Upgrading my t5 lights

I recently upgraded to full reef lighting and purchased 2 GLO T5 HO Retrofit kits to install in the hood above my 100 gal tank. Current setup has one 36" acitinic and one 36" daylight bulb on each half of the tank. I think the tank needs more light. Do I need to double what I have or can I just add more white light with one more retrofit kit? The current setup was recommended by the guy at my LFS...

 

In a 100gallon i would use 4 whites and 2 blues at least, the t5's in the pic look a bit high from the tank ideally you want them placed around 6 to 8 inch above the tank, and if you have glass lids over the tank remove these also to aid light penetration and better gas exchange...

 

i agree, they look too high above the water.

 

is that 4 whites on each side total of 8 or do I just need to add 2 more? Same with blues is that 2 on each side total of 4?

 

I will say you are short on light, but before we can say how much more you want, we need more information. What corals do you want to keep in your tank? If you want lots of high light corals, you will need double or tripple what you have right now.

When you figure out how much more light you need, I would suggest adding close to the same number of daylight/actinic bulbs to keep the tank looking good, or switch to a nice mix of other bulbs rather than just daylight/actinic.

Kim

 

Double your T5 lights and build a shelf out of a sheet of 1/2"-3/4" solid plywood or pieces of hardwood for the lights. Shelves are cool in that you can make them so they can move forward and backward for positioning the lights over the reef and for moving them back for room when cleaning and working on your tank.