# Nova Extreme T5HO Freshwater / "watts per gallon or.." thread



## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Please help! I bought a 54g corner setup today (will start a journal soon), and I bought a light fixture at the same time. I bought the Nova Extreme 24" 48w T5 HO (pink and white bulbs). I was told this was "enough" lighting. 

Well how do I know? What are your thoughts?


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

It has a TOTAL of 48W? That would be quite low, even for VHO. How tall is your tank? That has a lot to do with how much lighting you need.


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## fishscale (May 29, 2007)

Also, pink and white is not a good description of the color temp 

There should be some marking somewhere of the temp.


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

Is it a single 48 watt bulb? 
Uh-oh. Who said it was enough light, and did they know you wanted to have a planted tank? 
BTW, pink and white to me sound like the colormax bulb.


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## xPlantedxCometx (Nov 12, 2007)

If its the strip lights then they usually have the Kelvin rating(which I believe is the same as the temp, correct me if Im wrong) and not on the bulb. IMO you would need to up your lighting to something different.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

They are 2 x 24 watt, one white, one pink (the pink is for plant growth). 

Okay, the box says: 

24 watt Freshwater SlimPaq T5HO Lamp
24 watt 10,000K SlimPaq T5HO Lamp
German Parabolic Reflector

"A revolutionary fixture that produces greater lumins per watt than all other fluorescent aquarium lighting systems"

"Deep penetrating light rays - promotes optimum plant growth"

What they guy told me (after I told him it was for plants) was that with these kind of bulbs, you can't look at wpg like regular fluorescents. He said watt for watt, they don't compare.


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## tazcrash69 (Sep 27, 2005)

And in a way he is correct, compared to a NO (normal output) fluorescent, they don't compare, but still probably IMO not enough. Hopefully someone with more T5 HO can chime in here.


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## Buck (Oct 13, 2002)

I would be more concerned with the depth of the tank with 24W bulbs. Higher watts are needed for deeper tanks no matter what spectrum. A corner 54 " is 30" deep aint it ?


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Sorry. Forgot to answer that. It's 22" deep (high).


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## lemonlime (Sep 24, 2006)

T5HO is ~ 1.5watts.of.light per watt of consumption
This is with good reflectors of course

Given your tanks depth and the OK reflectors of your fixture, something like 1.3 would be a better figure.

You should have about 1.25"wpg" of light.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Thanks. I am open to going back and getting the 18" fixture also (that's all I have room for), but I wanted to be sure I needed it before putting the money out. 

Edit - I looked at the 18" online. It is 36w. By calculating it at 1.3 like you suggest, that puts me right at 2wpg (2.0222 or something like that). Oops..the 18" is in the saltwater category..different lamps. Should still "work" though..


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

http://www.current-usa.com/novaextremet5hox2.html


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## lemonlime (Sep 24, 2006)

Aye, those little fixture are pretty reasonably priced!

Take into consideration that your fixtures will be resting on glass, so the extra bit of heat and light having another medium to pass through will inch down you wpg a little. This would be a lowish light tank.

If you wanted to do the full-blown planted tank something like these would be IDEAL for a corner tanks

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/3777/cid/1120

^^ a very well priced hqi pendant


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Mine won't rest on glass. I'm hanging them from the canopy well above the water, and I opted out of buying the glass tops. Thanks for the link! I see those used for sale all the time on saltwater forums. I'll keep an eye out.


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## lemonlime (Sep 24, 2006)

GL, I'll be keeping an eye out for your journal!


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Just posted it! Not much there so far, though!


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## Green Leaf Aquariums (Feb 26, 2007)

I have 24" 130watt lights FS if you need some. PM me


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Anybody with personal experience with this???


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## waterfaller1 (Jul 5, 2006)

I have the 2 X 24 wt Nova Extreme light you originally posted about, over 2 10" cubes. So equal to about 8 gal, at 10" high.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

hmm. Looks like I am going to buy the dual Satellite setup from Current..the 24" 130w one. 

Orlando, that wouldn't happen to be what you are selling, would it?


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## markkoelsch (Oct 20, 2007)

It is 2 watts per gallon. The bulbs are 54 watts a piece. That is not bad from a lighting standpoint, but it depends on what you intend to grow. One bulb is a 10000K and the other is pink. I do not know the temperature of the bulb, but when combined with the 10K it seems to work well. I have the 36" on a 38 gallon, and I like it. I do plan on replacing the pink bulb with a 6700k soon.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

Are you saying the fixture I bought is 54w each? Mine are 24w each for a total of 48w for a 54g tank that is 22" deep.


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## markkoelsch (Oct 20, 2007)

I am sorry...I misread the original post...I reversed the length and wattage. You are correct...it is 48 watts total. That would be pretty low for a planted tank of most any variety. Can you afford two of these fixtues, and would they fit on the tank?


