# 40g breeder, too much or too little light?



## Akaizhar (Jul 5, 2008)

I've got a 40g breeder, from petco for awhile now. My 96w coralife fixture kicked the bucket, so i happened upon a dual T5HO fixture that holds two 39w t5HO bulbs. I suplamented that with my 24 inch 65w CFL coralife fixture. 

Is this too much or too little light?

The reason I ask is I noticed a BBA outbreak in the tank, and I had that issue before with the 96w over the 40g. Standard EI dosing, PH 7.2.


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## JeffyFunk (Apr 6, 2006)

That's probably too much light... But it really depends on the quality of the reflectors. If you have a quality T5HO light fixture like TEK or ATI where each bulb has a separate reflector, then you really only need 2 T5HO bulbs to achieve high light. If the bulbs are in one large reflector, then you may have medium light. I would suggest dropping the compact fluorescent and see how the plants grow. The signs of plants needing more light are easier to observe (stretched growth) and fix than signs of too much light (algae, probably from lack of CO2).


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## pandamonium (Sep 19, 2012)

I am using the same kind of light. It is from Odyssea. I checked the PAR values of the light and it's not too bad. It actually falls under medium light-ish (PAR = about 50 or so at 20 inches I think it was). In my tank it was too low but that is because my water is blackwater and my surface is covered in plants. If yours is clear than you are probably gonna have more PAR than I do. I would drop light down a tad.


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## bumblebee (Sep 25, 2012)

I would say it depends on what kind of plants, its hard to give any ideas.


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## superflame (Apr 24, 2012)

Try to give it more Co2 and see how it go.


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