T5's and long tanks?

[tylorarm]

T5's appear to be getting acceptance as fine for SPS, energy efficient and widely available. However, for larger tanks the longest tubes are the 80w, which are only 60". This has made it difficult for covering tanks that are longer, and probably also wider, than the single fixtures offered. Metal halide you can get a 72" Geiseman like i have with 3 400w MH that covers my tank's 84" length and most of the 48" width. My Geiseman spectra also has 4 x 80w T5s and when they're on you can tell they don't have the coverage of length the MHs have. So if one were to use T5 only fixtures with a big tank what do you do, get two 36" fixtures? Seems like for big tanks, especially open tank tops, MH still has an advantage?"

 

[46bfinGA]

I run two 4' 8 lamp tek fixtures on my 600 gallon tank end to end... works fine.

 

[tylorarm]

with an open top i think one fixture would look better, but i guess if you hang them well it might look pretty good. interesting that 8 lamp covers the width of a 600gl