--- Will 8 T5's be too MUCH light? --- On my 55 gallon

B

basslover911

Ok so I have a 55 gallon long. I REALLY want to keep clams, anemones, and sps BUT i still want to keep what I have in there right now like my awesome frogspawn and some zoas.

I currently have 4 T5 56watt (2 actinic and 2 12K).

If I add another 4 bulb fixture, would it be too much light? I have 216watts total right now, so it would double to 432 watts. It would end up being 4 - 12k and 4 - actinic.

What do you think? Or maybe what I have right now (the 4 bulbs) is enough to keep clams and such?
 
Are these in a light fixture or a retro setup? I dont think 8-(54 watt) bulbs would even fit over that narrow of space. That would be way overkill anyways in the depth of tank. In my opinion
 
I would say anything is possible if you have a seasoned tank and the experience to take care of the inhabitants. It really would depend on what type of anemone and type of clam you were wanting. How long have you had the tank going and what type of filtration you have. What are all your water parameters? I would say its not impossible but would the clam and anemone be happy long term?
 
I have 8 t5 over my 55 gallon reef tank and love it ! It's been two
years now and the corals grow really well . My bulbs are 4 ati blue
plus one uvl one guesiman one ge and I don't remember the other
 
I don't think there's such a thing as "too much", but "not necessary" is probably more like it. :) How are you planning to mount the lights above the 55? Assuming you have individual reflectors, you're going to have a lot of spillage, i.e., wasted light. If you can come up with a novel way to mount the lights and not have any overhang/spillage, I say go for it.

If anything, it gives you that much more flexibility in terms of bulbs to use for coloration.
 
@jrstheone wrote:
I have 8 t5 over my 55 gallon reef tank and love it ! It's been two years now and the corals grow really well . My bulbs are 4 ati blue plus one uvl one guesiman one ge and I don't remember the other said:
Wow, that must be bright. How do you get 8 full tank length bulbs over a 55 with reflectors on them? I can barely fit 6 over a 75gal
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Like I promised. They are 48" 54 watts, inside my canopy. It took time to make them fit, little cut here little cut there, but I love them.
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I had 8 T5s over my SPS but since they were 24W it wasn't enough and they just barely fit with very narrow reflectors. But now most of the reflectors coming out are more than 2". The 6x24W fixture I built for my soft coral tank all the reflectors are 2 1/2 or more in width so I could only fit 6 in the space I wanted. Do some research on reflectors and see if you can find quality narrow reflectors otherwise you may not be able to fit 8 over your tank with individual reflectors.
 
looks nice, is that a nem on the left? seems crazy, id love to know how much par you are getting around that thing.

also, i would definately look into the larger reflectors. i bet you could get away with fewer bulbs with the larger reflectors.
 
@jrstheone wrote:
Yes it is and he's huge when fully opened . My bubble just split again ! My tank is really sweet just wish it was bigger. said:
How long do you keep the lights on? So far I have 13 hours of Actinics and 9 Hours of 12k Daylight... I am thinking this might be too much ??

Anyone?
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So that's 7 hours, 2 less than me....

Hmm maybe I should lower my daylight time?? Wouldn't my corals grow slower though?
 
@TCUguy wrote:
So that's 7 hours said:
I don't think there's really a right or wrong answer because in the wild, the corals don't really get max sunlight all day long. Instead, sunlight builds in the morning until it reaches its max at high noon, then slowly diminishes in the afternoon until sunset. So there's 12 hours of daylight (between sunrise and sunset) at the equator, but it's not all at the max. If you're trying to simulate this, you could probably cut your actinics to 12 hours (or less), because there's only 12 hours of daylight in a day. Then, how do you figure out how long to keep your daylights on? To me, the 9 hours you have them on is probably pretty good.

But, it just depends on how your corals react. There are many threads out there of folks cutting their photoperiod significantly, like down to 5-6 hours, and they notice better colors and growth.

I think you should try cutting your lighting back and see how your corals respond. For me, I have 8 hours of daylights, and 10 hours of "actinics". Seems to work well.
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