Lighting for 240 gal FOWLR

[mattsilvester]

Good morning good people

Well, further to my previous thread about energy saving etc. I was wondering, what lighting do you have on your FOWLR?

My tank is 8x2x2, and I have had MH lighting for the last..... 5yrs maybe..... I can't remember what T5 lighting looks like? It is obviously going to appear dull, at first, but generally - do you think a twin T5 unit is going to be enough lighting (well, 2no. 4' units, end to end - hence 2 tubes runnign the length of the tank).

Is anyone running a similar amount of light on their tanks? If so, are you happy with it? Any pics

Cheers,

Matt

 

[reeferaddiction]

matt, i am running t5s on my reef tank and i love the color combos that are available with the different bulb options. i have pc's on my fowlr and i absolutely despise the way the tank looks with them, there just arent the bulb color options like the t5s. i think a tank of your size would be well lit with a 4x 48" 54w.the t5s will also produce much less heat and you could probably eliminate a chiller if in use and may save a little on cooling cost in your home. good luck

 

[ipodhommie]

mattsilver do you have any pics of your tank... i want to see waht 2 mhs look lie on an 8 foot tank
i was thinking about the same thing exactly on my future tank (same dimensions)

 

[kirkaz]

Matt, on my 8x2x2 I have Corallife 48 inch retros...Four 65 watt 10K and four 65 watt Actinic 03 compact fluorescent lamps for a total of 520 watts...Pretty happy with it, may consider an upgrade someday....Here are a couple recent pics

You can see plenty of room to upgrade

 

[Grouperhead]

I have t5's on my 110 and undy tank. PCs on the nano. T5's are kinda like a "poor mans metal halide" in my opinion. You don't have the brightness, but you still have the shimmering effect. The colors on my fish look awesome under the t5s too.