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

They don't make another freshwater one that will fit. I am looking at the 12" dual Satellite from the same company. Either simply adding that one, or returning this one that I bought and buying the 24" dual Satellite. It's 130w. But it's a simple compact flourescent.


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## 24fps (Oct 12, 2007)

forddna, 
I have a 55gal long, 48". 
I have 2 of the CurrentUSA Nova Extreme HO T5 2x54W fixtures. 108W per fixture, 216W total. I think the fixtures are great quality, good price, and bright. Search the internet, you can find them cheaper than at BigAl's, and do their price match. I got the 48" 2x54W for like, $86 from bigalsonline.com.
With the single fixture, you will be lacking. I would just blow the cash and get both. 4 lamps, and the flexibility of it is going to be a big help.
I run the 10KK&"plant" bulb fixture 6hrs a day, with the second fixture, a 10KK&"actinic" reef bulb for a couple hours overlap and it runs solo at the end of the light cycle for the simulated sunset.  You won't regret it.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

I can't get 2 of the Nova Extreme T5HO units in there and it actually be worth the effort. The only one I can fit, to add to my 48w fixture, is the 18" saltwater one, which is 36w. That would give me about 1.5wpg.

BUT..the website says it is almost double the output of regular T5, T8, etc lamps. So..would 1.5 of that be more like 2.5-3wpg???

Otherwise, I can get that 24" Dual Satellite 130w fixture for $114 plus shipping.

http://www.petmountain.com/product/...a-dual-satellite-24-hour-lighting-system.html


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## AndrewH (Dec 24, 2007)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Current-USA-24-...ageNameZWD1VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m118

Here's a quad 24w T5HO fixture... it's a little high priced. I'm not sure if it'll fit in your canopy though.

That Dual Satellite looks like a good option IMHO.

The 24w T5HO tubes are rated at 2000 lumens each. The 65w CF are 5000 each, FYI (of course those are approx. numbers from GE's lamp catalog for the same type lamps - might be more or less from a differnet manufacturer).


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## muttbone (Jan 20, 2011)

I know that this thread is a few days old, but I'm sort of in the same boat. I am considering upgrading my lighting on my 92g corner Bowfront. I currently have 2-36in 30w Flora-Gro fluorescents on it, and I am growing low light java ferns, java moss, a moss ball,onions, tiger lotus, and water sprite, and Madagascar Lace. I also get some curtain filtered light in the room with the tank. I would like to go up to the next level of lighting intensity, and I was considering a 36" Dual T5HO fixture (78W, 2-36W bulbs). I don't plan on using CO2. Some say that this is too much light(it will spawn algae growth), and others say that it will be fine because of the depth and spread of my tank. The tank is 22 in. deep. What do you think, and would this fixture be enough light? The one that I'm considering is this one:

http://www.fosterandsmithaquatics.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+3733+13822+22134&pcatid=22134

Also, how do I calculate the wpg for a T5 HO?


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## chumlee (Nov 4, 2010)

WPG isn't really useful anymore. It really has to do with height of the light above the substrate (Because you could have a 10g tank that's 30 in. high and really thin, highly unlikely but you get the point), and the type of bulb. Check out the lighting forum, and there are a few stickys at the top. Read up on those .They should give you a good representation of the amount of light you have.


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## forddna (Sep 12, 2007)

A few days old? It's 3 years old...lol. And now it appears 2 x 24w T5HO is considered medium-high light. Go figure. 

For anyone reading through this and wondering what I ended up with:

I scrapped the fixture and bought AH Supply PC retrofit kits. 2 x 36w and 1 x 55w. I recently scrapped all of that and put one 70w HQI in the back corner and two 24w T5HOs in the center and in the front. I will be adding CO2 soon, but I just add Excel for now.


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## HolyAngel (Oct 18, 2010)

wpg rule is worthless for T5's.. especially when talking about different reflectors..

On that nova fixture, does it have seperate individual reflectors for each bulb? or a single reflector that covers both bulbs? if it's the former and the light is sitting on top of the tank or just above it you'll likely have medium lighting, if it's the latter, then you definitely have low lighting/possibly not enough lighting.

edit: ah sorry, didn't catch the extra page to this thread before posting, nvm!


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## muttbone (Jan 20, 2011)

Wow, I must have been really tired! I didn't even see the 2008 on the date of the last entry! I thought that was this January! LOL!

After reading up on a few more stickies and posts, I think that I'll be okay with that Dual T5 HO. The shape of corner bowfronts make them very tricky to light effectively. That may work a little to my advantage, because I can move my lower light plants (onions,etc) towards the back corner where there's less light, and get a few plants with higher light requirements and bring them to the forefront. Hopefully everybody in there will be happy.


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