How much wattage per gallon is this

[rockhoe14er]

Hey guys i just got a aquason T5 light for my tank with two bulbs a 6700k and a 1000 k.

I was wondering how much wattage this is per gallon. For some reason i remember reading that t5's are a little different than t8s.

The bubs say 24 watts on each of them but that still only looks like i'm getting 1.65 watts per gallon. Is this enough light? for medium light required plants such as darf baby tear grass?

 

[dundadundun]

hc? should be good with good co2.

 

[Chrisinator]

assuming your t5s have a good reflectore you'd be lookong at about a medium lit tank. Hc wohld be a good plant to have in there but co2 would really help like the abovr poster said.

 

[rockhoe14er]

Thanks guys. should i be fine with DIY CO2?

 

[dundadundun]

tank's not too big... i don't see why not.

pressurized is always a better solution, though.

 

[Chrisinator]

I probably wouldn't do DIY CO2 with anything bigger than a 30G tank unless you are trying with a lot of DIY CO2 bottles

 

[GoldLenny]

Hey guys i just got a aquason T5 light for my tank with two bulbs a 6700k and a 1000 k.

I was wondering how much wattage this is per gallon. For some reason i remember reading that t5's are a little different than t8s.

The bubs say 24 watts on each of them but that still only looks like i'm getting 1.65 watts per gallon. Is this enough light? for medium light required plants such as darf baby tear grass?

Watts per gallon is old school.. kind of like the inches per gallon rule... neither of which really worked... although the watts per gallon worked when ONLY using and comparing standard fluorescent tubes... and the one inch per gallon rule ONLY works for torpedo shaped fish under 3". A 2.5" juvi round-bodied goldfish has about 100 times more body mass than a 2.5" zebra danio.

Watts is the amount of electricity that a bulb draws to power it. Watts has nothing to do with the amount of light (lumens) or the color spectrum (K or Kelvin rating). For example, a 60 watt incandescent bulb draws 60 watts but doesn't put out no where near as much light as say two 32 watt standard fluorescent tubes (T-10 or T-12).... and then those two 32 watt tubes don't put out nearly as much light as two 32 watt CFL's (compact fluorescent light bulbs).. which don't put out nearly as much light as 64 watts of LED lighting.

What you want to compare in the future is the amount of lumens from a bulb and the color spectrum. Even that isn't a perfect thing for comparison purposes but it's far more accurate than watts.

 

[FSM]

It doesn't get any simpler than watts per gallon

You take the watts and divide by the gallons, that's it.

 

[GoldLenny]

It doesn't get any simpler than watts per gallon

You take the watts and divide by the gallons, that's it.

Except it doesn't work with modern lighting options. It probably worked OK 20 years ago.

 

[dundadundun]

lumens is completely useless unless comparing the exact same bulbs in the exact same reflector. say a 27 watt ge daylight cfl vs. a 9 watt ge daylight cfl in identical clamp lamps.

by telling us what watts and what type of lighting we can get a general idea. work from others experience, etc.. not perfect, but it's something everyone (even newbies) can figure out/answer.

if you're even considering using spectrum as a means you might as well just skip straight to par and pur numbers.

there are numbers/graphs that can give us more of the story but not everybody can understand how to put it together or afford/justify the meters necessary.

still... manufacturers are commonly completely off on their posted spectrums and so we couldn't go by them almost at all.

then we don't know at what point each bulb is rated for in their life cycle. (is it supposed to be 800 lumens brand new, after a burn in period, once it's burnt it's useful gasses up, when?...)

SO... we either trust the experience of others or spend $250 - $350 on a cheap par meter and post our results according to micromols at specific spots.

PAR; photosynthetically active radiation... in laymans terms; light that can be used for photosynthesis