T5 HO Light Question

[JMF0585]

Asked about LED's a few weeks ago and was looking in to some cheap ones on eBay and was highly advised against it. Was told to look at some LED that were a little out of my budget for the time being. I found on craigslist a guy selling a 24" T5 Quad Fixture, says it will support 4 - 24watt bulbs and comes with 4-24watt 6500k bulb.. I was wondering if this would be enough light for low light plants( I have Java Fern and Anubias in the tank now) in a 46 Gallon BW (36" wide, about 18" off gravel). I know LED is the way to go but from what I have seen on here T5 is still a proven method of growing plants. Thank you all in advance. Wants $55 for the unit and bulbs.

 

[Fishperson]

I think there is a planted tank thread out there somewhere about T5 bulbs and PAR values.

IMO it will definitely be sufficient. I'd guess 30 PAR.

 

[Dallascowboys16]

Asked about LED's a few weeks ago and was looking in to some cheap ones on eBay and was highly advised against it. Was told to look at some LED that were a little out of my budget for the time being. I found on craigslist a guy selling a 24" T5 Quad Fixture, says it will support 4 - 24watt bulbs and comes with 4-24watt 6500k bulb.. I was wondering if this would be enough light for low light plants( I have Java Fern and Anubias in the tank now) in a 46 Gallon BW (36" wide, about 18" off gravel). I know LED is the way to go but from what I have seen on here T5 is still a proven method of growing plants. Thank you all in advance. Wants $55 for the unit and bulbs.

You could probably grow medium light plants fine with that as well. I use a dual t-5 ho 48" fixture on my 55 gallon and have had good luck growing quite a few plants. What brand is the fixture?

 

[JMF0585]

He didn't say, im going to run over there in a few hours and see what it looks like. I was able to find this article that was extremely helpful Lighting an Aquarium with PAR instead of Watts

From the looks of it comparing the specs he gave me with a few of the brand names on there I would have to assume that Dallas you correct. I'm a Bills fan by the way and it pains me to say that.

 

[Brian_Nano12g]

A quad T5HO seems like it will be close to or about high light, where CO2 will be needed. I'd only get it if there's a switch to have either just 2 bulbs on or all 4. But then again, my T5HO expertise is next to zilch. YMMV depending on reflector quality and bulbs. But, IMO, the thought of replacing 4x T5 bulbs annually just makes LEDs so worth the wait. Again, just my opinion.

 

[Fishperson]

I think there is a planted tank thread out there somewhere about T5 bulbs and PAR values.

IMO it will definitely be sufficient. I'd guess 30 PAR.

My bad, didn't see the HO part.

Yeah if they are HO Brian is probably right that it is high light.

 

[fishenthusiast]

Maybe this graphic will help? Not sure how accurate it is though

Edit: I found this on The Planted Tank forum by the way.

Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[hroom88]

Well, my inputs on this- I have used T5HO 4 x 54W 6500k on my 75g with more bad happening than good. The key is the level of expertise[me? nada]. Many experienced aquarists use very high light to good effect. Lights ranging from the PLLs to T5HO, to metal halide. But to acheive the right balance in terms of the right amount of CO2 required, the dosing regime, etc might be diffcult for many. Also, with very high light, the margin for error is hair's breadth. If I cannot sync all the parameters, the results might be an algae farm thriving in my tank. So with less light, plant growth may be slow but you will have things under your control. Also, if you going to grow only anubias and java, then 1 or at most 2 24w will suffice, taking into consideration anubias prefers the shaded areas in the tank.