T5 lighting...help me retrofit

[krazykarel]

Thanks in advance for your help.

I have a 55g corner tank (22" deep). I am limited to 24" bulbs as it is the longest standard bulb the canopy can hold. I would like to upgrade my PC lighting to T5. I'm not very handy so the least amount of assembly would work best (if a monkey can do it...I may be able to!) probably a ready fit would work best. I am thinking of 4x24w configuration.

Any suggestions?

 

[redfishsc]

Quite honestly, if the largest bulb you can put over a 22" deep tank is a 4X24, you might be better off using a 150 or 250W MH bulb.

I would not hesitate to put a 250W MH bulb, 20,000K over that tank. You should be able to grow a LOT of stuff on the bottom--- some clams and sps for sure.

The trick here is to get a GOOD reflector, I think the Lumenmax 3 or something like that, is the one suggested for wider spread over a deep tank like this.

 

[krazykarel]

Thanks...why the MH bulb? And is the 20000k another bulb or is it the MH bulb?

 

[tewkes]

The 4 24watt would be on the low side of lighting, especially if you plan on keeping any sps or clams. If you're planning a mostly soft coral tank than the 4 t5's should be fine.
I think what redfish was getting at is you will get a lot more light output from a single 250.
The 20, 000 is the kelvin rating of the bulb. 20k is a lot more blue and usually doesn't require actinic supplementation like 10 or 14k's.

 

[krazykarel]

I appreciate the replied. I'm very new to keeping corals so I will stir away from sps and clams for now. Im only interested in keeping easy stuff that I can handle.

Right now my tank is lit up with PC lights (two 55w PC). It has a canopy and I think if I put in MH lights they would be too close to the water. How far are they supposed to be from the water?

Considering I have 2 55w PC lights lighting my tank, could I get away with upgrading to 2x24" T5's or do would I have to go with 4x24" T5's?

 

[krazykarel]

I found this on ebay....would it work?

http://cgi.ebay.com/4-Bulb-24-T5-T-...43994f5744&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14#ht_1241wt_855