Opinions on Lighting Please.

I have a 29 gallon tank with a 130 watt pc fixture. I was wondering if anybody know of a 30 inch T5 fixture with the same or more wattage? Thanks.

 

mannursereefer
30 Inch 4x24 Watt AquaticLife T5 HO Light Fixture W/ 2 Lunar LEDs in Pet Supplies - BizRate. Compare Prices and Read Consumer Reviews

Current USA Nova SunDial T5 Aquarium Lighting Fixture, 4X24 Watt, 30 inch - Compare Prices, Product Reviews, and Product Specs

Coralife 30 T5 Nova 30 inch T5 Aquarium Lighting Fixture T 5 Aquarium Light T 5 Aquarium Lighting

30 inch canopies are not common, but they are available
4 x 24 watt T5 versions by a few different manufacturers on the links above

so is 96 watts of T5 better than 130 watts of PC
dont have any PAR results to prove either way to be honest

would welcome the opinions of others myself for this question

Steve

 

T5's will always have less wattage than Pc's, but t5's have MORE par value per watt.
So basically, its not how many watts you have running over your system to promote good growth, its your Par value

 

96w T5 with individual reflectors, or even individually contoured reflectors will outclass 130w PC.


PC's are just really inefficient, you waste so much light due to the weird bulb design... about 50 of those watts are lost... whereas the T5's you get about 20% extra light output with single lamp reflectors

plus T5 bulbs you have more options, usually much higher quality light! T5's are the sex. MH is better but T5's are damn good.

 

So from what I have been reading I would be better off getting a 30 inch T5 fixture that only has 96 watts than using a 130 watt pc fixture. Anybody got any opinions on this?

 

yes WAY better off, not every thing is total wattage any more....

 

Thank you all for your inputs. I will be getting a t5 fixture in the near future but I'm going to use the pc fixture to get my tank going since it is brand new. Thanks again.