aquaticlife T5HO

8-9 months is about the norm. I changed my "stock" bulbs in about 2 weeks. You might not notice it now, but it is a really white coloration, even with the actinics on. Certain corals will appear very brown and dull. I changed my bulbs to Geismenn Blue plus and actinic. Much better spectrum and coloration. You and your corals will love it. ATI bulbs are also my next choice.

 

Looking at upgrading from my Coralife 96w CF lights.

AquaticLife T5 HO is what I'm looking at with the LED lights.

Trying to decide between a 4 bulb and 6 bulb system. I know bigger is better, and would like the 6 bulb, but worry it will not fit my tank size. You'll ask what my plan is, and it is a FOWLR with wanting the option to later have soft corals and SPS down the road. I don't want to upgrade light systems again! Already decided against MHI, and if I do upgrade it will be LED, but want to wait for initial cost to come down. (I understand long term costs of electricity will be less, but still can justify the initial cost right now)

I have a 46 gal bowtank, 36 inch long, and 12.5 inch wide at the ends. Currently in use as a FW tank, and would like to switch to SW.

The 6 bulb lights I believe are 14 inches wide, and therefore will overhang the front corners of the bowtank. Will I just be wasting light here due to the overhang? Also, the tank has a good deal of foot traffic in front of it, and I'm worried of someone bumping the lights if it were to overhang and then fall into the tank. As with saltwater tanks I won't be having the glass top on like I currently do with freshwater setups.

The 4 bulb setup has a width of 9 inches, so I would be good there. Not sure how stable the leg mounts are, I hope someone can comment on that. It seems too that the legs mount on the front and back panels of the tank??? Not sure if that would be compatible with the curvature of the bow on the front side of the tank.

Not seeing one of these units in person, I'm want to be sure before spending that kind of money. Any thoughts would be helpful.

 

The leg mounts will actually screw down tight as you want them and you can slide them around before you secure them. You may run into a issue using the legs on a curved edge though.. as far as the lights you wont be disappointed the blue leds (moonlight's ) are more than enough to light up my corals all though I will be adding a blue led bar down the road when I add more corals. The lights look good as well. It came with 2 blues the white and a purple.