24" T5's........Is it enough?

I'm looking for lighting to go on my new frag/growout tank project. I don't want to go MH's as my DT will soon get T5's and I want to keep all tanks with the same lighting.

Actual area that needs lighting is 24"x24"x14". I wanted to get a 4 bulb T5 unit but total wattage would only be 96Watts. Would this be enough for this size area or should I double that?

 

sounds bout right to me

 

I am tempted to say 4x54W. I was going to run an 8x54 on my 75g before it went TU. I hesitate to solidify my suggestion though. Not enough experience. All I can tell you is what I was going to do with a tank about double the size you have now and only 4 inches deeper.

 

Sounds good to me, and you would be able to fgrow anything!
Remember, whats arent everything! Its lumens!

 

I want a set-up where I can stick any coral in there and they can flourish.

I bought the 8x54w unit for my 75/g. Its gets in on Thursday;D



96w just sounds like too little for such a wide area............being 2' across either way

 

I would do 2 24" 2 bulb units to spread it out some.

 

lol you're the one with 10wpg on a 20g, hahaha!

 

You can't go by watts on T5, higher watts just means it goes across width of the tank more. the same spot with 4x24w is going to get almost the same PAR as 4x54W, you really want to use number of bulbs to base it on

 

I believe that four T5's is more then enough for any system.

Providing it isnt stupidly wide, and of course stupidly deep tanks do need MH.