Lighting question

[cmheiple]

I recently bought a Marine Glo T5 HO for my 55 gal and was wondering if that's considered medium or high light for corals. Any help?

Also, a couple of weeks ago my featherduster and pink haitian both reproduced within a week or so of each other. I would think that this is a good thing, but because of they both did relatively close is it some kind of hail mary? One last hurrah before biting the big one? The haitian has moved back down towards the bottom of the tank and has been fairly withdrawn lately.

 

[glaspie69]

how many bulbs are in the fixture? personally i would consider any type of ho or vho a medium type of lighting though there are quite a few tanks that are only t5 lighting and have very hard to keep corals in them and there doing fine. If your looking into a higher lighting I would say look at metal halide, but if you just keeping soft corals i wouldnt worry about it, you can always upgrade down the raod if you decide to change inhabitants. J

 

[cmheiple]

Just two 54w bulbs. All I plan on keeping now is some soft corals. At this point I'm not sure I want to get halides, that's a bigger investment than I can afford. So if you think this is good enough, than that's all I needed to hear. Thanks

 

[vvolfe1]

I'd have to say you're getting med lighting on top and low on the bottom. I have a 4bulb T5 set up on my 55 and it has good lighting. with only 2 on I think its kind of poor. Putting a couple individual reflectors on them will brighten it up a bunch though.

 

[mcclandy]

I would say get reflectors on those two bulbs! They do make them a lot brighter, however just two lamps is not a whole lot of light. I think it sounds like a good start; especially if you do add halides later. A guy could reuse the t'5's for actinic lighting.