108w t5ho or 130w cf? help

[wagz]

Hey there

reviving my 75gallon tank and am planning a planted community set up.

problem. old light from the 90's-t12. got two 24" 6700k 20w t8's to fire up and am trying to keep some low light plants alive.

They're shedding leaves as I'm trying to pick out a light.

had to sink more into the tank than I thought and am looking for a cheap but effective light.

question is I found 108w t5ho and 130w cf for the same price.

cf has more watts but runs hot. have heard that t5ho emit more than there wattage suggests. I am already under the 2 watts/gallon number but am trying to get away with these lights and proper plant selection here are the links.

I also know i would have to get new bulbs for cf.

Brand new 48 " power compact Aquarium Light 130 W Marine Cichlid | eBay

48" Aquarium T5 HO Light 54W 6500K x2 Plant Daylight Fish Odyssea CE FS | eBay

any help would be appreciated.

 

[Crepe]

t5HO will be better. The PAR values on T5s are way ahead of PC bulbs.

 

[wagz]

Thank you

Will be going with the t5ho set-up thank you for the advice. I checked home depot again to see if I missed anything. The cheapest fixture is $20 for a two t8 strip. doesn't include bulbs. so $40 for the strips plus the cost of 4 bulbs and tax and your up or over the amount of the one I gave the link for. Also now your dealing with 2 fixtures to arrange and still t8.

So please take a look at this one and see if there are any problems you can see.
48" Aquarium T5 HO Light 54W 6500K x2 Plant Daylight Fish Odyssea CE FS | eBay

also, thinking about CO2. I thought I'd be alright at under 2w/g. what about the liquid co2 if I need it. Will I need it?

 

[aqua_chem]

If you ever want to get a decent understanding of planted tank mechanics, you need to ditch watts per gallon as a way to measure light. A 'watt' is a measure of energy consumption, not light. As bulbs get more efficient, more and more light is put out pet watt. So a 24w T8 bulb from 2000 puts out significantly less light that a 24w T5HO. Unfortunately, the alternative is learning about different bulb technologies and gauging how much light they put off. It's a much more qualitative and relative way, but ultimately more informative.

You also have reflector and ballasts playing into light output, so the whole thing quickly becomes extremely convoluted.

Here's some facts for you:

The T5HO that you're looking at is made by odyssea. They make 'budget' fixtures that put out the least amount of light of any comparable fixture. THAT BEING SAID, they are wallet friendly, and less light = less need for CO2, so they are ideal for many setups.

As Crepe said, you will get more 'umph' out of T5HO than PC. It should also be stated that PCs get much hotter than T5HO. They will also need to be replaced more often, and the bulbs are more expensive and getting harder to fine.

Both of the fixtures you listed are superior to HD's T8s.

With a 75g, you will probably be able to get by without CO2, but you might would greatly benefit from it, that is if you don't outright need it. As previously mentioned, the odyssea fixture will give you more wiggle room here than a higher end ($$) fixture.

Trust me when I say you do NOT want to use Excel on a tank this size. Larger tanks suck up excel, making it more expensive in the long run. Using the cheapest price I could find for excel ($35/2L) and some napkin math, it would take about 5 months for you to break even on a $200 CO2 system, and then it will start saving you money.