As was mentioned in the previous post, I recently upgraded my lighting. I currently have 8 x 54W T5 lights. To illustrate the difference it would make, I took a couple of photos.

First some background. The tank has glass top covers to prevent splashing of water, reduce evaporation and help keep the fish in the water. Obviously with time these glass covers get lots of salt residue on them. This reduces the amount of light reaching the water column. I never cleaned mine since I never thought about its effect on the lighting.

The 4 x 54W T5 I originally had in there consisted of 2 fittings of 2 T5’s with individual reflectors. Due to space restrictions I had to add a 4 x 54W T5 fitting - with one common reflector.

Here is a picture before I did anything:

Then I cleaned out the top glass panes:

Then I moved the two fittings to the front and back to make room for the quad:

Then I added the quad fitting, but turned off the original two fittings - so only the quad is on:

Then all 8 tubes on:

It is obvious the lighting has been increased dramatically. Oh by the way - the camera was on manual exposure so as to measure the relative effect of the lighting increase.