T5 light wattage

you can overdrive t5 bulbs even higher with an icecap ballast.i'm not sure wich size bulbs you can overdrive other than 48 inch but its worth looking into.you can also get corals that demand very little or no light to put lower in your tank.

 

individual reflectors are the key to using t5 bulbs. i have a full blown sps reef and use a 6 bulb tek fixture and get great colors and awesome growth out of them. i also use 2 24w t5s in my 24g frag tank. i keep sps about 6" from the light and am able to keep color and get growth, its slow growth but it also doesn't help the tank is somewhat neglected. hth.

Jake

 

a lot of people are overclocking their t5 bulbs... witha bigger ballast.. etc... you might want to look into that

 

i don't see the need for overdriving unless you can't fit the amount of bulbs you want in your canopy. i have a 6 bulb tek (not overdriven) and i can get sps to grow just fine at the bottom of the tank. now if i could only fit 3-4 bulbs then i might think about overdriving the bulbs. jmo.

Jake

 

i was just saying, he could get a ice cap and put 80 watts to t5 bulbs and w/ reflectors that is some intense rayzzzzzzzz

I want the tek light, probably going w/ it, the 8 bulb version for my 75 gallon reef. 18k's w/ 460 actinics