Upgrading Tank question

[tennis4you]

I am looking into upgrading my tank which I am pretty serious about that this point in time. I have (3) T5 lights at 50 watts each over a 125 gallon tank. I just swapped out the gravel substrate for SMS substrate. I am getting ready to purchase dry ferts so I can start dosing for more than just micros with Flourish and last but not least I am going to get a CO2 system.

My question is though, is 150 watts enough over a 125 gallon tank with the CO2 and ferts?

Thanks!

 

[ceg4048]

Hi,
150 watts T5 with reflectors on a 125, while not extremely high, will be fine for many plants. You can easily add another 50 watts. It depends on how much growth you want, how much maintenance you can stand and visually how appealing you want the tank to look in terms of dimness or brightness.

You are far more likely to suffer issues with poor CO2 and it's distribution due to poor filtration in a large tank like that than you are to suffer insufficient lighting. The problem is that many have poor growth due to poor CO2 (or poor flow) and then blame their lighting. More light will make the tank sparkle more but will also be less forgiving of errors in dosing and CO2.

You can always add more light, but ensuring adequate CO2 and filtration will get you better dividends and is much tougher to achieve.

Cheers,