Figure 1: The inside of the hood showing endcaps, tubes and reflectors.
After losing my last fish from 20G (2 foot tank) and blacking the tank out for six months to kill off the Caulerpa taxifolia (now illegal in New South Wales), I decided I would convert the tank for keeping corals. The tank had already been up an running for over 4 years, had an established DSB and live rock. All it really needed was an upgrade to the lighting (plus skimmer and auto top-off).
For the lighting, I had a choice between 150W metal halide (DE Shoplighter) or going with T5. As I already had the metal halide fitting, that was going to be the cheapest and quickest option, however, I felt I might actually have too much light and at the very least, more light than the corals needed. I also wanted to give T5 lighting a go so I can offer more informed comments. Given that T5 lamps put out at least 50% more light than normal output T8 lamps of the same form factor and that I had a number of corals growing well under 4 normal output fluorescent lamps in a tank that is deeper than 20G, I figured that four T5 lamps would be sufficient for all the corals I wanted to keep: various Acropora spp., pocilloporids, Hydnophora and miscellaneous other genera.
Table 1 lists the components purchased for the lighting upgrade.
| Component | Cost | Place of purchase | Part number |
| Total | $367.41 | ||
| 2 Atco PC 2/24 T5 Pro Ballasts | $154.00 | John R Turk | ATCO 22085182 |
| 4 pairs of AAG Stucchi Weatherproof T5 Lampholders | $36.00 | Litoria Pty Limited | 1783-G5/16 |
| 4 pairs of IceCap T5 Lampholder mounting bases | $26.80 | Litoria Pty Limited | |
| 2 aquaz 54W Spider Paraobolic Reflectors | $76.48 | Reef Culture | T5PAR54 |
| 8 T5 Clips | $3.52 | John R Turk | LIGST036 |
| 2 Osram T5 FHO 24W 6500K tubes | $33.00 | John R Turk | FQ 24W/865 |
| 1 aquaz T5 FHO 24W 10000K tube | $17.94 | Reef Culture | T510K24 |
| 1 aquaz T5 FHO 24W Actinic tube | $19.67 | Reef Culture | T5ACT24 |
Figure 1: The inside of the hood showing endcaps, tubes and reflectors.
Figure 2: The rear of the hood.
Figure 3: The rear of the hood with the ballasts exposed.
To determine how much light I was getting from the T5 tubes, I used my quantum meter (QMSS-ELEC) made by Apogee Instruments. It is not easy to measure the light from all four tubes as I can't get the probe of the quantum meter in the tank with the hood closed. I decided to measure the irradiance from just two of the tubes and assume that the total irradiance would be approximately double with all 4 tubes switched on.
I placed the probe of the quantum meter
Last updated: January 11, 2006