T-5 or Compact lighting????

[MalawiMadness]

Hello once again,

I have a heavily planted 75 gallon African Cichlid tank with a JBJ 4x65 watt 6500k compact light fixture. I inject Co2 25ppm and dose ferts from Greg Watson. My question is does a compact light fixture give you a full 260 watts across the entire length of my tank. Seems to me that you are splitting four 65 watt tubes across two rows and not the entire length of the tank. Should I invest in a T-5 fixture where the tubes run the entire length of the tank to give me better lighting over the entire tank. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Larry

 

[travis simonson]

I would stick with the CF lights. I use them over my planted ARLC tank and they do a great job. Your light pattern is not evenly distributed because of the center overlap, but you have plenty of extra in any case. Love to see some pics if you get a chance to post some

 

[jerman]

CF or T5

In my experience it is hard to find t-5 replacement bulbs. Only a few places on the internet have them and no LFS will carry them

 

[Burks]

The JBJ kit is just fine. You have to remember that light does not go straight down, it spills all over the place. So that little gap between the bulbs doesn't mean much.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

I am a big big fan of t-5. Less expensive to run, better light penetration.

 

[kaaikop]

You will find them T5 more & more in the LFS...
Even Hagen is selling some now.

 

[Burks]

As for the T-5's, you'll probably want to get the High Output (HO) variety. I don't think the NO will be enough for you.

The JBJ fixture can actually be picked up used for a really, really good price. T-5 fixtures don't come up used very often.