# lighting suggestions for a big tank



## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

hi. i'm setting up a big tank (9ft L x 24in W x 27in H). i'm thinking of putting either 8pcs of 54w T5's or 8pcs of t'8's with each tube overdriven by a 55w pl ballast. metal halides would be nice but it is kinda out of my budget. thanks in advance for the help.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

I think 8 54 watt T5 bulbs, each with its own parabolic reflector, would provide enough light for most plants. But, I suspect the MH lights would work better - say 4 150 watt MH pendant lights. That is a big tank.


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## lauraleellbp (Jan 31, 2008)

Actually quality T5HOs with decent reflectors not only outstrip MH PAR values, but the light distribution would probably be better over a 9' tank? HQI would make the best of both worlds; but of course they would cost an arm and a leg, too.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

Using 8 long thin bulbs will always spread the light out more evenly than using 3 or 4 small bulbs. So, that is certainly one more plus for T5 bulbs on a big tank like that. If I ever decide to try pendant lights I will possibly have a supportable opinion about them, but that hasn't happened yet.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

thanks for the response. i have another question.. will the T5's be able to penetrate to the substrate level considering the height of the tank(27 inches)? i was thinking that i might not be able to grow foreground plants(im just planning to put some brazilian microswords) without using metal halides.


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## hoppycalif (Apr 7, 2005)

All light of a given wave length penetrates water equally. The advantage that MH or T5 lights have is their reflectors that direct a bigger percentage of the light towards the substrate, instead of just scattering it in the general direction of the water.


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## lauraleellbp (Jan 31, 2008)

From the published reports I've read, a T5HO fixture with quality reflectors will actually have one of the best light penetrations (PAR) at the bottom of a tank than most other fixtures (including most MH)

A friend of mine on another forum actually tested this out with a PAR meter and to his surprise, found this to be true over his SW tanks.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

thanks for the input guys.


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## ummyeah (Apr 8, 2008)

I would go with 4 250 watt MH. MH penetrate deepest. No fluorescent will penetrate deep enough to grow carpet plants. They will barely grow foreground plants. MH should be cheaper than T5's with individual reflectors. Forget about T8's.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

gooey,

What are you trying to accomplish? Non-CO2 with swords, crypts, ferns, & mosses or a high-light, high-CO2 tank with HC foreground and demanding stemmies? Your equipment choice should be based on what you are looking to achieve.

Personally, I like MH, with T-5 for fill-in during mornings & evenings, but that's just me. It all depends........


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## ummyeah (Apr 8, 2008)

I'd go with MH.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

guiac boy: im planning to put e. tenellus and pearlweed as foreground plants. im also considering putting some swords and crypts. stems would be l. arcuata, l. repens, didiplis, stargrass, rotala rotundifolia and some rotala 'green'. pressurised co2 will be used. MH is really not an option.. it is to expensive here(the Philippines). 

do you think i could pull it off using HOt5's considering the plant list? another option would be to lower the overall height of the tank but i think it will look weird having a long but 'short' tank.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

ummyeah said:


> I would go with 4 250 watt MH. MH penetrate deepest. No fluorescent will penetrate deep enough to grow carpet plants. They will barely grow foreground plants. MH should be cheaper than T5's with individual reflectors. Forget about T8's.


MH is not an option.. MH is way more expensive than HOT5's with individual reflectors here..


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## ummyeah (Apr 8, 2008)

gooey said:


> MH is not an option.. MH is way more expensive than HOT5's with individual reflectors here..


Interesting...Well, it's up to you. You should be able to get away with T5HO. Make sure you get *individual IceCap SLR* reflectors. You might even want to overdrive them with IceCap 660's. Have you looked at ordering MH retrofits online?


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

ummyeah said:


> Interesting...Well, it's up to you. You should be able to get away with T5HO. Make sure you get *individual IceCap SLR* reflectors. You might even want to overdrive them with IceCap 660's. Have you looked at ordering MH retrofits online?


icecap's would be nice but again its not available in-country. there are decent individual reflectors sold here for t5's that are heavily angled to reflect light downwards.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

IMO, T-5's will be just fine. You can always add more if you feel that you're still short of your lighting goals. Some of the plants you listed will appreciate high light, but none of them are extremely demanding.

I agree that IceCaps are nice, but they're not the only thing out there that will work. Go with whatever T-5's you can find. They're much better than CF's and plenty of people have used those for bigger tanks without any problems.

If you go back just a few years you'll find that most big tanks were done using nothing more than VHO lighting. Light is light. One particular fixture might be a bit more effecient, but almost anything will work, as long as you use enough of it.


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## trag (Jan 9, 2008)

I agree with guaiac_boy. Once the light has left the fixture, it doesn't matter where it came from. All that matters is intensity and frequency distribution. There is nothing magic about MH, nor about Ice Cap ballasts. Get what you can afford.

