# T5 HO Question



## pambe1975 (May 27, 2009)

Ok people, I need some en(light)enment. I have a 50 gal tank and I want to clean up the top while at the same time add a little more light to my tank. I currently have 2 light fixtures on it- one coralife CF 1x96 watt and a coralife T5 2x21 watt, my plants are mainly low to med lighted plants. I was wondering if a Coralife Aqualight High Output T5 Aquarium Lighting Fixture, 2X39W would replace my current lighting? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

Are the T5 21watters H.O. or N.O.?

You can figure approx 25 to 30% more light intensity from the T5HO's vs CF watts lighting.

Off the top of my head it doesnt sound like an upgrade.


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## pambe1975 (May 27, 2009)

the t5 21 watts are NO and yeah I didn't think it would be an upgrade. Even if I go with HO or VHO T5 lighting, would I still go by the wpg rule? Thanks for the response Newt.


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## Newt (Apr 1, 2004)

The watts per gallon rule really doesnt work well. Especially for small and large, deep tanks and alot of fluorescent tubes. Watts is a unit of power consumption and not light output. It works nicely for incandescent bulbs and OK for T12, T10 and some T8 tubes. You really need to correct for skew with CFs and high output bulbs. I'm developing a short paper on the subject that I will eventually post.

Too bad bulb manufacturers dont use PAR/PUR info instead of lumens, lux, watts and other marketing junk.


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