and easy LPS. Clams and SPS would be loving it. If you're convinced that T5s are what you want to do and softies and LPS are all you want I'd do a 4 bulb fixture. It should be more than enough lighting.

Also, you're better looking at PAR than Wattage. Your T5s are in the same realm as some of your low to mid power MHs.

Amphiprion · Post by **Amphiprion** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 9:49 pm

Not sure why the tags didn't work. I tried the same with the same result...

I agree with Dr. Hank. That is one of the best fixtures out there and would be enough for clams and sps. There are brighter options available in T5s, but for normally driven tubes, it doesn't really get better. I also agree that PAR is what you should be looking at vs. wattage. PAR measures the total radiant energy that is within photosynthetically usable wavelengths, so it is very specific and very useful for our purposes. Watts simply measure the input of energy into the bulb, nothing else.