T5 lighting help.

the tank is 30 inches long
the lamps will be 24 inches long

worse case scenario is you get 3 inches on eather end of the tank without tubes directly over them

IMO , you may not want to have SPS corals in these areas, but with majority of soft corals, they would still get enough light, even if you did decide to put them this close to a tank wall

Steve

 

SPS? It would only be 96 watt of light in a 36 gallon. You think if i put SPS in the middle of the tank and high up they would be ok? I was thinking that SPS coral need alot of light. I really don't like SPS my self but my gf likes the cause she says that some look like underwater tree's lol. So if you think i'd be able to keep some in that area that that'll be cool. Oh and while i'm at it. I'll ask my other question. At the moment i'm running two 50 gallon aquaclear filters with live rock rubble in both of them with the sponge on top. Do you think it would be better if i remove them and add a CPR Aquafuge? It's only hold 2.5 gallons so i don't know how much help it would be if i got it.

 

1stly

dont get confused by the wattage on T5 lamps
my 60 inch lamps are 80 watts - the 24 inch lamps are 24 watts
but the light output over every inch is approximately the same
my are 80 watts simply because they are longer so there is more power required to illuminate that increased lenght

so yes, under 4 x 24 watt lamps , in the appropriate location in your reef
SPS corals would do fine in terms of the lighting you would have (get quality brand bulbs)

Your water quality, is primary concern in the follow up question you have about changing the Aquaclears to a hang on Fuge

if you can control your nitrates using what you are using, then changing would not be a definite benefit
but if you do have nitrate issues or you find that managing nitrate becomes an issue, and you need chemical support or additional water changes etc - then a fuge may provide a good solution

dont forget to periodically flush out those Hob filters
clean the sponge and the rubble every water change as you dont want to accumulate waste in there

Steve

 

Thanks you very much. You have been very helpful . I've been trying to get answers to these questions on here and another site for 2 days with no luck.

 

Actually, it has to do with the length creating a need for a higher voltage to arc the longer gap.

 

Thanks Blackraven
I have edited my post to reflect your more accurate explanation

a watt is a unit of electricity consumed and not a unit of light produced - and the larger tube lenght requires more electricity to illuminate it than the smaller one

Steve

 

What I used before was Philips T5 fluorescent blue and white, but now I want to change all to leds, cause leds can give me different colors with rgb color changing. I think the fluorescent you sent is strong and powered enough, I have used them for one year.