difference in lights

quick question
are there any difference in the lights in a T-5 and the stock lights an aquarium lid comes with. i got a regular hood from a friend and it had a blue light and whitish orange one in it and that is what im using right now. are these ok for a reef tank or should i get a T-5 fixture from Nova?

 

I'm guessing they are just regular fluorescent in which case no
but do you know what the bulb temp is 10000k? 6500k? or what type of bulb?also watage and tank size

 

Stock hood lights surely wont do the trick for a reef. The color of those lights will usually only be good for growing algea and wont have near enough power. Unless you got some kind of reef hood you will need to replace them.

 

A reef tank needs powerful lighting. T5s and Metal Halides are the two great choices these days. Nova is OK, but definitely not the best. I generally recommend that people do not go less than a Tek fixture. ATI and Giesemann fixtures are even better. Check out reefgeek.com for the Teks and ATI. Giesemann....you will need to google to find a dealer.

What size tank do you have?

 

i have a 29 gallon. one bulb is 10000 kelvins and the other is a 460nm actinic. they are T-5's and the wattage is 48 in total.

 

you want to shoot for at least a 4 bulb fixture t5 h/o (whichever fixture you decide to go with).

 

I have two t5s on my 37 gallon... one actinic, one white. Coral growth is rare and slow. I can get leathers to grow ok, and my frogspawn is doing well. My anthelia is nuts. These are all fairly low light corals though. Not much else grows.

My new 75 will have 6x54W t5's on them if I can find the right fixture..
Maybe MH if i can get a deal

 

Why does no one ask what size the tank is?
How can you determine proper lighting without knowing tank dimensions?

Look into Tek, they will rock your corals, or look into a MH/T5 combo if you have the $$

 

its a 29 gallon.;D

 

Looks like I know how to read, for some reason I thought Gex was a different person! Whoops