help me understand T5 lighting

[whackamole]

I own a 29 gal tank about 14 inches deep and i want to upgrade my lighting. I currently have 196 watts of pc on my tank. I would like to be able to keep everything and keep them i good condition. Im thinking about upgrading to t5 but i dont know how many watts i need to upgrade. 196 watts is alot but i kno people say that t5 is so much stonger . So how many watts do i actually need to keep almost anything? Im just a littl confused and appratite any help Thanxs

 

[nycbob]

get about 3-5 watts per gallon. given ur tank is 29, aim for t-5 with a range of 100-160 total watts. i hv t-5 in my 72, and could keep everything successfully.

 

[rs1831]

Its hard to find a good 30 inch t-5 fixture. I would only go with tek or aquactinics and neither come in the length. You could get the 24 inch and put the light demanding corals in the middle and the rest near the edges. I'm currently using a 36 inch aquactinics on my 70 and its working really well. I have sps and clams in my tank. Good luck.

 

[whackamole]

ok thank you

 

[isistius]

if your tank is 36", go with the aquactinics tx5. it has 5 bulbs instead of 4 like the tek. altho both have individual reflectors, the tek doesn't come with fans to help cool the fixture.
i'm not saying that tek is inferior in any way, just did my homework before i purchased the aquactinics for my 30g frag tank.

 

[whackamole]

ok ill look into it. thank you all very much

 

[whackamole]

wow...thats expensive. anyone know of a good lamp under 160$ or is that just asking too much like evrything else in this hobbie

 

[wangotango]

If you have a canopy you could go with a retrofit. Can't say it'll be less than $160, but it would be less than a fully assembled fixture. Icecap is one of the better, but TEK retros are pretty good. IMO you're going to want at least (4) 24w bulbs.
-Justin