i cant put it in the middle because of the center brace being in the way blocking the light, plus i dont wanna melt the brace... i never thought about the heat factor. wouldnt strapping a couple of fans on it help? 8 t-5's too much light? is there such a thing as too much light?
i meant in the center of each opening on your tank, rather than allong the edges. theres such thing at too much light! t-5s give a full column of light unlike halides which will cast shadows behind rocks and loose intensity the futher to the right or left you go. with all t-5 imagine a tanning bed. you dont think 1000watt 10000k double ended metal halide is too much for a 5gallon?
the halides might heat your tank up even with the fans... i'm just trying to help you get lights so you can keep what you stated earlier. you could cover it with a row of lower watt t-5s and mix the bulbs to get whatever color you wanted from it.
ok, now taht you put it that way it makes sense. i just dont wanna have to spend another $300 on lights ya know. this is all so confusing. So if I were to go with all HO T-5's how many should i go with?
I'm not good with numbers for florecent lighting, I've never used it. Try looking online for a fixture already made for a tank with your dimensions and you can model those. What were your tank dimensions? Maybe like 3-4 Daylight bulbs and 2-3 of the attnics? Not sure... sorry. :huh:
already read through that thread but thanks anyway. ive decided to go with 6 x 54 watt t5's. i found a set up on ebay for $250 that includes 3 each of 11000k and actinic bulbs. I'll probably wind up getting some new bulbs and mixing up the colors more later on. but yeah, how does that sound?
Sounds good... make sure you acclimate whatever you have in your tank to those lights when you get them. It'll be a difference. Also keep that in mind when getting new corals, put them low and gradually move them up over a week or two. Do you have a link to the fixture?
