lighting for frag tank

[gemz]

so i made a refugium out of a 30gal long tank a while back ago, only to find we couldnt get it under the stand! very frustrating! me and my boyfriend have been thinking about buying the lights and upgrading our 110 to a reef tank also but not quite sure we can totally afford to stock and buy supplements and all right now....we were talking today and decided we could hold off on that and use the 30gal as a frag tank instead to grow out and use to stock the 110 later..question is how many watts do yall suggest we use...we will be growing everything from soft corals to sps and lps...would you say to go t5 or metal halide? the tank is pretty shallow (12-15in)..anything helps guys
thanks

[JimD]

For a frag tank that shallow you can definately use T-5's to save yourself some dough on electricity.

[gemz]

one more thing..does it really matter what type of lighting you get? for example, just say for instance, that i found a pc, t5, and mh fixtures but all had the same wattage...are they all equally good? watts are watts...right?

[alton]

Quantity of light is measured in foot candles or Lux, not watts. PAR measures the amount of usable light that a lamp produces and the different wave lengths. PC is cheap and works fine for shallow tanks. T5HO is better because of the many different types of lamps/colors you can configure. MH is mainly used on deeper larger tanks.

[Rychek]

T5 bulbs last longer than PC bulbs and put out more light, especially if you have a good reflector on them. T5s run cooler too. I run T5s on my 90 gal reef and would recommend them for anything 24" and shallower.

[uriah]

My vote is T5 as well... already mentioned- cheaper electric bill, cooler temp, various bulb config and great performance... Not really much more to say, except make sure you dont let you bulbs get old and definitly go HO. Depending on how many bulbs your ballast holds, on the 110 I would shoot for at least 4 10k HO, 2 true atinics and maybe 1 12k and 1 20k. Just throwing that out there, but depending on your preference you may change the config. So many options w T5.

[TinyTanker]

works well t5, on a 110 you dont have so much depth the less depth the more light penetrates to the coral. BTW, if you are interested I have a light for sale. T5 style

[gemz]

thanks for the info guys...t5 it is..cant wait to start on the build!...been looking at some past threads and seen some great ideas...throw out any suggestions if you like!

[gemz]

thanks for the offer tiny but we are going to end up doing the the frag tank not the 110...as for depth the tank isnt very shallow..its only 48in long but 29in deep..we also want to work on the filtration for it since right now it only has a canister filter so its just gonna have to stay a fowlr for a little longer...we are stocking up our 37 pretty good so im happy with that