Odyssea T5 HO light

When it comes to Lighting, TPT is lucky to have members like HOPPY. He has taken a lot of personal time to answer the important questions with real data, not just speculation.

LIke he said, TWO widely spaced t5HO bulbs would give you good light levels ALL OVER the tank. Your tank has sorta odd dimensions, so making sure the bulbs arent't right next to eachother is the trick...

But, there is a "custom" solution that shouldn't cost you much. Catalina Aquariums does custom work, forr cheaper than most stock fixtures--and they are built right here in the USA. All you have to do is CALL them, explain your tank size, width, and that you'd like 2x24w t5HO on this tank, but want the bulbs to be as far apart as possible.

Look them up and give them a call. Tons of members here have had awesome luck with them.

I have the same fixture you first posted only the 96w(24" version). it's definitely ineffecient, since it only has a single reflector for all 4 bulbs, and each set of 2 bulbs is wired in a series so you can't just take out 1 bulb each. Plus the bulbs are pretty close together and there's definitely restrike issues.

The ballasts are magnetic ballasts, mine don't even get warm tho. The light is decent tho, great for the price comparatively and if the ballasts do go bad, it's easy to wire in new electronic one's, Plus the bulbs come with it. And I really like the moonlights. However I have found that I have to run all 4 bulbs(96w at least for a few hour burst) to get the same or less amount of light as if i just had 2 t5ho with individual reflectors. My 2 ODNO'd T8's with individual reflectors put out more light at the substrate than just running 2 of the t5's in that odyssea fixture. Running just 2 of the bulbs my plants are much leggier and taller than they were the t8's, running all 4 keeps everything nice and compact again with very short internode spacing.

As for the UL, pretty much no fixture is UL listed, nor does it matter. Just some thoughts