36 inch t5ho fixtures?

[nicolebrzu]

I'm looking to replace my current lighting system on my 40 gallon breeder. I originally wanted to go with an LED set up, but ultimately decided that a t5 setup would be better for me. I found a thread on 36" t5 bulb recommendations, but not much on fixtures. I don't have the option of suspending a light fixture, so I'm looking for something with feet that can sit above the tank.

So, I have two questions...

a)What 36" t5ho fixtures can you recommend?

b) With a breeder being a more shallow tank (16 inches tall) can I get away with 4 bulb fixture if I want to eventually keep a clam or should I search for a 6 bulb fixture?

 

[sirrealism]

Well if you want quality then the ATI fixture is the way to go and then yes 4 bulbs is fine. If you go with a cheap on like ebay then go with a 6 bulb and in a few months put ATI bulbs in it. There are other quality bulbs out there but with ATI you know every bulb is good and not just a few. JMO I have the same tank and am in the same situation. I am going to buy the cheap Ebay 6 bulb set up and replace bulbs with ATI to get the colors I want. Thats one of the benifits of having the 6 bulb set up. More color options

 

[BigAl07]

I say go for a quality 6-bulb setup because you will get better internal components as well as bulbs. In all honesty if you're using a mediocre fixture you're never going to do better than mediocre lighting. I've had great success with Catalina Aquariums fixtures back when I was running T5's. Also I am a HUGE fan of adding one of the KZ Fiji Purple bulb to any mix. It really makes certain red/pink/orange coral POP with color.

The famous Korallen-Zucht Fiji Purple bulb is well known for its ability to give your corals an extra eye-popping color

36 INCH SOLAR T5 HO AQUARIUM LIGHT FIXTURE 4 x 39 WATTS

or if you really want to have NO limits on what you can grow you might save and invest in this one (it's powerfulllllll )
36 inch BLACK SOLAR T5 HO - 8 X 39W

 

[nicolebrzu]

sirrealism Thanks for your help! Do you have a link to the ebay ones? I'd like to take a look!

 

[nicolebrzu]

Thanks BigAl! I've never heard of Catalina, so I'll look into that!
Would that 8 bulb fixture bleach corals? I plan on keeping some stony corals but I also love keeping mushrooms and zoas and wonder if even at the bottom of the tank that might be too much for them?

Do you know of any 6 bulb fixtures?

 

[nicolebrzu]

Last week I ordered the Aquatic Life 6 bulb fixture with a plan of replacing the bulbs with ATI bulbs, but then I got an email Friday that they discontinued the 36" model, so my order was cancelled!

Do you think the Aquatic Life 4 bulb fixture (or similar) with ATI bulbs would be good? I like the the AquaticLife fixture has a built in timer. Haven't found any bad reviews. Thoughts?

Wish I could find a 6 bulb!!!!

 

[sirrealism]

BigAl is right on but to make the jump back into T5s on such a small and shallow tank I feel the cheap one would do the trick. Just go to ebay and search T5 lighting. there are lots of them. If this was a 65g "Same dim as 40 but taller then yes very much so go with quality fixture but with it being so shallow I am doing a cheap on just to get away from LEDs. I love my LEDs but its an SPS grow out tank and I just cant get them dialed in right.

 

[Coraljunkie]

I use to have a 40 breeder with an aquatic life 4 bulb, I loved it! Great fixture, I ran 2 blue plus and two coral plus, not only were the colors great but my corals grew wicked fast

 

[BigAl07]

On such a shallow tank (I didn't take that into account) I agree that you should be good with the less expensive units. With that being said I was running a Catalina Aquariums 4bulb T5 over my 10g tank and it was amazing the things I could grow in that tank. I just can't seem to get enough light LOL!

 

[Coraljunkie]

I use to have a 40 breeder with an aquatic life 4 bulb, I loved it! Great fixture, I ran 2 blue plus and two coral plus, not only were the colors great but my corals grew wicked fast

 

[DaveK]

On a 40 gal breeder a 4 bulb T5 fixture will be fine for just about anything.

When you judge T5 fixtures you want to look for high quality ballasts and sockets. One way to do this is to look at power consumption verses the wattage of the bulbs in the system.

You also want a fixture that has individual reflectors for each bulb. This will get the most amount of light going into the tank, where you want it.

The endcaps can be important also. Look for ones that are watertight. Not too many fixtures have them, so shop around.

As for bulbs, there are a lot of good bulbs out there. In my opinion, you'll do fine with any quality set of bulbs in the fixture, but you might like the appearance of other types in the fixture. My personal choice would be for two full spectrum bulbs about 10000K, and two bulbs devoted to the blue / violet side of things, but I wouldn't call someone wrong that chose something else.

 

[nicolebrzu]

Thank you all so much for the great advice!!

So since everyone seems to be in a agreeance that in a shallower tank I can go with a less expensive fixture would you go with the four bulb Aquatic Life or the six bulb cheap ebay fixture?

Both I would probably run the stock bulbs temporarily while I research a good mix of better bulbs.