T5's on 150g

[mmedley]

Hey Guys,

I am in the planning stage of finishing my basement/in wall set up. I have a 150g tank 72"long I believe it is 24" tall, I'll have to double check it's been a while. I am planning on running t5's, keeping softies and mushrooms. My question is how many bulbs and what wattage should I get. I seen a guy with a similar set up and he was running 16 39w t5 ho bulbs and kept sps no problem.

 

[rtparty]

I would run 6-8 60" bulbs over that tank. Although they may be a little overkill for just softies.

 

[mmedley]

I am trying to find a good fixture for my set up and there seems to be limited selections. I am looking at a nova 12x39w fixture, but this has made me think about bulb replacement in the future. If you are supposed to change your bulbs every year, 12x$20-30 =360 which over time does not seem like a very good investment. This has me thinking about going with MH. I seen a 3x150 hqi with 2x54w t5 combo fixture....what do you guys think?

 

[swegyptian]

I had a 72" 125, and I lit it with 60" T5 bulbs to keep the cost down. Much cheaper upfront and in the long run, but not very bright on the ends. I had corner overflows anyway, so I didn't really want light all the way to the end.

 

[mmedley]

I am now looking at a fixture which is 72" long 4x80w. I was thinking about getting two of them so i would have a total of 8x80. Would this be a good set up?

 

[wasian8]

I'm in the same boat as you mmedley. I have a 125g 72" long that i'm in the process of setting up. I have a 4x80w system atm. My LFS said this would be good enough for softies but i've also been searching online for more info. Hopefully we will both get some answers from this thread.

 

[mmedley]

I'm in the same boat as you mmedley. I have a 125g 72" long that i'm in the process of setting up. I have a 4x80w system atm. My LFS said this would be good enough for softies but i've also been searching online for more info. Hopefully we will both get some answers from this thread.

I've been debating between LED vs t5. I found a good price for the 4x80 fixtures which would run me about 300 for 2 fixtures vs some LED fixtures from ebay that was discussed in a thread on here. I think I would need at least 3 to cover my tank and they were 225 each.

 

[wasian8]

I've been debating between LED vs t5. I found a good price for the 4x80 fixtures which would run me about 300 for 2 fixtures vs some LED fixtures from ebay that was discussed in a thread on here. I think I would need at least 3 to cover my tank and they were 225 each.

So you can get 2 T5 fixtures for 300? That seems like a pretty dang good price. 60" bulbs average around $30. So you would be spending around $240 a year to replace the bulbs. After a couple years you would start to see the savings if you went LED. Do you mind me asking where you found those T5 fixtures? I might be wanting to pick up an extra fixture for my tank.

 

[rtparty]

Just to be totally honest, avoid the cheap T5 fixtures. You will pay for it in the end.

$150 per fixture means it is a cheap fixture with cheap components. It will have crappy ballasts and bad reflectors. You might as well use Power Compacts at that point. You lose all the advantages that T5's have to offer.

A cheap fixture also means cheap bulbs that need to be replaced from the get go. So your $300 just turned into $550 when you have to get new bulbs. Why not get a good fixture with good bulbs from the very beginning?

Lighting is not a place that you can afford to skimp on. You will regret it one day and just end up spending more in the long run.