Trying for better 20g high lighting?

[Ellenquacker72]

The lighting i have over my tank right now is very poor... 2 15w cfls. So im trying to upgrade that to about medium light as cheaply as i can.
What kind of lighting would a 24'' double t5 fixture give? Would it give me algae?

 

[Ellenquacker72]

Would this lighting be medium-ish? I just want to be sure before i buy anything. Please ?

 

[adadkins1]

Could you give any more info on the fixture you are thinking about? Is it high output or normal output T5's? What is the wattage of EACH bulb?

 

[Ellenquacker72]

I was hoping to get only the T5NOs. I think around 14w for each bulb. But i read a couple places wTtage wasnt as importand for t5s as for t8s. The T5HOs looked better, but they are quite a bit more expensive and a lot of places say you need co2 and things. Would the higher lighting give me more algae? I would like otos, and i do have some brown algae (tank set up since july), but i dont think it would be enough to support a group of them. And it would be nice to have some happy plants again after i upgraded from the 10 gallon.

 

[aqua_chem]

You could potentially have decent light with the two 15w cfls in the hood. If it were me, I would first try it with them ans see what kind of results I got. T5NO can put out a surprising amount of light, so I would be wary with them. T5NO should also give you a good deal of light. Remember though that there are a number of ways to reduce light, and if you ever want to go high light, you could probably get away with diy co2 on a tank that small (multiple bottles kay ne needed).

 

[Ellenquacker72]

I acctually have 2 15w cfls in there right now, and everything is dying...(that setup worked great for the 10g though) Either that or not growing. All i really have is java fern for now since the moneywort died. And 2 15w is only 1.5wpg, which is reallllllly low light isnt it? I thought the standard was at least 3wpg for t8 and cfl?

 

[jetajockey]

What kind of CFL's are they? Did you get some full spectrum ones? As mentioned above, I'd just work with that instead of getting some t5no/ho's which would be overkill. You can make a pair of CFLs work on a 20h in the medium or possibly even high light range if you do a good job of reflecting them.

 

[Ellenquacker72]

Theyre 6500k. There is a reflector behind them. But theyre really pushed close to it since they barely fit into the fixture since its made for incandescants.