What Can You House With T5 Ho's

I Am Planning On Getting The Current Nova Extreme 4 X 54 Watt T5 Ho Light Because My Light Is Only 130watt Pc Which Apparently Is Good Enough For Nothing...i Will Be Selling It. I Can't Get Into The Tek Lights Because They Are Too Expensive And I Refuse To Pay $100 For Brackets To Hold Up The Light.

Now My Question Is What Can You Keep With The T5 Ho Lights? Will I Still Be Very Limited? I Don't Want To Upgrade My Lighting If I Can Only Keep Softies. What Is A Parabolic Reflector?

 

Hi Nemo,

So, you are going with the Nova Extreme? Good choice. With 220W on a 55 Gal tank, you will have just under 4W/Gal. With this you could grow almost any soft coral, LPS or polyp/shroom. Now, W/Gal is a relative measurement. If you have your coral 2" under the water then they will of course get more lumens than frags 12" under the water. What you currently have in your tank will grow very well under those lighting conditions. You may also be able to grow certain SPS if they are high in your tank. One thing to remember when you upgrade is you are going to be adding quite a bit of light to your tank (2W/Gal). You may want to slightly block the light at first to acclimate some of your higher corals. From personal experience it is annoying to watch your corals bleach. All you need to do is wrap som white paper around your light in strips so some of the light is blocked and some is getting straight through.

 

I would think with that type of T5 HO lighting you could keep just about anything you wanted, sps corals and all. Water quality has to be pretty good for sps corals to thrive, which you probably know already
If the fixture comes with multiple ballasts and cords, another way to keep from introducing too much light at one time is to limit the time and amount of bulbs on at one time. I have a good idea you will enjoy these lights very much

Jim

 

An increase in light intensity is always good for MOST corals! The way in which you acclimate your corals is the key to their success...or demise! Without proper acclimation, you run the chance of stressing your corals and bleaching etc. could result.
Acclimation can be achieved by lessening the duration that the lights are on and slowly increase the time. Next, you can lower the coral placement in your tank temporarily and slowly raise them to your desired location height!
As for the types of corals you can keep, their have been many threads and posts regarding this topic as well as many websites that can aid you in your quest for the right corals for your tank. That being said, you can keep pretty much any type of coral in your tank with your lighting! The problem that arises, is the coloration of the particular coral under subdued or increased lighting and the various bulb coloration (kelvin)!!!!!!!!!!! A subdued lighting scheme does not necessarily mean you cant keep any SPS'! On the contrary, Stonies, such as many species of Montipora and Acropora, Pavona and Porites can be kept. The only problem you will run into is that the vibrant hues of the polyps will be brownish/green in color for the most part!

 

WOW. thank you so much for those amazing reply's. karma to all of you for giving me so much info. I was planning on figuring out how to acclimate the corals while the fixture is in shipment. I will have a few weeks since I'm up in Canada. I already knew about the acclimation it was more on the easiest way of going about doing it. I don't want to move my corals around as the leather and xenia are soooo finicky.