AquaZilla

Which type of lighting do you use on your planted tank, and why?

LauraLeeLLBP

I've converted all my tanks to T5 or T5HO- IME it's great for keeping down the heat during the summer, especially in comparison to every CF fixture I've ever owned.

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Laura Lee's tanks:
10gal Shrimpy Jungle 29gal Asian Jungle for Betta Simplex 46gal of Sword Addiction 90gal Planted New World community

AquaZilla

You really cant beat them for what they put out. You can get away with less wattage with good reflectors, and these days saving energy is good for everybody's pocket.

-A

chillplants

I too am in the process of replacing my PCs for T5 or T5HO. So far I have converted 3 of 5 tanks over to T5/T5HO. With my 40 Breeders, I'm not sure if 2x39W will be enough or if I need to go bigger with 4x39W. I have a new 2x39W T5HO fixture coming on Tuesday that I'm going to experiment with for now.
I like the T5/T5HO for all the reasons stated above. Water temps stay slightly cooler which leads to less evaporation, noisy fans have been reduced to near silence, and of course less energy needed is a big plus on the environment (and my wallet ).

AquaZilla

Which light did you end up getting?

I think 4 39W would be nice because you have a little more tune-ability(is that a word?)
4 bulbs and 2 switches is nice Thats what we are running on the gallery tanks

chillplants

I bought the fishneedit.com 2x39W T5HO fixture to play with. I like the idea of having 4x39W with 2 switches, but I'm new to the T5HO arena so I'm taking it a little slow to make sure I don't overdo it. I have the Catalina Aquarium 4x54W on my 75 gal, just installed that about 2 weeks ago. That sucker is BRIGHT.

AquaZilla

Man! Thats a ton of light for your 75G! Do you just run 2 bulbs most of the time? Those fixtures are bangin bright, and you should have no problem growing anything inside or close to the tank for that matter.

chillplants

Yes it is A LOT of light. I think 2x54W T5HO is comparable to 4x65W PC. 4x54W T5HO is crazy. Noon burst has a whole new meaning! Right now I have the noon burst set for about 3 hours, but I'm going to cut it back to 2. My Hygro 'Bold' looks like it may be suffering a tad bit from the over-exposure.

AquaZilla

I can only imagine you may get some funny stunting on the new leaves.
I bet 2 bulbs would be perfect

mightyrae

I chose t5 because I wouldn't be consuming as much energy as pc. Also depending on the reflector the t5's are brighter with less bulbs. I am guessing some pc users will will argue pc can be brighter but all depends on the fixture and reflector. Just my experience.

Brandon