If it were me, I would put about twelve T5HO 54 watt bulbs above the tank--say the GE 6500K bulbs. I might mix in some 5000K or even 3500K depending on my preferences, but the cheapest way to buy the GE bulbs is in a box of 40. So, if you have the storage space, and a local distributer, you may wish to consider going that route and just buy a box of 6500K bulbs. They should cost you about $6 per bulb that way--maybe a little more, it's been a while since I priced them. You'll use up the case of bulbs within 5 years anyway...

Anyway, where was I, ah yes, twelve 54 watt bulbs. Put six and six end to end. You can get ballasts which will drive two bulbs at a time and ballasts which will drive four bulbs at a time. So with a little creative timing/wiring, you can set it up to come on with two bulbs (just considering half the tank, here). Switch off two and switch on four at the same time. Bring the remaining two back on. Turn off the two, leaving four. Switch from four back down to two. And finally all lights off again.

That would give you a little over 600 watts of light and it looks like you have just short of 300 gallons of water there.

Six T5HOs in parallel should be plenty to penetrate 27" of water. If it isn't enough, it wouldn't be that hard to add another set of two or four. So you may wish to start with eight bulbs and assess the result, before actually going to twelve or more.

Finally, depending on how willing you are to DIY, the lighting system can be very affordable. The most difficult part is the reflector. Building a good reflective parabolic (or approximately parabolic) reflector is not for the faint of heart. So I would start any planning by figuring out what you can realistically do about reflectors. You may find that after factoring in the cost of pre-made reflectors that you might as well buy a premade fixture.

Here in the states, I can buy a ballast which will drive four T5HOs for $50 and one which will drive two T5HOs for $30. G5 miniature bi-pin sockets (the T5 sockets) are about $2.50 - $3.00 each. So six T5HO lights costs $50 + $30 + (12 X $2.75) + (6 X $6 (bulbs)) = $149 not counting the reflectors and ancillary hardware. So $300 for your lighting system, plus the cost of those pesky reflectors, and whatever kind of enclosure and fans you may wish to mount them in.

A mostly parabolic reflector for a pair of T5 bulbs is about 3" wide: http://www.io.com/~trag/Aquarium/T-8DualReflector.jpg

The above is for two T8s with each small square 1/8" and the big squares 1", so scaled down for T5, everything would be 5/8s that scale. The length of metal before bending for the above reflector, scaled for T5, is a hair over 5".

I picked up twenty-one strips of mirrored stainless steel, 5" X 48", on Ebay for about $130 total. That was a steal (or was it a steel?). Buying Miro 4 material will cost considerably more and at that point it is probably worth buying something prefabricated. You must figure that if you bend it yourself, you will destroy one or two pieces in the learning process, unless you are already a skilled sheet metal worker.

So really, I think the economics of whether to DIY or buy a premade boils down to the cost and quality of the reflectors.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

TRAG: thanks for the input. i've pretty much decided to lower the over all height of the tank to 25in. HO T5's here cost around $8 each but it is kinda hard to look for the 6700K rating. available are just the 10,000K and up. (the HO T5 tech is basically a new thing here and its mostly used by the reef guys).individual reflectors will be sourced locally and its already parabolic and cost around $15 each. anyway, do you think the 10K bulbs will work? i've used it before in tandem with 6500K back when i was using T8's in my other tanks. i havent tried using it all by itself.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

I use a mix of 10K and Aqua Medic 6,500K "Planta" bulbs over my 180g. I don't suppose the "Planta" bulbs do anything magical, but they do put out a nice red coloration that really brings out the color in the plants. By itself it's a bit much, but combined with the 10K bulbs it looks fabulous. I probably wouldn't use straight 10K bulbs, but even if you did it would still look better than straight 5K light.


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## ummyeah (Apr 8, 2008)

> There is nothing magic about MH, nor about Ice Cap ballasts.


Oh there most certainly is. MH have the best penetration. IceCap's overdrive the bulbs to 80 watts.


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

guaiac_boy said:


> I use a mix of 10K and Aqua Medic 6,500K "Planta" bulbs over my 180g. I don't suppose the "Planta" bulbs do anything magical, but they do put out a nice red coloration that really brings out the color in the plants. By itself it's a bit much, but combined with the 10K bulbs it looks fabulous. I probably wouldn't use straight 10K bulbs, but even if you did it would still look better than straight 5K light.


thanks for the input.


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## cassiusclay (Feb 19, 2007)

this is the reason why indvidual reflectors is important http://web.mac.com/jgoal55/iWeb/Site/Reef Tank.html
Measured with a PAR meter consistent with MH in levels T5 is catching up FAST


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## gooey (Dec 12, 2007)

cassiusclay said:


> this is the reason why indvidual reflectors is important http://web.mac.com/jgoal55/iWeb/Site/Reef Tank.html
> Measured with a PAR meter consistent with MH in levels T5 is catching up FAST


wow.. very nice. i never thought that individual reflectors will double the values. thanks a lot.


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