Which 48" T5NO light should I get- SolarMax or Colalife?

Ive got 4 coralife fixtures, couldnt be happier with them.

i've used the coralife lamps with great reslts when i had a low tech tank. the moonlights are not that visible IMO unless they are really powerful led's.

I was planning to get the Coralife myself and it looks like a good price on that site. Have you dealt with them before?

I have not dealt with them.

I've dealt with the site before, actually for the exact corallife fixture you're looking at. Although the site is a bit chaotic, the price was much less than the competition, the fixtures shipped quickly, arrived well packaged and all bulbs intact. I ended up buying the 48" r2 solutions moonlight and the lunar timer and I like it. A bit pricey and not great front to back spread on my 90gal, but i'm happy. It has 24 leds and the timer is cool.

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Judging the SolarMax light just from that link you gave, it appears to have a much wider reflector, so it should give more light than the Coralife light does. The Coralife light is T5NO, but I can't tell if the SolarMax light is NO or HO. For a non-CO2 55 gallon tank, the Coralife light provides about the right amount of light. The SolarMax might provide much too much light.

Solarmax fixture says 2 x 24w bulbs, so it's NO.

EDIT: The NO fixture is labeled SolarmaxHE. They do have an HO fixture, its labeled SolarmaxH.O. and is twice the price of the NO.

Thanks for the help everyone. I placed an order for the Coralife. Hopefully it ships out quickly!

Awesome!


If you run glass tops, remove the plastic splash shield that covers the bulbs.
You bought a great fixture for the price it costs.

I was thinking about upgrading the fixture on my low tech 55 with something like one of these as well. Currently running a 4' 2 bulb t8 shop light.
I was reading some reviews for the coralife fixture, and some people said their light failed after about a year. For those of you that have these, how long have you been using them? Has anyone had one that has died? If so, how old was it?

Ive had 4 fixtures up and running for about 7 months now, zero problems

ya, mine dies after a year of use, more like lamost 2 years. firat the bulbs shot. so i bought more bulbs and then the ballast went. it was a disco club in my fish tank for a short while.

I'm also looking at those two fixtures for a tank that is at least a 90, maybe a 180, depending on which one I plant. 24" tall on both, I'm concerned the coralife wouldn't give good spread of light front to back (18" or 24" depending on the tank), anyone have exp with the coralife on an 18" or 24" deep tank?

chrisnif said:

I'm also looking at those two fixtures for a tank that is at least a 90, maybe a 180, depending on which one I plant. 24" tall on both, I'm concerned the coralife wouldn't give good spread of light front to back (18" or 24" depending on the tank), anyone have exp with the coralife on an 18" or 24" deep tank?

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You do realize your not going to be able to just run 1 of these fixtures dont you?
So front to back coverage should not be a problem with running the correct amount of fixtures on such a large aquarium.

Well if I do the 90, which seems to be the right way to go, a 48" fixture is fine, and per the charts I've read 2x T5NO is the right amount of light, I have considered a custom fixture from Catalina, but if the solarmax 2 bulb would spread the light okay that'd be fine. Also considering T5HO about 6-8 inches above the water or with window screen or low wattage HQI (my 70 HQI over a 20 high seems dimmer than 2xF17T8s on my 56 which is 24" tall, so I'm concerned if the 70s everyone recommends are bright enough too)

a single fixture that consist of T5NO will be giving you very low light in a 90 gallon.
And a T5HO dual bulb fixture should be located on the glass and not anywhere near 6-8 inches above it for a 90 gallon.

ridewake210 said:

If you run glass tops, remove the plastic splash shield that covers the bulbs.

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Just got the Coralife fixture last night. I was surprised at how compact and light weight it is. I removed the spash shield and layed it down right on the glass tops. It doesn't have any sort of mounts or stands so it actually rests mostly on the center brace of the tank which is slightly higher than the glass tops. Is that a problem? I love the hue of the light, very pretty.

So witch 48"X2 T5no fixture did you go with ? I have been considering the Coralife for my 75gal.