lighting 36x36 tank, how many t5 bulbs?

[dmilne85]

after thinking for a while, i thought MH's were goign to be the way to go. however im having a last min decision- im going to buy the canopy for my 36x36x27 (150 gallons)tank and put an icecap t5 retrofit in instead.

my question is how many overdriven t5's should i put over the tank.... 8,10, or 12? this will be for a heavily stocked sps tank.

Also you t5 people... whats a good bulb combo. i like a 14k look with my MH's so any combo that replicates that would be great!

Thanks :)

[dmilne85]

bump...

[BrassMonkey]

as many as you can afford. or 14 whatever comes first. :)

[magnoliarichj]

1 bulb per 2.5 inches.... the width of a slr icecap reflector.

[an411]

Just remember that the ice cap ballast has a limit to how many feet of bulb it can handle I am not sure of the max amount but you might want to check that out in case you are going to need a second ballast.

[dmilne85]

yeah im aware the 660 ballast can only handle 5- 3ft bulbs. i just dont know what becomes overkill with the t5's.

i was hoping to hear experience with someone that had similar dimensions. i mean if it were halides i could put a 1000 watt bulb over it... but is that necessary??? im not usually one to go conservative on lighting but im not sure what is nessisary. i mean heck, you cant get more then a 10 bulb premade fixture for that dimension.

I also dont want to over heat tank beyond what a fan can do.

[BrassMonkey]

up to 4 bulbs with the icecap.

id go with 12

[manderx]

a guy in our club had 2 5-bulb aquatinics over that tank (the marineland DD?).

they were enough to get decent growth and color, but rather than add a 3rd he decided to switch to halide. we put a 400w reeflux10K driven by coralvue ballast in a large lumenbright reflector over it about a week ago and it's doing *fantastic*. it covers the whole tank and he's getting better growth and color every day. we are eventually going to put actinics around the sides pointing in, but it looks great as-is.

he had considered swapping in icecaps to overdrive the 10 bulbs he had, but didn't want to have to replace 10 bulbs every couple months, plus we weren't sure it would do the trick, it's a big tank.