Would this work?

[tkimmons85]

I am in need of 100 more watts of lighting for my tank. I have the 24 inch aquaticlife t5 ho system and it only pushes 100watts. The problem is I have a 55 gallon corner tank and 24inches is all that will fit on top of it. My corals are really suffering because of lack of adequate lighting. I have been told a good rule of thumb is 4 watts per gallon and right now all I have is 2 watts per gallon. The bigger problem is that I cant even find any fixture that is 24 inches across that pushes more than 100 watts. Also if I did I couldnt afford it right now.

Would supplementing my fixture I have with a cf home depot bulb help at all until I could figure something out. The k rating on these I think is 5100k at best. Would it help at all or would it be a waste of time and money.

 

[sahin]

With a deep tank as yours, I would say that you really ought to look at replacing your T5 unit and buying a 250w halide unit. T5's are quite commonly bought these days so you cold easily sell it once you've bought a 250watt halide unit. I had a 22inch deep tank in the past. Even with 150 and 2x39 watt T5, the corals werent "happy" (in terms of growth + Colour) until I got a 250w halide.

Only thing is, you probably wont like the limited colour selection; wiht T%'s you can use differant tubes etc and get realy great loking colour.

I wouldnt bother with the anything else.

If you dont want to get a halide, then you might want to try a T5 kit to get at least 6 tubes, but, without knowing your tanks dimensions, I'm not sure if this is possible, and also, I still dont think the light will penetrate as well as halides would.

Lastly, you might want to add some suitable PC tubes to supplement the T5's.

Again, if it were me, I'd get a 250w halide unit with a couple of T5 or LED's built in for actinics.

Lastly, if you can DIY well, you could possibly retrofit some high output LED's alongside the T5's.

Easiest = 250w halide unit.

 

[jmking33]

Id try a 150 hqi with t-5s.....that way you can get good color and good penetraion.jmo