lighting for 72 gallon bow-front

[ryanvan]

I have a 72 gallon bow front. I was planning on runnig a 48" 4x65w coralife fixture or a 48"tek light 4x54 t5 fixture. I also have a 2x55w compact florescent light that I will be running along with which ever new system I buy. I am a little confused by wich lighting system is better. Living in vancouver canada the coralife fixtures are easy to find. The t5 selection seems to be very limited.

 

[jcraft]

what do you ultimately plan on keeping?

fish only? SPS and clams?

different inhabitants require different lighting

I have a 72g Bowfront and this is how my lighting scheme went:
started with a Coralife 2x65w Powercompact fixture . . .
quickly realized this was practically useless for anything other than a fish only tank . . .
bought a 48" Coralife Aqualight Pro w/ 2x 150w Metal Halides and 2x 96w Actinic . . . for the most part i liked it, but a few months later decided the 150's werent cutting it . . .
so i got 2 Reef Optix III's with 250w Phoenix bulbs running on a Blue Wave VII ballast . . .

thats what im running now and am very pleased with the results- my corals have started to grow a lot better than with the other fixtures . . .

the moral of all this? do your research and BE SURE you know what you want- if the halides are something you think you MAY want in the future- save up the extra money and get em the first time, that way you're not losing money trying to sell the fixtures . . .

 

[ryanvan]

I am looking at keeping fish and soft corals. halids are not in the budget. I would like to now if t5 are better than compact
florecent lighting.

 

[ryanvan]

I have just been jiven the opertunity to buy a 6 month old 48 inch aqualight pro fixture with the 2 96watt pc actinic and 2 150 de mh for a good price. will this be a good light for manly soft and posibley some sps corals. I am fairly new to the hobby and want to start out with easy to keep corals.