3 bulbs or 4?

I bought a 40 breeder that I plan on heavily planting. My question is,,,should I run a 3 bulb T5 fixture or a 4 bulb T5 fixture?

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Permalink Reply by Matthew Pelzl on December 27, 2011 at 12:47am

4 bulb or higher, I plan on getting a fixture that has a 250w metal halide and 4xt5ho for my 40B, but that's just me i like light :)

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Permalink Reply by Hmoobthor on December 27, 2011 at 2:59pm

depends..

what kind of bulb are we talking about?

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Permalink Reply by Bryan on January 5, 2012 at 11:47pm

It all depends on the light requirements of the plants you plan to grow!!!

If you're going to fill the tank with low light, slow growing plants like java fern or anubias all you would need is the T8/T12 bulb that comes with a standard 36" hood. With that plant set-up, more light would just grow algae...

Keep in mind that a 36" HO T5 bulb puts out 39 Watts. With two bulbs you'd be at ~2W/gal or 'moderate' light. With 3 bulbs 'high' light. Any more light and you get to a point where you need to start adding co2 and ferts.

No matter what plants you decide on I would suggest getting a floating plant species!! I have some dwarf water lettuce in my tanks. Because of their emergent (above water) growth they help to absorb nutrient spikes that would otherwise lead to algae growth