Help me pick lighting

[KAiNE]

I am finally getting around to addressing my lighting on my FOWLR. Its a 150XH tank so its fairly deep. I am looking at either PC or T-5.
For the $$ i can get either but with T5 the wattage would be lower. I'm not looking to support corals or polyps because they would be food..lol

What would you do?

Thanks

 

[crumbletop]

What are the dimensions on the 150XH?

 

[pitbullpooch]

t5s is what i plan on using when i start my fowlr. they look better to me and use less watts then what it would take to get the same brightness as higher wattage pc's also they penatrate deeper which would be better for a taller tank like yours.

 

[KAiNE]

dimensions are 48x24x31

I am leaning T5 but wondered if say...216w of T5 would be as bright as 260w of PC.

 

[pitbullpooch]

my 2x39 watt t5 looked brighter or atleast the same as 2x 96 pc. so i think you would be alot brighter with the lower wattage of the t5's. im sure someone else who can compare t5 wattage to pc's will chime in. you are talking about t5HO right? if not im not sure on the t5NO.

 

[KAiNE]

Yup T5HO

thanks guys... im ordering now.

 

[pitbullpooch]

another thing about the t5's which you might already know is they are alot better if they have individual reflectors. also i forgot to add that another reason id go t5 is because the bulb life is longer on them. so you save on bulb replacement cost.

 

[KAiNE]

Yea... Ive heard that too.
I have stayed away from PC up until this point and only considered them because its "only" fowlr.
I prefer VHO over PC but after reading more on T5... some are comparing them to MH.

 

[pitbullpooch]

sanjay is getting ready to do a face off between mh and t5 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1013083 . it will be interesting to see the results. ive heard alot of people say they like t5 better then mh and get better growth but then you got the people who swear by mh. so it might just be one of them never ending battles. as for my reef i had t5 and now have mh but im gonna add t5 back with the mh and to me that will be the perfect lighting for a reef since i like the look of both.

 

[Kalied20]

I got 324 watts of T5 HO's on my 90 gallon, and they are great. No heating up and they rival the Mh 150 or 175's

 

[KAiNE]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9200107#post9200107 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pitbullpooch
sanjay is getting ready to do a face off between mh and t5 http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1013083 . it will be interesting to see the results. ive heard alot of people say they like t5 better then mh and get better growth but then you got the people who swear by mh. so it might just be one of them never ending battles. as for my reef i had t5 and now have mh but im gonna add t5 back with the mh and to me that will be the perfect lighting for a reef since i like the look of both.

Yea... Ive been keeping up with that. Look forward to the results too. The main problem i see is that with T5, ballast, reflector and bulb type seem to make much more difference than with MH.

I like my MH... but in the future, i am sure i'll set up a second reef, I might give T5 a try.

 

[luckyfish]

If it's going to be a FOWLR and PAR is not an issue I'd take a look at folks tanks with T5 an PC and go with what visually looks the best to you. It seems there are more K ratings options with the T5 that change the look of the tank.

 

[pitbullpooch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9200770#post9200770 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by KAiNE
Yea... Ive been keeping up with that. Look forward to the results too. The main problem i see is that with T5, ballast, reflector and bulb type seem to make much more difference than with MH.

I like my MH... but in the future, i am sure i'll set up a second reef, I might give T5 a try.

I got bored and went to see what the thread of the month was this month and it just happens to be that t5 vs mh thread. I was hoping to get to read a thread that i havnt seen yet. I guess ive been on here to much lately.