# Lighting a 50 Gallon



## apc789 (Jan 7, 2010)

Hi All. I recently set up a 50 gal aquarium right before the new year! It was an xmas present and it is my re-entry to the hobby! It came with the stand and a hood with 2 36" T8 bulbs which I think were rated at 30w each?
I have a pressurized co2 and all components in the mail, so I figured I am definitely going to need more sufficient lighting. I scrapped the stock canopy and hood and I bought an AquaticLife Dual-lamp T5 HO Light Fixture. It comes with 2 36" 39w lamps. One Roeseate Lamp(I have no clue on the k rating for this one) and one 6,000k Lamp. 
I am new to T5 as I have been away from the hobby for some time, and they weren't common then. I am thinking that 78w will be insufficient, and I will need to upgrade even further if I want to grow stem plants and most carpet plants. Basically my question is... 

Will two of these fixtures be overkill and give me little to no room for error with nutrient and CO2 dosing without experiencing the worst of all algae outbreaks?

Any help and input would be greatly appreciated. I must also note this will be my first time running pressurized CO2 but not my first time with live planted aquariums.


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## aquatic_clay (Aug 17, 2009)

78 watts of t5 should be good over a 50 gallon since t5's are so much brighter than other lights. 2 of these fixtures could be over kill like you said and leave little to no room for error. If you stay on top of dosing, then having 2 of these should get some pretty amazing growth since you'll be running 156 watts of t5.


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