# 55 gallon lighting question



## reel1090 (Sep 11, 2012)

Hi all,

Setting up a 55 gal high tech tank. Can anyone offer a suggestion as to lighting? How much? What kind (brand) of fixture, etc? I had a 20 gal tank with co2 injection and it was beatuiful. Had to break it down to move.

Thanks,
Jim


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## clep.berry (Mar 4, 2012)

3-4 pairs of TMC grobeam 500s i.e. 72W of LED power
or 3x grobeam 1000 (Total 90W).
Costly but these things are Niiiice.
I have the 500s on my tank and the only problem is that they need lots of ventilation - suspended lights on a bare top are best.
cb


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

If you will have CO2 injection (DIY CO2 will not be effective for a tank that size), then I would go with either a 4X32W, T8 shoplight fixture or a T5HO, 2X54W. I would not do the T5HO unless you plan on pressurized CO2. The 4X32W should be good no matter which way you want to go for CO2.


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## Aeten (Aug 4, 2012)

Are you on a budget?? If so I would get the 48" Odyssea T5HO 4-bulb system; it has an LCD control panel w/ timer; only 1 power plug, and blue moon LEDs.

Best part is it costs about $140.

48" 216W T5 HO Aquarium Light Hood LCD Timer Coral Reef 4x54 Fluorescent Actinic | eBay


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

4bulb T5HO would "require" CO2 or you would have tank full of BBA. Too much. You don't need that much light. I have half that on a 75g with injected CO2 and there isn't anything that won't grow in my tank.


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## Aeten (Aug 4, 2012)

jrman83 said:


> 4bulb T5HO would "require" CO2 or you would have tank full of BBA. Too much. You don't need that much light. I have half that on a 75g with injected CO2 and there isn't anything that won't grow in my tank.


That's your opinion and this fixture comes with 2 actinic bulbs which you run morning and evening to ease the fish into full light. Running 4 bulbs with 6700k lights would probably be too much, but then again maybe it wouldn't be. There's a lot of factors to take into consideration


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## jrman83 (Jul 9, 2010)

Aeten said:


> That's your opinion and this fixture comes with 2 actinic bulbs which you run morning and evening to ease the fish into full light. Running 4 bulbs with 6700k lights would probably be too much, but then again maybe it wouldn't be. There's a lot of factors to take into consideration


Yep, my opinion but have seen the same recommendations on planted sites and it is not a very good one. Feel free to go to The Planted Tank - Articles, Forums, Pictures, Links and go to the lighting section and read. Not sure why anyone would run actinics on a planted tank. there is NO reason to "ease" fish into some lighting period and the actinics are likely to cause unwanted things like algae. They are useless to a planted tank.

There are few other considerations/factors to be concerned about, but not sure whether you're aware of them or not. Whether it is too much light is largely dependent on the manufacturer quality of the light. The reason why things like watts per gallon (WPG) rules don't work for T5HO is because usually the lights come with individual reflectors making the light equivalent to 3-4 times as much as the rated wattage. If you conduct test with a PAR meter like I have, you see the differences, some major, between makes. Not all T5HO are created equal. So, although it is possible to have "too much" light from a given 4-bulb T5HO setup over a 55g tank, it is sort of possible to not....based off of crappy quality reflectors. The cheaper the light, the cheaper the reflector. But, I would never assume just because I bought a bottom-dollar light that the light isn't where most fixtures of the same rating are in terms of lighting effectiveness. 

Aside from other factors, many of which do not matter than the one I mention, you do not "NEED" that much light. If you buy more light then you need then all that algae is yours to deal with, or you could just have a really short lighting period like 5-6hrs. Making any part of it with actinics will not keep algae from gowing. If I can grow anything that is available today to the planted aqaurists with the 2-bulb fixture I have over my 75g (quite a bit more area than a 55g), why then would I want to go out and get something more? Doesn't make sense.

If you have done this whole 4-bulb/55g/actinics/6500k planted tank thing and it is working for you....doesn't mean it is something you probably should suggest. It may work for you, but not for them. What I suggested will work for anyone.


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## clep.berry (Mar 4, 2012)

216W of T5HO on a 75g does sound huge - that would be the equivalent of over 300W of T8. That's Crackers!
I reckon your fish would go blind until algae builds up.
I reckon with reflectors that's going to be about 8W/gal of the wrong light.
I concur that 100-150W of T5 has the right kind of horsepower for High light with a decent reflector - should be at about 4W/gal equivalent or so. 6500-6700k usually has the right kind of spectrum but the kelvin rating is meaningless compared with PAR readings.
Would have a similar output to the LEDs I mentioned above btw.
cb


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