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Is 2x t5 enough for a 29 gallon?

1K views 3 replies 3 participants last post by  seandelevan 
#1 ·
I'm new to this forum so I guess I'll introduce myself, I'm Tim and I currently have a 4 year old medium planted 10g tank using 100w (incandescent equivalent) 4000k twisty CFLs, and Now I'm about to set up a 29 gallon I just bought. It's 18" deep and I would like to grow an HC carpet in it, so my question is can I go with a double t5 fixture or do I need to go with a 4x t5 fixture? They will be the 30" tubes.

I dont really trust the Watt per gallon rule, wattage does not equal amount of light (ie lumens) and is skewed depending on the type of light used. (obviously using the rule doesn't work for an incandescent - and on the other end of things it won't work for LEDs either.)
 
#2 ·
I highly recommend that you read Hoppy's Article on lighting with PAR, I found it very useful. I currently have 2 low tech 29 gallon set ups and I am using 2 T5NO bulbs on one of them and a single T5HO on the other.

Are you going to run CO2? That will definitely make a difference in your lighting choice.

Just read the information in Hoppy's post (one of the articles in the sticky above) and follow his recommendations.
 
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