# T5HO 2x80w for 125 gallon?



## Aquarion (Nov 16, 2011)

Hi, question for those more knowledgeable than myself...

I have a 60" 2x80w for my 125 gallon tank. Tank is 5' long, and I believe 1-1/2' wide roughly about 2' high (I'm being told it's more like 22" high, which is probably correct)

Substrate is some fluorite mixed with Tahitian moon sand. I recently added a bag of eco-complete and topped it off with a couple more bags of TMS. The substrate layer isn't quite 3" high (more like 2 to 2-1/4"). 

Not injecting CO2 but I have 1/2 dosed Flourish Excel and am thinking of doing a DIY with a plastic bottle and some sugar/yeast (how many 2L bottles do you think I'd want to put?)... but even there I'm not sure I want to do that -- I have two hang on filters (Emperor 400 and a Aquaclear 110). I could raise the water higher so as to limit the surface disruption but would they have a huge impact? I plan to add a little Aquaclear 20 as well -- but only as a filter I can remove real quick if I need to set up a hospital tank (this way I'd have a ready-to-go cycled Filter for it).

.... So, with all that out of the way-- I'm planting plants that use moderate lighting. Does anyone think this might work or will I need to make some changes?


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Aquarion said:


> Hi, question for those more knowledgeable than myself...
> 
> I have a 60" 2x80w for my 125 gallon tank. Tank is 6' long, 2-1/2' wide roughly about 2' high.
> 
> ...


If you have a 125 gallon tank that is 22" tall then it is 18" wide rather than 30" wide.


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## Aquarion (Nov 16, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> If you have a 125 gallon tank that is 22" tall then it is 18" wide rather than 30" wide.


That sounds right. I'll edit the OP, thank you


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## Aquarion (Nov 16, 2011)

Been reading around on planted aquariums, starting at the beginning, and I'm going to make a homebrew fert with stump remover, fleet enima and epsom salt for macro-nutrients & going to dose w/ Flourish for the micro ones. Also put 10 flourish tabs spaced throughout the tank and will put more in every 2-3 months. 

Already started a home DIY CO2 system. In the next couple weeks, I have three 1-gallon containers w/ sugar and yeast. Going to alternate one out every Sunday so that always one is fresh/new, one is in it's prime and a third is in decline. Upped dosing of Flourish Excel to just a hair above what is recommended (3 caps/day which is the equivalent of 150-gallon tank). 

I'll go ahead and post the updates as this goes along. I have a plant, which I forget it's name, in the foreground, basically looks like tall thin grass. It was planted a couple weeks ago and one of them isn't doing very well as some of it it turning yellow, breaking in half and dying. Another has done well enough (thus far...).

Edit: did some checking and I believe the "grass" plant in the back to be some kind of valisneria, which may be sensitive to flourish excel. I'm going to go off of FE for a week to see if the plant bounces back. Curious why only one is dying, though...


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