T5 lighting

[paultaylor]

Hi everybody,

Newbie here, setting up first tank.

I, for numerous reasons, can not have HQI lighting over the aquarium so have recently bought a T5 ramp :
http://www.arcadia-uk.info/product.php?psub=0&pid=3&mid=10&lan=en&id=4

The ramp consists of 4 x 54w T5 lamps, 2 actinic and 2 14k marine white. The aquarium is 150cm x 50cm x 60cm deep, total 450 litres. I am pretty sure that I would like to add more light and have worked out that I could add another identical T5 ramp over the tank (there is just enough room).

Not knowing much about lighting, would this be a good idea 'as the most light possible' is where I should be aiming, or is it more complicated than that ?

Thanks in advance for your reply.

Paul

 

[ChrisRD]

What do you want to keep in the tank? That lighting should be adequate for a lot of stuff, but you may have trouble with higher light species toward the bottom of the tank.

 

[Len]

My philosophy is if you can keep the temperatures low enough, add as much lights as you can. So if you can fit in another T5 fixture, I say go for it

 

[paultaylor]

Thanks for your replies guys.

Just one other thing, with the 4 x T5s which I have in at the moment the light in the tank seems quite blue. If I added another ramp do you think I should stick with the same 2xactinic and 2x14k white or do you think I could maybe lets say, out of the total 8 bulbs, have 5x14k white and 3xactinic to help the tank to bit a bit more apealing :?:

Paul

 

[DaisyPolyp]

If you think that setup is "too" blue, I would recommend going with all 14K bulbs, or 10K + actinic. Some people go with the 10K's without any actinic supplementation so that is an option as well.