Lighting for the 240?

[dpunz]

Still haven't bought any lights for the 240. I was thinking either 2x 36" T5 coralifes or 2x 48" T5 coralifes. The tank measures 96 x 24 x 24. Would one 48" be suitable? Tank is being cycled atm. No fish and bare bottom.

Thanks in advance!

 

[slednex11]

well i think id go with 2 -48" t5 will be good, i bought 4 -36" t5 (72x24x32)and im am going to sell 2 of them as 4 is just way over kill so just get 2 lol

 

[DAZZA]

Depends what you want to keep. I had a 110cm 2x150watt MHQ combined with 2x30watt tubes on my 240. I mainly used the tubes as the halides freaked my fish out. Plus they are expensive to run. Gotta love the shimmer though!

Have you thought of LED's?

 

[12 Volt Man]

I would probably add another set of the T5 coralifes.

one of thee issues you are seeing is not so much the brightness of the lights that is the problem, but rather, the light coverage, as the T5's are very close together in the fixture. so you have a narrow strip of really bright light, but around that its not as bright.

each 36" T5 double fixture should be good to properly light a 36x12" area, so adding a second set of two should be perfect.

if you decided to go with High Output T5s that are much brighter, they generally sit up on legs so they would light a larger width for the same length fixture.

but if your tank is not going to be planted, I would not go with High Outputs its going to be too bright. lots of algae otherwise.