is this enough?

i was looking at a 4' 36 watt x2 t8 fixture at home depot and was wondering if that will be enough light for my 125 FOWLR. i might beable to squeeze in 2 double 36" fixtures, but it would be tight in the canopy i built.

theres a display tank at my lfs that has a really nice effect, when i asked the kid there he said it was a combo of acentic (sp??) and some kind of blue bulb . . . will i be able to get a similar effect with either of the above lighting options?

also i was thinking about wiring up a few LED packs for moonlights, is there any benefit to this besides looking cool?

/noob lighting questions

thanks!

~Will.

 

the t5s at home depot are not High Output. a 4 foot bulb should put out about 54 watts so if you use those lights you wont have as much wats as you could. look for T5 HO fixture

 

iLL,

If it's just a FOWLR, I wouldn't even take it to that extent. HO lights whether they be T-5's or even MH will do only one thing for your tank, and that's just promote algae growth. The only purpose for lights at all on a FOWLR tank is to display the colour of the fish you keep. IMO, I would set up some kind of bluish flourescent with just a tad of actinics. I once thought about after my reef tank grows out to the point that I no longer need my corals to grow that fast, I'm going to 20,000K MH.

 

if you want the best look 3 70 watt halides would probably give you the best look(i think your tanks 6 feet), with those i think youd get the refraction lines in the water. but other then that i would think any 2 flourscents that span the tank would work(one blue and one white)

 

Couldnt agree more - for a FO system, why bother forking out for expensive T5 and MH systems. A couple of T8's one white and one blue is all you need.

 

well, after pricing the ideal light setup at my lfs (2x 36" 10k and 2x 36" actinics hooked to 2x retro fit kits) i think i may go with the dual 4' home depot fixture for the time being, and upgrade it as needed.

thanks for all the help!

~Will.

 

i have a concern that these lights may cause an algae bloom, am i just worrying too much, or is there anything to this? would 2x double 36" normal output T5's be better or worse??

~Will.

 

I would not use any bulbs from HD, as yes, they will cause massive algae blooms. All of the lights you are going to get from a hardware store are going to be 4700K-7000K.

 

what about the normal output ballast / fixtures? could i get those at HD and then get decent lights from the LFS?

~Will.

 

I would say yes, most LFS's have decent t8 bulbs you could use. Just stay 10,000k or higher I would say.