40 gallon Breeder t5 lighting. 5 or 6 bulbs!??

Hey everyone, I haven't been on for quite a while but I'm happy to say that I am getting close to setting up my 40 breeder tank. I have most things decided I think but am still thinking about the lighting. I have been browsing the forums for days hearing people say that 6 bulb t5 are the way to go but since I am not planning on keeping too many SPS, I'm afraid that 6 bulbs will be too much. It will be a retrofit so I am thinking of just using 5 instead. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Depending on the depth, coral selection, and quality of reflectors and bulbs, you could do a 4 bulb just fine. On a breeder I would stay away from a 6 bulb unless its a really crappy fixture. I have a 6 bulb ATI sunpower on my 65G and I was frying my corals. Had to build a lightbar and raise the fixture about a foot off the water and put my frogspawn in the shade. Dont let people tell you there is no such thing as too much light. There is, and its called photoinhibition

 

Yea that's what I'm afraid of. I have already decided that I am going to be getting a LET retro kit from reefgeek. The only thing I am worried about with a 4 bulb fixture is the light spread because of the 18" width.

 

4 would be fine for your tank with a good quality fixture.

 

That has 2.5" or 3" wide reflectors. If you put a little space between the reflectors you should have no problems covering the width. If your tank has a rim you only have 16" for the light to get through not 18".

 

If I don't have a problem shelling out a bit extra and doing a 5 bulb, do you think that would be overkill as well? Again I don't really plan on doing SPS, but I would like the option of doing some, even if it's in the upper half of the tank

 

I had a 2 bulb t5 ho fixture on my 40 gallon for a while and kept sof corals and lps with no problem. i added 1 more 2 bulb fixture so i could get a derasa clam and keep some low lighting sps like pocillopora but had to move my softies down to the bottom because they diddnt like the extra light and started to whiten up. i would say a 4 bulb fixture with individual reflectors would be a good choice.

 

When you added the second fixture, did you acclimate the corals slowly to the new amount of light?

 

To be honest I would be afraid to put 5 bulbs on there. With 4 you will be able to keep the most variety of corals, soft, LPS, most SPS. If you put another bulb on the fixture you will be able to have more sps, but less softies and low light LPS. If that makes any sense.

 

ya i raised the height of the fixture about 4 inches and only kept the second fixture on 2 hours a day for a few days then whent to 3 hours a few days and so on so it took about 3-4 weeks untill i kept both lights on for the full 10 hours