Lighting a 29 gallon tank for strong light.

[Alshain]

If I were to get this light fixture and replace the bulb with a dual daylight bulb, would it be the same (with regards to light output) as getting this light fixture and making no change to it? The reason I ask is I kinda like the blue aquatic effect that the actinic bulbs give off in the water, and after replacing the bulbs, they would be about the same cost.

Full specs are listed here

 

[rich311k]

Does the second one have a dalight bulb and a 50/50 or a daylight and an atnic. It it is an atnic then both would give you 65 watts of usable light. If it comes with a daylight and a 50/50 then you will get 97.5 watts of usable light, which would be more that the single light fixture.

 

[Alshain]

The second has 1 Dual Daylight 6,700k/10,000k and 1 Dual Actinic
420nm/460nm

 

[rich311k]

Then both fixtures would give you 65 watts of light. if you go with the second you can always change out the bulb if you decide to go really high light. I have the US satellite fixtures and I like them very much.

 

[czcz]

To support Rich's posts, here's your lumens/sq in values assuming the average bulb and 100% reflection. You want to compare these values to Ozz's database of real-life tanks: http://woo.gotdns.com/Aquarium/ShowResults.php

	       Eq T12 wpg       Lumens	 Lumens/sq in
65w CF	      3.02	     5161	   14.34
97.5w CF       4.53	     7741.5	 21.50
130w CF	     6.04       10322	   28.67

(There are links explaining lumens/sq in in the lighting sticky and the above site.)

So it just depends on your definition of "strong": 1 65w CF is still medium-high light and will grow lots and lots of stuff. 2 65w fixture allows for an easy upgrade to very high light.

Second fixture with Rich's suggestion of a 50/50 bulb will certainly get you off and running with very high light (I use about that lumens/sq in with my 8gal high light tank and grow whatever I want). Switching the second bulb for 130w CF would certainly be "strong."