t5 vs halides

[waymack97]

i am setting up a 180 reef, will a 8 bulb t 5 be enough light, or should i put up 2 400 watt halide pendants?

 

[musty baby]

What's a 180? 6x2x2? If it's an 8 footer 2 bulbs won't cut it, and even if it's a 6 footer 2 might be stretching it thin. What are you wanting to keep in the tank?

 

[ADA33]

I personally like the 2x400w halide my main reason is I love the shimmer.
Both the t5 and the halide will work and you should be able to keep anything you want.


This is going to be a personal opinion you will have to make because both will do great.
t5 wont give you shimmer but will be easier to keep your tank from getting hot.

 

[acidlittle]

T-5 run a little cooler, well maybe a LOT cooler. Plus the bulbs have a longer life span at about 14-18months. If you do go with T-5 get individual reflectors!!!!!!!!!! They will greatly enhance the potentcy of the lights!

I have never had halides so that is in somebody else's realm of knowledge.

Just my thoughts...

 

[leeweber85]

I think 2 halides would work depending on where the braces are located.

 

[matt the fiddler]

why not try a combination? depending on center brace and hood height, and if you don't mind different parts of the tank being different colors.....


or go halide with t-5 actinic.

if you don't mind the cost of replacing more bulbs, you could get 250 watt halides, and a few t5s...


i got a stock of t5s i grabbed a year ago, and i am finally going to be adding them to my tank in the next month or so, once i pick up the bulbs......

 

[waymack97]

thanks for all your input. the 180 i am setting up is a 6 foot long. i want to be able to put anything in this tank, coral wise. and i don't really want to go broke doing it. well my wife don't want to go broke.

 

[jdreefer]

I think the answer to your question is really depedent on what you want to keep in your tank AND if you have a plan to address heat issues that you will have with 400 watt halides. If you want to keep high-light SPS and clams on the lower part of your tank, then I would think you would want to go with 400 watt halides. If you aren't planning on an SPS dominant tank, I wouldn't go with halides. You get way more than enough light with T-5s (some would argue that you sometimes get too much). There are some pretty amazing SPS tanks out there that are T5 lit. Also, with the availability of bulbs today, you can make your tank color whatever you prefer with T-5s.

I have both T-5s (4 bulb Tek) and halides (250 watt 14ks) on different tanks and can honestly say that I don't know which way I would go on another big tank. I can say that I like the color of the tank better on the tank with the T-5s due to the multiple bulb choices. It is also nice not having to replace the bulbs every 6-8 months.

 

[Covey]

I have run normally driven T-5HO, overdriven T-5HO and I now have 3x400W MH. PAR wise a well set up T-5HO rig can match anything the 400W MH can do and my 75G with 6 overdriven T-5s is still the brightest tank I have seen in person.

The T-5s are alot easier to manage heat wise.

My 150G is 6' and if it didn't cost me alot to replace stuff less than a year old I'd switch back to T-5s.

Since I like high color ight hungry acros I was considering

6x80W driven to 100W a piece on two IceCap 660 ballast
On 5' SLR reflectors

PAR wise I am pretty sure that would be in the same ballpark with the wattage dropping from 1200W to 600W