T5 lighting suggestions please

I have Hagen Glo fixtures, T5 HO. Total of 4 bulbs @ 54 watts each is a ton of light for my 75 gallon. I hang them approximately 13 inches above the water surface. Any lower and it would be too much light even blasting CO2 as high as it could go. I use 2 x 6500 bulbs at 2 x Geismann Aquaflora.

I attached 2 conduit tubes with a 90 degree bend (over the tank) to the back of my stand. I drilled holes into the horizontal portion of the conduit above the tank to hang the fixtures from. Painted black they look fine. Conduit is super cheap at any hardware store. If you don't have a conduit bender see if you can borrow one - or be creative, as in, buy it, return it - after bending. Or fill them with sand and then bend them over a form to the angle you want.

EDIT: I just took a look at the fixture you linked to. One thing to keep in mind is that reflectors make a big difference into how much light from the back and sides of the bulbs get reflected down, into the tank. That fixture looks like it has reflectors for each bulb, which is good! Next thing - on the GLO fixture there is a sleeve with a rubber o-ring that slides over each bulb socket to keep moisture out. This fixture does not seem to have that (and why would it, it is for horticulture, not for hanging over a glass box full of water), so keep that in mind. Maybe glob some petroleum jelly over the socket/pin area after installing the bulbs to keep out moisture?

farrenator said:

4 x 6500 is going to be a ton of light. I suggest you get something withe some red in it (warm white). It will help show off the colors of the fish and plants. Dial intensity up/down by adjusting how high above the tank you hang the lights. I would start high and lower as you need to avoid an algae explosion.

Click to expand...

I can always turn off 1 of the fixtures. I have 2 on there, also a really low watt LED with red/blue in it.
So far it's been so good. No algae and the plants seem to be loving the light.
I'm definitely wanting to have them hang a little higher above the tank, though I'm at a loss of how to do this. I don't want to hang them by chains from the ceiling. So my only other option would be to make some sort of brace above the tank. Right now I just have them sitting on top the tank. The lights themselves have a plastic cover on them, so it buffers the light a tad.

I've had people tell me all sorts of things lol. Some go by the watts per gallon rule, while others claim it's not the watts but the intensity of the lights to the substrate. Some say you need red/blue/white lights, while others say just daylight bulbs are fine. There's a lot of different information out there, so I'm just going to play around with the setup I have currently. Hoping it's a good one, anyway lol.