help me choose lights

If you want sps than do NOT get pc. PC will severely limit any SPS you could possibly keep. Go with some more t5 with individual reflectors.

I would go with T5HO, VHO, or MH.

Get it over with and go with Metal Halides! .. you will not be limited to what you can keep that way ... (I am going to get flamed for this one! LOL) ... I love MH so .. I would not go with any other lighting .

Edited by thebutler4 - July 21 2007 at 10:56am

I love the shimmer but the power bill thing will just make my wife hate my tank.   The more I look into corals I think that I really prefer softies and maybe some LPS.  I am not sure if my lights are T5VHO or just T5 no HO.  This is exactly what I have and I thought I could add one more. https://www82.safesecureweb.com/webaquatics/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=CL58023&Category_Code=CLT5 Will 2 of these work for softies/some LPS in a 55g standard tank?

Those are standard output T5 28 watt. T5HO 48" are 54 watt.

when looking at lights you also need to keep in mind the replacement bulb cost vs the lamp life, this is another area where MH come out ahead, I just replaced a lamp, $65 I was able to get about 18 months life out of it (by running less than 12 hrs per day) so the lamp cost was $3.61 per month,  electricity cost  for two 250 watt MH running 12 hrs per day at Spanish Forks .08 I came up with a monthly cost of 14.90 per month.

that is a estimate with two magnetic ballasts, I am using one electronic and one magnetic, (soon to switch both over to electronic)

if you go with vho's or t5ho lamps, find out how long they live before you need to replace them and what the cost will be, not just the electricity part.

hope that this helps.

I was just saying what I have been told, I would like to have halides but I dont like the heating issue.  I have a older home and it heats up a ton faster then it will cool down. The bulbs are $18 to 22$ per bulb and they last for around 18 to 20 months apiece.  it isnt that bad.  I would prefer halides, but I also like the ability to play with the color.  I do realize that there are ways to make it more pleasing to your eye with halides, I dont think you can go wrong with either lighting system.  i also have had some good success with VHO's. 

And don't forget, watts are, well, watts. The power to run any bulb is converted to heat and light. Mostly heat. T5 and halides are close to each other in efficiency. So 350 watts of halide will produce roughly the same amount of heat as 350 watts of t5. I think the perception of them getting hotter is due to the FEEL hotter when you put your hand near them. That's only because it's concentrated on a smaller surface area than a long fluorescent tube. Heat transfered to the water should be roughly equivalent from either source. 

T5's are much more efficient. You can touch my bulbs when they are running and they transfer little heat to my tank. My heaters come on just as much in the day when lights are on as they do at night with no lights... I've never heard of a MH system that works this same way. MH adds a lot of heat to a tank and this is another thing to consider.

I've got 8 t5's over my tank and would have had to had at least 2 250 mh with some actinic supplementation to get the same intensity and coloration. That is 432w of t5 versus 500w mh plus probably over another 100 in actinic. Big difference there, if wattage was the only factor I would have chosen t5, but its not. MH produces a lot of heat at the bulb and ballast creating inefficiencies. No lighting source is perfect, t5 wastes electricity in the form of heat as well, but not as much. Therefore again I chose t5.

But every system and preference is different. Aesthetics are a huge factor in a reef tank. No one has a reef tank because it is a cheap way to take up space. It costs money no matter what you choose, so go see some tanks. Decide what you like and what you can afford. Then apply it to the system you want to build and go from there. T5 and MH are each great but of course t5 is better... GO T5!!! ;) And if anyone who hasn't seen an all t5 wants to come see mine, I always like to show off my setup.

EDIT - I forgot to mention the cost of replacing t5's. Most bulb manufacturers recommend replacing t5 every 18-24 months if they are adequately cooled. I will see if my bulbs last this long. But I do know that I had to replace my PC every 12 months and most people replce MH every 12 months as well, though I personally would try to get more use out of a mh bulb because they are not cheap. That is almost double the life for t5 bulbs, but I will monitor my bulbs to see if this 2 yr timeline is a reality. I hope it is.

Edited by shaggydoo - July 22 2007 at 3:41pm

Whoa those are the most expesive t5 bulbs I have ever seen. I went with ge 6.5k bulbs and they are really cheap and put out almost more par than any other bulb out right now. They are only 12 bucks or so. So if you get 2 or 3 of these and provide the rest actinic (which you can usually find for around $20 or less if you get some on sale, I'm not picky about brands) you can get a lot cheaper set of bulbs than 8 at $28 (which is a ridiculous sum to pay for t5 bulbs). And you can save quite a bit of cash if you are replacing every 24 months versus every 12 with mh.

As far as my total power draw I have no idea. I would have to look at the ballasts and they are attached to the back of the canopy so that aint going to happen until I replace bulbs. But t5s do not get even close to as hot as mh. You can walk up and grab my t5s with no burning. I'll go do it right now,..... ouch ;) jk but you really can grab them with no harm done even after they have been running for hours.

Anyone who runs mh on their tanks knows heat becomes an issue fast and if you are in UT you are lucky because a couple fans and you are good to go. In more humid areas you almost have to get a chiller and that is a huge factor (luckily not for us here though).

Are you using electronic ballasts on your mh? Because I know those are a lot more efficient than the magnetic which is another thing to consider. At my parents I was living in the basement and switched to 250w magnetic mh about the same time as my parents put in two 250 mh also on magnetic ballasts. My dad almost took a hammer to these lights after the first full month's electricity bill came in with the mh's usage on there. I know that there are many things to consider because obviously other things were using electricity besides the new mh lights but that did not calm my dad down any as his electric bill more than doubled in one month (in the winter so it wasn't ac usage or anthing else obvious we could blame).

One day I will actually add it all up and see how much wattage I am using but I'm sure it will be less than the alternative (2 250w mh and actinic supplementation, which would have been approx 600 watts vs 400 watts t5). But that is just my tank, other tanks have different dimensions and different options available. So for me t5 was a no brainer, I have many gorgeous SPS and really prefer the look of t5 to mh. Again the savings are trivial when compared to the look. This hobby is expensive so get something that looks good so you can justify the high cost of this hobby with the gorgeousness (probably not a word) of your setup.