How many T5HO's?

jkopp36

jkopp36

Member
I am getting ready to built an oak canopy with 48" T5HO lights in it. I have a standard 55G tank. Right now I am using the hoods that came with the tank and a Coralife 48" strip light with two standard T5's - one 10K and one actinic. The canopy will be sort of tall so the lights will be further away from the water surface (about 10"-12") but there will not be any glass between the lights and the water like there is now. I have enough ballasts and sockets to put up to 4 of the HO bulbs in the canopy. The tank is a FOWLR with about 80lbs. of LR and no animals yet except for a couple hitchhiker stomatellas that came with the LR. My question is how many and what mix of bulbs do you think should be used? Thanks for any and all input!
 
reefraff

reefraff

Active Member
Are you planning on corals?
With no corals just go with that looks good to you. A couple of Blue Plus and a daylight/midday/10K and a aquablue aka 14K is probably make your fish look the best and give you a slightly blue tint to the light.
 
jkopp36

jkopp36

Member
If I do corals it will be much later on. I can always upgrade the lighting then. I was afraid 4 might be too much but it doesn't sound like it. Thanks for the input!
 
kas2247

kas2247

Member
I'm only running 2 t-5's on my FOWLR tank right now (one white & one blue) but am going to upgrade to 4x54 t-5's with individual reflectors to do corals in a few months. I've been told I'll be able to keep just about anything...
Sooo, you could always wire up all 4 lights (since you said you already had the equipment) and just run what you want for the fish. Then you can run all 4 when you eventually make the move to growing corals.
 
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