T5 Lighting ?

[grzy]

I was wondering if 4 x 28 watt T5's on a 52gal would be enough lighting for clams and sps? Input needed.
Looking at 48" coralife T5 fixtures.

 

[dude23455]

probably not.
arent the 48" t5 bulbs 54watt? I know thats what my 48" current system is.

 

[grzy]

There are two fixtures. One is 28 watts, the other has 54 watts. My fixture would have 2 bulbs ( I have 2 fixtures). According to the LFS, he said it would be enough if I kept them half way up and had 2-3 fixtures. They were pretty cheap. the fixtures I have are called coralife dual T5.

 

[dude23455]

I have 3 of the coral-life dual strips on my 29gal. Its definitly not enough light for sps or clams with high light requirements. I have a derasas clam that is very happy though.
I think you will need a better lighting system to keep sps in your tank. Possibly one of the nova setups by current.

 

[grzy]

Thank you for your reply. That helps. For now I have only 2 strips, I wanted to get some clams, so it is good to know the dersae is ok. Thanks again.

 

[krazekajin]

I had a similar thread started a couple of months ago. I am looking at getting a 90g 4ft tank. I was going to go with at least 4 58w T5bulbs with individual reflectors but probally more like 6 or 8 bulbs. Most people I talked to said that that amount of T5 light would be sufficent for the easier SPS and clams.
Just a thougt.

 

[grzy]

Thanks for the reply. That helps some. My strips do not have individual reflectors and are only 28 watts each. So I have a 4 x 28 system.

 

[saltn00b]

T-5 without individual reflectors is pretty useless, they become a worse choice than PCs at that point. the appeal of T-5 is that the bulb size etc, allow for them to be individually reflected. if your supposed system set up was, then it would be ok to house SPS