Whats the difference?

Fishneedit has a hit and miss rating; their new stuff seems to be improving. Some fixtures have met rather interesting ends that could be summed up as, "epic fail". Their customer service leaves something to be desired; when selling products in a country, it's usually best to be able to speak the language well enough to understand the question. Make sure that you do your reading on what ever product you buy from them; some have improved, some have not.

-Philosophos

I'm in the process of buying a 48" T5 HO 4x54 light myself. I did alot of looking around, and asking advice. Most people I spoke to said Catalina is the way to go. I was told to call the place and speak with the sales person. They are willing to make deals and are suposedly very easy to work with. I'm going to give them a call in the next couple of weeks.

If your on a budget, Catalina...
If quality at any price is your goal, get the TEK.

jmho...

Larry

For a 48" fixture, Catalina is the way to go because they have such a great deal on that size. Their other sizes are not priced as nicely as the 48". If you are willing to spend the extra $55 for the tek, the extra quality would probably be worth it. Tek is probably one of the few lights that would be worth paying more for.

I should have mentioned I am trying to get a 24" fixture. The TEK and Catalina are both super expensive in these sizes. 280$ for the TEK and I believe that is without bulbs. Yikes.

Would you want 3 bulbs? Catalina's 3 Bulb 48" fixture with splashguard can be custom sized to your needs. I asked them if I could make it 36" and they said it would be fine, just mention it in the comments. It is only $139.

Thats a good idea. I bet 96 watts of T5HO even as a burst might be a bit intense over a 20g high....just not sure then if I should even spend 140 bucks on a new fixture for an extra 24 watts.

I made my own 2X24w T5HO fixture for a 20 gallon high, I think 4x24w is going to be way too much. I originally built a 3x24w, with a plan of using 1 x 24w as a midday burst, and even that was too much. I'm now running into issues of too much light, even with 48w, and am going to have to suspend my fixture to get my PAR down a little.

48w of single-reflector T5HO will definitely put you in the high light range. With good co2 and ferts you could grow anything, and grow it quickly.

I'm really happy with my Hagen GLO T5 HO fixtures.