Quote Originally Posted by MikeM670 View Post
Eric,

For the 55 I have I am using two bulbs.

T5 HO 54w 46" Zoo Med Flora Sun (Max Plant Growth) 5,000K maximize growth of live aquarium plants.

T5 HO 54w 46" Zoo Med Ultra Sun (Super Daylight) 6,500K brings out the full colors of your fish, plants, corals and inverts. (I'm going to guess frogs as well )
These two bulbs are the straight type and span the entire thank width.

For the Zoo Med 18x18x24 I went with two Exo Terra Repti Glow 5.0 UVB 26w.

The T5's are much brighter and I think will really bring out the plant growth. The Exo Terra bulbs in comparison don't make the tank very bright. These are spiral compact florescent lights. The reflector is not as polished as the Zoo Meds and if you went with higher end T5 Units they have very highly polished individual reflectors that maximize the light reflection back into the tank. Not sure how the plant growth will go in that Zoo Med viv and I may end up having to replace that light fixture with a T5 system.

Now if your lighting needs are not very great the spiral 26w bulbs would be adequate for general lighting.
I used the Repti Glow 5.0 UVB 26w, but the Kelvin unit on them is a bit too long, and they were not recommended by a breeder. So I changed them for the 2.0 which doesn't look as great as they are much brighter. I was told that mixing a 5.0 and a 2.0 bulbs would do a nice job, as it would be a perfect combination of Kelvin rating and PAR.

The Philips T8 is much cheaper in price than the Zoo Med T5, but that doesn't surprise me. Everything that is "animal/pet" oriented costs a fortune. Which is why I get most of my stuff at the local hardware store.

I can't seem to find the product sheets for the two, though, although they both have a 6500 Kelvin rating, which is great.

I found this great tool however to find the specs of the Philips lamps: Philips - T8

Eric