Is 96 watts TOO much ???

[sansouci01]

Would a t5 96 watt fixture be too much for my 20 gallon tall tank ? It will mostly be a FOWLR tank with a few soft corals thrown in....

 

[carey]

I dont think it will be too much, not so bright that it will hurt anything. I have a 4 bulb 24" t5 over my biocube right now and everything is growing very well, I have mostly softies and LPS in there with just a few hard corals.

 

[sansouci01]

Hi Carey..what brand light is yours ? Do you happen to have any pictures of it set up ? I found one on e-bay 4 light set up with timer for 72$ Looks like the Odessa brand

 

[carey]

Yep, thats the one I got too. It has the timer and the 4 bulbs. I happen to like the odyssea brand, I;ve had several of their t5's fixtures and they all work well for me. Try looking at aquatraders.com and see if the light is cheaper there. thats the odyssea site, they also sell under topdogsellers on ebay, I get my stuff from them on ebay

 

[sansouci01]

Aquatraders has them for 89$ so 72$ is not bad from top dog sellers

 

[carey]

Nice, save a few bucks. lol I always check each site when I'm interested in an item, one is always cheaper than the other.

You may want to swap out the white bulbs though as they arent the best and dont look as good as they can. lol I generally keep the blues that come with it just cause theres not much of a difference in blue bulbs, at least in my opinion.

 

[sansouci01]

Hi Carey.
I'm close to buying the t5 lights like you have. Any issue with heat. I'm sure they are hotter than LED's but will they heat up my tank much ?

 

[carey]

I run t5's on most of my setups and have never had any heat issues with them.

 

[sansouci01]

thanks...I'm getting out my credit card now...lol
also, the chromis and snails seem to be liking their new home. I picked up a brown button polyp frag last week from sea in the city just to see if it would grow in my tank with the weak led lights I have. To my surprise, it has doubled in size so I'm sure with these new lights it should really take off

 

[carey]

Make sure you acclimate the coral to the brighter lights, maybe move it da bit away from direct light for a few days. I've fried too many corals myself so just take it easy.

 

[sansouci01]

ok....thanks for the advice