t5 or metal halid or both??

First topic message reminder :

i am looking to upgrade my light. i dont have any corals right nowbut may wanna add some in the future. i have pc on my 55 gal tank right now and was thinking about going with a t5 light (216w) it will give me almost 4 watts a gal, which i think will be good for soft corals. then i started thinking about going with a metal halide light then i saw the ones with pc or t5 on it as well. the mh is like 500 watts with the two bulbs, and i was sure if that would be to much in a 55. i know you need alot more watt per a gal with hard corals but i was wondering if thats still to much and if i went with straight mh would it be any different than going with mh with t5's??? other than maybe the color. thanks for any help on this. just figured id ask befor i spent all that money

nitty wrote:

48" Sundial T5HO
216 total watts
2x54watt 10k day
2x54 watt 10k actinics
4 l.e.d. lights
2 fans
2 timers

works great and I never had problems out it. I think I paid $325 new, but I've seen them used for under $200.

i only have that and its not enough to keep colors in my zoas. im gonna double up my light set up

tim wrote:

nitty wrote:

48" Sundial T5HO
216 total watts
2x54watt 10k day
2x54 watt 10k actinics
4 l.e.d. lights
2 fans
2 timers

works great and I never had problems out it. I think I paid $325 new, but I've seen them used for under $200.

i only have that and its not enough to keep colors in my zoas. im gonna double up my light set up

tim i think your problem is that teh lfs you got your corals at probably use a different light type (metal halides maybe) and teh corals have not quite adjusted to your tank yet. i run a 4 bulbs T5 HO fixture on my 90 with 4 geisman bulbs:

1. 11,000k (i think it is 11,000k anyway)
1. 6,500k
and 2 different actinic bulbs (one looks blue when lit up, the other looks purple)

my corals look better than when in my lfs (they use VHO's)

i noticed at my lfs most of them use t-5s with all their corals. dont some need MH??? do they just do that since they are going to sell them and for the short time they have them t5 light will do the job or will t5's do the job for most corals?
and lord what kinda corals are you keeping? jw since we been talking about it latly and we are kinda running the same setup with lights at least i wanna get a ideal of what works best with a t5 light

lordraptor1 wrote:

tim wrote:

nitty wrote:

48" Sundial T5HO
216 total watts
2x54watt 10k day
2x54 watt 10k actinics
4 l.e.d. lights
2 fans
2 timers

works great and I never had problems out it. I think I paid $325 new, but I've seen them used for under $200.

i only have that and its not enough to keep colors in my zoas. im gonna double up my light set up

tim i think your problem is that teh lfs you got your corals at probably use a different light type (metal halides maybe) and teh corals have not quite adjusted to your tank yet. i run a 4 bulbs T5 HO fixture on my 90 with 4 geisman bulbs:

1. 11,000k (i think it is 11,000k anyway)
1. 6,500k
and 2 different actinic bulbs (one looks blue when lit up, the other looks purple)

my corals look better than when in my lfs (they use VHO's)

yea my lfs uses metal halides on there frag tank, and a 6 bulb set up on there other coral tank. i have a 10000k bulb and a blue acitnic bulb. do you think i should double up my lights?

wouldnt hurt tim, i use a 4 bulb setup on my 90, 2 power cords and i have my actinics on one cord adn my daylights on another.

t5 is fine if you do not have sps but mh and t5 are nice that is what i use my corals are going just fine they are growing like weeds

drudown66 wrote:

i noticed at my lfs most of them use t-5s with all their corals. dont some need MH??? do they just do that since they are going to sell them and for the short time they have them t5 light will do the job or will t5's do the job for most corals?
and lord what kinda corals are you keeping? jw since we been talking about it latly and we are kinda running the same setup with lights at least i wanna get a ideal of what works best with a t5 light

i have a purple tip dig, red monti cap a candy cane, and a pavona that i kept under T5's until i moved them over to the 110 under MH's. in all honesty i dont see much of a difference in any of them and my 90 is almost 30" deep while the 110 is 24 or less" deep. the only thing i can say about the mh's is the shimmer effect looks cool

i would go for both....in my 75 gallon i have mh and pc......have hard and soft corals in it.....in my 90 gallon i have nothing but pc....3 420 antics and 2 20,000k.....i have soft and some hard corals in it.....