Lighting for new 65 gal -24 " deep

[commodore]

Plan to keep mainly fish with live rock, but want to be able to keep some soft corals-mushrooms, green star polyps, xenia, etc. Do you recommend power compacts or T-5's. How many bulbs?
Thanks!

 

[SaltyMember]

If you stick to your plan of keeping just soft corals then either of the lights you mentioned will work. You might want to look into VHO lighting also. I like it better than PCs and it costs less than T5s.

 

[Zoos]

I agree even though i am running power compacts now, it is my least favorite light source. i would go with VHO's you can get a nice setup at hellolights.com http://www.hellolights.com/36vhoretkit.html

i would go with the 4 lamp set up
1 aquasun
1actinic white
2actinic blue
you won't be dissapointed

 

[DesertBandits]

I had a 20" deep tank with PCs, and I also keep the same corals you want. What I have to say to you is: prepare te be dissapointed. At that depth your corals are gonna look pretty poopy with PC: by that I mean brown and not as good as they could look under more intense lighting. If you are set on PC, I reccomend you look into Current USA's fixtures. They seem to have way better color that coralife fixture (which I have). This is because in a hood: 1 bulb is 1/2 10,000k, 1/2 6,500k and the other is half 420nm and half 460nm. All these color temps mixed together seem to bring out more colors than coralife's simple 50/50 lamps. If you can afford it I would reccomend a quality T5 fixture from Sunlight Supply for better grown and colors at your significant depth. Whatever you end up doing, good luck.