8x54 overkill on my 55g tank?

wrong! can't generalize, don't know what bulbs, what corals, what distance, also if you acclimate they won't bleach.

falsitudes beware.

 

WRONG! actually parking lot lights are MH a lot of times, the dull orange lights are High pressure sodium or low pressure sodium, the crisp white/grey lights are metal halides, jsut like your aquarium (usually like 5500k though)

t5's are in no way more efficient than halides either. especially at higher wattages. the difference isn't enormous, but once you get into 400+ watt fixtures it's pretty substantial.

also you will never see fluoros used for large area outdoor lighting, they don't have the light spread/penetration... the light is too diffuse.

t5's are great lights don't get me wrong, but they are not some kind of god's gift to lighting that aquarists make them out to be.

 

So, how is this wrong??

Coming across negatively on 3reef is a bad idea.

You may be new here, but blatantly being negative like your posts have been won't get you far on 3reef

 

So you are coming off attacking... Interesting game plan.. Also you are comparing lighting reef tanks to lighting parking lots and football fields... How is this a valid analogy?
Without spending all night arguing back I will say, yes, T5 is taking over many reeftanks as well as retail outfits.. In Wisconsin, a large grocer named Pick n Save is either building their new stores with large portions of the store lit via T5 or are revamping the older ones.. I was surpised when I was buying my bananas to look up and see T5s.. Heck my local Subway sandwich shop is lit with T5...

Yes MH is great for the parking stucture but at the end of the day this thread is not about lighting a parking stucture nor football field... Lets keep on track guys.

Sorry original poster.

 

t5s vs metal halides we are all right just not talking about the same things, and metal halides do produce more light percentage wise with every increase in wattage. Im just partial to metal halides because I have had good results with them and I have run bulbs for 18 months. Running halides uses more electricity but the equipment is cheap and the bulbs last for ever saving me tons of money in bulb replacement. T 5s are sweat I use them for manufacturing/ sanding surfboards and t 8s

 

and of coarse we use metal halides outside for parking and security

 

I've looked up the size of that light and technically it would fit over a 55. I have a 6 bulb fixture over my 55. I think that it would provide plenty of light all the way down to the sand bed. If you were to get corals that needed lower lighting conditions it might bleach those out but others would probably strive in it. I have dendros and sun coral in caves in my tank and there is still some light getting in, I bet if I had an 8 bulb fixture over the tank it would be harder to find a place to put them since it would light up those areas more than the 6 bulb fixture.

 

I've got to laugh, here we are arguing over light bulbs and the originator of this thread has not responded?

I still firmly believe that 8x54 T5's are too wide to go over a 55 gal tank I'm not saying that it's too much light. Somebody dispute with actual measurements that account for the plastic braces on the tank, the actual workable space on top of the tank, the usual 4" legs and the height.

Now if it's a tall canopy OK but he's talking about a boxed in fixture that's designed to go over the tank on legs I would assume? That is probably an inch or two too wide because of either the plastic or metal casing. I am a measurement freak when it comes to this stuff which is why I opted for a high canopy and retrofits. My tank is twice the depth and I use 2 fixtures, an 8x54 and an 8x24 T5's I already had the 8x54 with my 120g so when I went to the 210g I needed two more feet of lights so I bought the 8x24 and butted it next to the other. Works fine.

Here are some pics. The first is the stand tank and canopy before installation. The second is what the tank looked like when it was just setup in March '09. The third shows the lights in the canopy that I made a shelf for to bring them closer to the water because of the 15" height of the canopy and to also allow the ballasts breathing room and away from the wood top, this also allows me to move the lights back out of the way if I need the room as they can slide back and forth. The last pic is a recent picture showing coraline growth and corals that have developed very well.

 

yea the 8 would be too much I would not but the 8 and probably go with 4 X 54 because that still ends up being close to 4 watts a gallon which is good enough to grow anything but acro which in my opinion is fine

 

i have 6 bulbs over my 55, that is the max. I had to stagger the endcaps on top of each other to achieve that. the reflectors are 2 inch wide (aquactinics), so 6x2=12" just the size of the depth of the tank.. the trim ring still shrouds a half inch all the way around, but im trimming that up. I fired mine up the other day on the icecaps, and Im worried about to much light right now.. heheh i looked at it and got a headache.