T5 Lighting & skimmer concerns

[seesquared]

I have recently converted my 125 gallon FO tank to a reef tank and i have just retrofitted my hood with four 54watt T5 bulbs with end caps and a ballast. 2 are actinic and 2 are white. everything works well so far and looks much better than my old lights but i am concerned that i don't have enough watts for such a big tank. i would eventually like to get a few MH lights and ballasts but right now that is just out of my budget and experience range. the guy that sold me the retrofit set up said these lights should be enough to grow most everything except for some hard corals?!? i don't know if this is true. my other concern is over-heating because the hood is fully enclosed and i currently don't have any fans or any type of ventilation attached. is this going to be a problem and ruin my bulbs??? another unrelated issue with my tank is my protien skimmer. i have a ASM G1-X in sump protein skimmer with 3500 Serdra pump in my sump right now and i dunno if that is big enough for my tank. some people i have talked said i should go bigger but i don't want to send the $ if i don't have to. also i don't know what level i should keep the water in my sump at to maximize the effectivness of my skimmer. anyone imput or answers to my concerns would be greatly appreciated. thanks for your help!

 

[seesquared]

anybody have any advice?

 

[swamprat]

Do the t5's have individual reflectors? What type of ballast?

 

[jjakes24]

I think the skimmer part is up to you and the load of your tank. Some people go skimmerless. I would try out the current skimmer and see how it performs on the tank and if it is up to your liking. If you think its doing a good enough job, then no need to go and get a new one.

 

[lark]

You really need to give a bit more detail about your set up.

If they are 54w bulbs, this means they are 4' bulbs. Is your tank a standard 6' 125 gallon, or is it a deep 4' tank?

Either way, most here would probably say you're underlit. If you have a 6' tank, then you need to stagger those 4' bulbs, and you lose some coverage. If you' have a 4' tank, it's a deep, and the bottom of your tank won't get too much light. If it's a true retrofit, and your tank is 6', why not get the longer (60") bulbs? Another thing that matters for t5 lighting is whether you have individual reflectors or just one bent piece of metal.

If you chose to supplement with MH, you're probably going to need more than one -- particularly if you have a 6 foot tank.

Here's another set up you could consider -- keep those bulbs and run mostly white lights on them, and supplement with VHO. Depending on your tank length, you could add two actinic 5' or 6' VHO bulbs, driven with a single ballast. This is a truer actinic and would give you another 300 watts of great lighting. It would also give you the ability to stagger your lighting, by putting the ballasts on different timers.

Either way, you're going to need some ventalation in that hood. It's not that hard. Buy or borrow a good hole saw, measure twice, drill once, and put a fan on the other side of the hole. Really is easy as pie.