LIGHTING Questions

[R.Allard]

so its been awhile. i used to run 4 250w MH 2)10k and 2)20k bulbs but now im hearing that T-5s are the way to go bla bla bla. so what is the new thing out and im looking for sugestions for my new 210rr remember its 29 inches deep. im not going to be keeping
sps corals. it will mostly be a FOWLR and few softies etc..and im looking for something thats not going to raise my electric bill to high....
any help would be great!!!
THANKS!!

[brewercm]

I switched over to T5's just recently myself. I love them myself so far, just make sure you get good reflectors. They will definitely keep your elect. bill down compared to MH. I'm planning on keeping clams in mine with them but my tank is only 20" deep.

[Joshua]

Robert, you're not going to get the same affects with T5's that you're used to with the old halides especially on a 29" deep tank. Having said that a FOWLR and a few scattered softies will be perfectly happy with T5's so it might be a good thing to check out. I might actually just go with a couple of VHO's in that case though depending on what kind of softies you toss in there.

[R.Allard]

i read somewhere one time that you need 5 T-5s for every MH and at that wouldnt you
be spending more money on your electric bill?? that means i would need 20 of them under my hood... i can imagine the heat that would cause and is everyone running the whole "5-7Watts" per gallon??i figure with a FOWLR i could probably get away with
3-4w per gallon and is there a conversion for the T-5s ???
the tank over here at the hospital has two little 32w PCs coral life bulbs on top of it and im getting ready to do the same with it. the fixtures are old and are burning bulbs up pretty fast.

[brewercm]

I'm running 5 39 watt bulbs over my 3' long tank and am happy with the look.

[gjuarez]

5-7 watts is just something to go by, a rule of thumb. Other things to consider are par levels, t5 get great lumens/watt. When people mention that you need 5 t5 to compensate for a mh, they are probably talking about an sps dominated tank. For the setup that you want, i dont think you need that many. But joshua was right, you wont the same effect as with a mh, you will loose the shimmering effect. If you are like most of us, you'll slowly want to add more corals.. I have been trying to start a fowlr tank, and it never happens. LOL

[R.Allard]

oh i have had several tanks from little fowl with just a couple of softies to full blown nothin but sps tanks and for me anyway i just seem to enjoy the FO tanks. i do like the aaahhhh that you get from the people that walk into my house and see the tank for the first time but after having one for two years and messin with the calk reactor and
having to worry about the water this and that or having a critter breakout that wipes
out 3 or 4 heads of coral and staring into the tank through a magnifying glass well i think you get the picture..im done. so yea ive had enough tanks to know what makes me happy..isnt that what its all about. i aplaud the people that have the resiliensce (sp?)
to keep up a reef tank and if that makes them happy more power to them.
i have just been out of it for so long and had heard of people using T5s ans T8s
for reef tanks and was wondering what or if there was new ways to save money
on the lighting bill.

[brewercm]

What are the dimensions of your tank going to be for that size? There are some great T5 setups out there that are very costly but if you are going t be running a canopy you could easily save money and do a retro into it.
I went open top this time and kept going back and forth between the ATI, Aquatinics, and TEK. Ended up with the the Aquatinics since it had the legs included to make it look good (must make wife happy) along with the cooling fan like the ATI systems that don't have a leg option. The TEK would have given me one more bulb but no cooling and I gound a great deal on the Aquatinics that steered me that way. Great looking light and you can see it in my thread about new 58 gal setup.

OK, a little long winded but just wanted to let you in on the scoop with the T5s. The biggest things that help them though is the good reflectors and cooling fans actually help keep the bulbs putting out the best par from everything I've read so far. That really equalized the difference between the TEK six bulb and TX5 five bulb. Good luck with whatever you go with though. BTW, I almost went with a Current outer orbit that has two 150mh DEs and four T5 actinics but changed my mind in the end.

[R.Allard]

i would like to see some tanks with just T-5s or combo T-5 and T-8 something along those
lines. im trying to stay away from MH lighting if i can.

and yea ill probably do a retro in the new hood im building. i already have some T-5 electronic ballasts and some really nice reflectors
so ill probably use them even if it ends up just being for actinic support.

[swjim]

Here are a couple T5 only tanks that were tanks of the month on Reefcentral:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-07/totm/index.php
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-10/totm/index.php

For a much more modest application you can see my T5 only 30 gallon in this thread: http://www.maast.org/forums/showthread.php?t=47906