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Okay. I have a 55 gallon tank that I just bought a couple things for. It's 48" long, 12 1/2" wide, 21" tall. I bought a matching stand and hood. Now for the hood, I bought some reftrofit lights. It contains 8 54 watt t5 high output light with individual reflectors. I'm going to run an XP3 filter pumping out 350gph with an over the back filter pumping out 350gph more. I have a titanium heater, and just a couple other things. Now my questions are, will t5's run cooler, warmer or the same heat as power compacts? Now at that, I'll be running almost 8 watts per gallon. That would pretty bright and I'd be able to have anything in the tank pretty much. I need to know if I need to run a chiller in the tank if I have 6 fans in my hood with the t5's.

I'm not sure, but I *think* T5's tend to run sort of cool. I have them on my tank, and I know my fans only turn on when the halides are on as well.

As for the fans...I cant give you a definite answer. It might be something you sorta just have to try. I cant really tell how good your ventilation is/will be...if you can afford a chiller though, just go for it. It'll keep your tank more stable anyway.


-Ferret [img src='/images/forums/halo.gif' border=0]

-Formerly known as the Ferretfish