Lighting

I am looking to buy a Light t5 I am looking to put it over a new tank 125 gal the tank is 6 feet long 18 inches deep 22 inches tall. Was at a electrical supply store they had a aluminum body light for a high bay warehouse. T5 HO holds 8 4ft bulbs with two ballast so you can split the bulbs four of one and four of another. awesome reflector 188.00 no bulbs. was going to mount light about two feet above tank. so tell me how flawed is my plan.

 

Unless they are individual highly polished reflectors for EACH bulb - you plan, though well-intended, is fatally flawed.

The most important thing about a good T5 fixture (next to the bulb and ballast choice) is the type of reflector. Unless there is one reflector for each of the 8 bulbs - it's not worth your money as not enough light will be concentrated downward to your tank - it will be lost by an inefficient reflector.

 

The other thing about that fixture is that at 4' long - it will leave dark spots on the ends of the tank.

 

Thanks so what do you do buy two 3ft lights. I was thinking hoping that by the light being two feet above the tank it would shine on the ends of it.

 

You will get some light on the ends - but if you suspend it too high - you will lose the effectiveness of the WHOLE fixture as T5's do not have the same penetration power as say Halides or focused LEDs.

two 3' T5 fixtures would be ideal IMO.

 

Ok thanks

 

I have a buddy with a 125 gal setup with t5's. How he did it was 2 sets with 4 bulbs. I will try and draw it on my phone. This is what it looked like when he opened his canopy. Each light had it own individual reflector. 4 10000k and 4 actinics.. 36 inch bulbs. Sorry pic is not that great.



He just got through selling a bunch of frags to local reefers here, his stuff grows like crazy..

 

Thanks 1000rider what light fixtures did he use

 

i think it would be easier to do a retro t5, instead of buying a fixture..Just requires you to build a canopy, but if you buy a good t5 fixture for that size tank is gonna cost some mooooolllllaaaaa....like 1500$+ for an ati or tek

 

You could potentially use the fixture, but it will most likely be far from ideal. While individual reflectors are ideal, you can get away w/o them, especially if you want to keep less light demanding corals. A four foot fixture can work, but you will probably have darker ends. You could potentially put non-photosynthetic corals on the ends such as sun polyps/dendros/carnation etc. IME, I wouldn't say no to the fixture immediately, but there are much better fixtures specifically designed for reef tanks.