[Steve Pituch]

Hi missphnx,

You can put 240 W over a 75 gallon tank for about 90 dollars with NO flourescents. See my 75 g tank at:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve's Page/Aquarium/hardware/lights/lights.html
A 6500-6700K bulb is pretty neutral hi noon daylight. The 5000K bulbs are warmer. I definitely like the 6700K bulbs better. You can see the difference in the bulbs at this link:
http://users.ev1.net/~spituch/Steve's Page/Aquarium/Animals/animals.html
In the first picture, the brownish bulb is a 5000K bulb. The others are 6500K from Home Depot for about two for $6.50.

The 2x55W kit would cost you about $103 for 1.5 W/G.
The 2x96W kit would cost you about $181 for 2.6 W/G.

The 2x96W kit would be about perfect for your tank. You could put the bulbs side-by-side.

The 55W bulbs you would need to put end-to-end since they are 21.1 inches long. At 1.5 W/G and the narrow reach of the reflectors would probably leave some real dark areas of the tank. If you wanted to go with the 2x55s you could buy another 2x55 kit later on for not much more than the 2x96 kit. That way you would end up with 3.0 W/G.

I would go with the 2x55 kit now only if you really can't afford the 2x96 kit now, but also realize that you may need to have a lot of low light plants, and you are willing to buy the second 2x55 kit later on.

If it were me I would try the get the 2x96 kit now.

Regards,
Steve

 

[Steve Pituch]

Hi Steph,

Actually the two 55s end-to-end are probably better than one 96 W bulb. The 96 W bulb is 34 inches long. Since your tank is 48 inches wide that leaves about 7.5 inches at either end bare.

With two 55s the reflectors are 22 inches long so you cover about 44 inches so there are only 2 inches at each end that are bare.

Why don't use use the two 40W T-12 NO fluorescent bulbs you have now in combination with the two new 55Ws. That will give you 2.5 W/G! Which is plenty of light.

Show us a picture of your new canopy. How much room is inside it? You could use the two-pin bulb connectors for the 40 W bulbs that I got at Home Depot under the canopy and remove and place the 2x40W ballast on top of the canopy like I did.

The trouble with the 2x55W kit is it will probably light a narrow swath down the middle of the tank. But if put a 40W bulb on either side of the 55W bulbs, it would do nicely.

Steve Pituch