does the mh bulb matter? T5's are just fluorescent's, what makes them better then the other 10k fluorescent bulbs?

First understand there's lots and lots of variables (tank depth, clarity of water, bulb spectrum, efficiency, etc, etc) but to get an idea of total wattage required for rough estimate purposes of coming up with a budget for lighting a tank with photosynthetic corals, use 5 watts/gallon.

hmm sorry i should fill out what tank I'm gonna run. I have your very basic 10 gallon tank W/cover+lighting system (basic bulb input, think round) -two 20W versions of those bulbs http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod.../1/product.web
would be about 20% shy of what I need, which I can work with-
BTW, how well do bio-filters work for nano's, I know that skimmers are prefered but would a good bio filter work?

Wish you luck, as might find a tank that size for starting out and then as a hardcore reef to be a bit of a challenge.

lol, yea "the bigger the better" i'll start with softies first then work my way up (;, i just didn't want to waste money on bulbs that would be useless. So, basically two 20w's of those bulbs might be able to do it?

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I started out with pretty much the same setup you will be and I think I've come through ok. 10 gallon tanks are shallow so with 2 of those 20 watters you will be able to keep leathers such as finger or toodstools. You will be able to keep zoanthids, palys and ricordias etc. You should manage with green star polyps and zenia. All of which are good beginner corals. Do me a favour though, stick with only the easiest variety until you can upgrade your lighting. Good luck, and welcome to the addiction.:mrgreen:

tks for the tips and its nice to be in. I'll definitally start with some pulsing Zenia.

T5's are fluorescent bulbs, correct. I think the reason for their popularity is that they are much thinner, and don't block nearly as much of the light reflection. Which brings me to my next point. T5 set-ups without individual reflectors are pretty average as well (i.e. not suitable for SPS).

hmm, makes sense.

t5 can grow sps but they have to be high output H/O also I think there are alot of factors that come in with an sps tank not just the lights like stability, dosing, and other factors. IMO t5 are awesome but for the cost of bulb replacement on t5 versus MH I went with MH. I've seen many tanks with t5 and they have 5-8 bulbs on a set up versus 2-3 bulbs on an MH set up also HO t5 gives a nice colour to the tank because you can use so many different bulbs on 1 diy fixture from pink to blue to purple even greenish.