Lighting Conundrum

[Matt L.]

I've been reefing for almost a decade now, and I have had mixed experience with lighting over the years. I have had large setups and small setups, PC and MH lighting, but T5 only as a supplement to MH.

Probably the best lighting setup I ever had was a 2 x 250W HQI Aquaspacelight with PC actinics I bought used on eBay back in 2003. This fixture was sold a long time ago.

I have gone up and down in tank size over the years, and right now, I have transitioned from a 60 cube to a standard 120 gal; both being 24" deep.

I lit my 60 cube with a singly 250W HQI 13k bulb. Obviously, I would need to buy a second fixture for about $350 with bulb to light the other half of the tank if I were to reuse the original one, for 500W.

However, I have been moving away from SPS for some time, and have no clams. I have not been thrilled with some of the spotlight effects from my MH setups, and often times struggled with base recession of SPS, other shading issues, poor growth of LPS, burning from too much light and death from too little light depending on where I place a coral, and of course, heat.

I am thinking about going with a 48" 6 x 54W T5 fixture. I know an 8 x 54W T5 fixture is available, but considering the actual, usable width of a 120 is far less than than 24", I think the 8x fixture is just wasting light off the front edge and on the overflows in the back (where I have never grown corals).

What do you guys think? I am looking at LPS, soft corals, my BTAs (who will migrate up top regardless), Acans, etc..., and possibly some SPS up high. Please advise,

Matt L.

 

[ryangrieder]

hmm...well just so you know the tek-light fixture comes in a 8 bulb t-5 and only 18 inches wide. my buddy had it on his 140g awhile back and fit great and looked amazing. personally... i think it would of been fine if he went with the tek-light 6 bulb t-5. he has sps, lps, you name it. everything was fine. but honestly i think that 6 bulb t-5 would of been fine. i was actually thinking about the same 8 bulb t-5 on my 72g tank, but have a feeling im going to end up with the tek-light 6 bulb t-5 with giesemann powerchrome t5ho bulbs. its all going to depend on which structure you pick. better ballasts i believe means the more t-5 bulb can push out and handle. good luck!

 

[tomtoothdoc]

i think you would have to decide which "look" you would like. personally i like the shimmering look of the mh. i have had mh's, pc's, vho's, and t5's over the years and now i ended up with 2x400w 20k mh, 2x110w actinics vho and 20x1w actinics leds(as supplemental/moonlight) on a 48x36x27 200gal.dt.
if you were to go with t5, you had mentioned that you may want to put some sps at the top, i would go with the 8 bulbs option. i'm assuming you can put only 6 bulbs in the 8 bulbs fixture(or if for some reason the ballast won't fire if the sockets are empty, you can install some dead bulbs just to fill the sockets), that way if you need more light you can always hook up the 2 additional bulbs.
as far as costs goes, if you're looking new, the mh might be cheaper since you already have one.

 

[adamt]

I have a 4 bulb t5 on my 45 and its bright as @$%^. If your just looking to do lps and some softies I think the six bulb is prolyl fine. But if the price isnt all that different the 8 bulb would give you that much more light and the opportunity to play with some diff spec bulbs (one of the pluses to using t5's). I know most people on the forum swear by tek lights and geissman or ati bulbs but wavepoint makes a decent fixture for significantly less $ (the bulbs are way cheaper too). Talk to Masterswimmer, hes a good guy and from what i've seen stands by the products he sells.