Lighting Upgrade - T5 Or T8?

[jaarus]

Really need some advice on lighting for a planted tank.
My current lighting is a donated marine light which lights up the tank fine and my plants are growing but I am aware that its woefully insufficient for a planted tank.... I get about 0.75 wpg!
The light does seem very bright indeed compared to my Juwel Rio125 light bar on another tank (not planted), but anyway it was a donation and I want to upgrade...so now come the choices and the confusion!

The tank in question is a 20 gallon long - I have looked at T8 and T5 options and I am unsure as to what would be better due to the tube dimensions...?

£37 T5 - 36w (T5 claims its as powerful as 3 standard tubes due to the light being more 'intense') - 1.8 wpg but its only 16" long leaving a gap of 7" each end without 'direct' light.
£54 T8 - 2 x 18w - 1.8 wpg over 24" leaving gap of 3" each end

£54 T5 55w, 2.75 wpg but then I would have to get into Co2 as well - so add another £20 for the Co2 kit - £74
This one is slightly longer at 21" so a lighting gap of about 4.5" each end - but to be honest I cant really afford it, I could do £50 maybe at a push.


What would people recommend?

And bulbs - TriPlus or Daylight Plus??


I am totally bewildered by all of this and really could do with a nudge in the right direction!!

 

[jaarus]

Anyone know if the 'gaps' at the end will prove a problem?

Is there a way around this?

 

[nry]

Daylight Plus.

Two T8's would give a more even coverage of light compared to a single Power Compact T5, T5's are more efficient so they do put out the wattage stated and this wattage is directly comparable to the same wattage from T8 tubes. If I had the choice and the money I would have preferred two longer T5 single tubes over my current PC T5 16" as, like you would, I have a reasonable gap at either end of the tube in comparison with the 24" aquarium width. It doesn't really seem to make much difference to the plants but the far left/right of the aquarium aren't quite as 'bright' as the centre. But I'm a picky sod! £35 of PC got me 36w, both myself and the plants are happy: add in a Nutrafin kit for £17 delivered via eBay and I have CO2 + 2.4wpg.

 

[jaarus]

OK think I will go with the 55w T5 option (just have to search the backs of all the drawers / raid the piggy banks etc for some more cash to get a Co2 kit as well!) - thanks for your input!

Reason for 55w?
Well just dawned on me that the WPG is probably based on US gallons not UK gallons so that would make my tank 23.38 gallons.

55 watts
----------- = 2.35 WPG
23.38 g

So the 36w would pop back under the 2 wpg level.

Again - thanks for your advice!

 

[sophos9]

T5's everytime!

I just took the plunge - read about it here