Will Halogen's grow plants? 150w for a 56 gallon

That would be the least efficient set up possible. The majority of the energy consumed would be heat with relatively little useful light output. It is quite expensive from an energy perspective compared to halving the wattage using T5ho. There are likely safety concerns with put a light that runs that hot very close to the tank with out ventilation. You can get ballasts and bulb combo T5 starting at about $30.

Is the 56 gallon a cube then? How deep is it? I put two T5HO bulbs over my 40 breeder and ended up only running one until I hook up Co2. Are you planning on CO2?

I wouldn't focus on watts per gallon. I could put a 2000 watt heater over top of my tank and not grow a thing. Wattage refers to power consumption-not to photons available for use by the plant.

I think 2 T5HO would be ample for your tank provided it's not 3' deep. It may be almost overkill if you aren't injecting co2. If you are doing a custom top of some sort, check out your hydroponics shop for sunblaster T5HO with built in ballast. Something similar to this: http://www.horticulturesource.com/f...6102/?osCsid=465dcb798f9cc982779d958ff8d911e8

They come in 2, 3, 4 ft lengths. The 3 footers were $30 at my local hydro shop.

I think it would be ample light. You actually don't HAVE to have any sort of housing. Those fixtures I linked are completely self contained and come with bulbs. It sort of depends on what your intentions are. If you build a canopy, I wouldn't worry about any sort of containment. If you are making it pendant style, you will have to figure something out so you dont see the bulbs. I doubt those fixtures fit into that housing, however.

What I did was take two of those fixtures and covered the inside of my canopy with a diamond pattern reflective material that they use for grow room tents. I'm not sure where you are located, but if you can make it to a hydroponics shop, they will certainly have almost everything you need and a bunch of stuff you'd want. If you are going with a pendant style light and just want them to hang above the tank, you will likely have to build some sort of reflector. Once you have the lights in hand it will make a little more sense and what you will need to do will be more clear.

If you aren't doing a canopy, it might be a better idea to try a commercially available light such as: http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Li...-X2-Lighting-Fixtures_9916161_82.html?tc=fish

I dont have any experience with that light but it looks like it got good reviews. Maybe someone else can comment on the quality. Just make sure that bulbs will be available. Maybe even order a few spares since big als has free shipping on orders over $75. I have a hard time finding HO bulbs in the correct spectrum locally except at fish stores and they charge 2-3 times more.

T-12 and T5HO are completely different bulbs and end caps btw. If you went custom canopy, you could even add a third light once you get pressurized CO2 going and stagger the lights across the tank.

Or maybe even something like this: http://www.horticulturesource.com/s...2653/?osCsid=465dcb798f9cc982779d958ff8d911e8
I would be somewhat hesitant buying this without seeing it at a shop first, though. The reflectors might be shaped to disperse the light a little more than you'd want in an aquarium. At that price, you'd probably be better off with a legged aquarium fixture...

Alwaysusa said:

Pics once it comes in!

Click to expand...

No problem and look forward to it.