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Question about Coralife Linear t5 30" fixtures

1K views 4 replies 2 participants last post by  tropism 
I don't know about the hagen fixtures, but I have several 36" coralife t-5 (21 watts x 2) fixtures. Those were actually the only thing I could find that would work for me on two of my tanks because they're on a counter with cabinets above them, and if I got anything taller I wouldn't be able to access the cabinets. Don't worry about the bulbs being 28.25"... Even regular everyday fluorescent bulbs are not the length they say they are. I just measured a regular 36" bulb, and it's 35" not including the pins, or 35 3/8" including the pins. You just need to look for 30" t-5 normal output bulbs. If the fixtures will be sitting right on top of the tank, you would need one at the front and one at the back to cover the tank. But, 2x 2.25" lights would only leave a 7.5" gap for the MH to go through. (29 gallon tanks are just 12" front to back though, right?) I don't have a GE 9325K to compare it to, but from pictures I've seen, it seems that using the coralife colormax bulbs as a supplement to daylight bulbs has a similar effect to the GE's. I really like the colormax bulbs (not by themselves though!), and coralife does make 30" t-5 bulbs for that fixture.

All that said... I'm a little concerned that 150 watts of MH on a 29 gallon is already "living on the edge". Adding another 36 watts might not be a good thing. Of course, that's not coming from personal experience; I just thought I'd mention the possibility. If you're not too set on keeping the MH (I don't know if I could give it up if I had one...), there are other options that would cost about the same or less than two supplemental light fixtures + bulbs.
 
Well, the Colormax bulbs will definitely bring out the reds in your plants, but they're fairly dim and unbalanced by themselves. I took one of my fixtures and changed out the 6700K daylight bulb for another Colormax (so 2 Colormax, no other bulbs on). It looks pretty pink, but I actually like the way it makes the tank look. Sort of like a sunrise or sunset. Greens still look green and yellows yellow though, so it's not unbearably pink to me. So I take back what I said about not liking the Colormax bulbs by themselves. ;) (I was going by an OLD, really dim t-12 Colormax that I used to use) Unfortunately I don't have a single bulb t-5 strip light and the dual bulb ones won't run with just a single bulb... so I can't really say if a single Colormax would be bright enough for "non-noon-burst" viewing.

To see how much MH light the fixtures would block, you could cut some strips of cardboard or whatever you have handy (2.25" wide for the single bulb, 3 1/8" for the dual bulb) and lay them across the tank. Other than that, I don't really know what else to suggest. Maybe a nearby fish store has the single and/or dual strip lights in stock, and allows returns if you don't like it? It's just hard to tell with something like this without having the equipment there on your tank.
 
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