Like i said i might be wanting to do a T5 light on by 29 gallon tank, its about 30 inches in length. Can anyone help me out with tips about the T5 and also what size i need to be looging for.
Like i said i might be wanting to do a T5 light on by 29 gallon tank, its about 30 inches in length. Can anyone help me out with tips about the T5 and also what size i need to be looging for.
A regular (non HO) T5 is a little brighter than a T8, but insignificant in this case. A T5 HO will put out almost twice the number of lumens vs. a regular T5. Your eyes would perceive this as noticeably, but not incredibly brighter. A dual T5HO will put out approx 4 times the lumens than you currently have. It should appear approximately twice as bright as the single T8. Of course algae will see it as four times as much energy to grow from.
I use a single stock T8 on most of my tanks, they're not planted so I don't really need allot of light. Sometimes, I'd like it to be a bit brighter but I usually just need to clean the algae off the glass and it usually looks allot better. I can leave my lights on for 12-16 hours/day and not have to worry about massive amounts of algae growth, but I don't really have enough light to grow much in the way of plants.
If you are going with T5, I think you should go with the HO version. You can't just use an HO bulb, you have to have a fixture with the proper HO ballast in it as well. I'm going to make a canopy for my two 20 gallons that are sitting on a homemade stand and I'm going to use two T5 HO bulbs with the ability to switch one off independently.
Try to keep the fish in mind, some species come from shady, jungle rivers with tea colored water.
