Great link, I never understand why people are so stuck on their ways on this topic. It has been proven time and time again that T5's can grow great thriving SPS tanks, yet somehow all those pictures of it occurring seem to miss MH users. I guess it took a long time for people to start believing the earth was not square, even after all the ship explorations and date that said it was circular.

As Lorenz0 said "canreef [and many of the other forums are] dominated by people who believe that MH is the only way to go. IMO MH is good for growing but color is a whole different story. Still can NOT get the same colors that you can with T5's (edit) unless you run 22k MH but than your losing your growth

Its all up to you really, personally i prefer T5's and will never own MH.... but the temptation has been there to try them out"

I feel the same way about T5's.

I'm doing the mix as well. The 2x250w MH for the PAR, supplemented with T5s to help with the colours and that dusk/dawn thing. Some comparison pictures here.

Very good answer, the differance in PAR will be a little more at 24" though, more like 50 to 100% more depending on reflectors and such.

only thing I am interject into this is water clarity makes way less differance than people think. unless the water is so cloudy you notice it and have a hazy look to it, you are going to get less than 1% atinuation in a 24" deep tank, once there is a slight haze you get about 1 to 2% and if you can't see the back of the tank clearly then it gets bad. the only reason I know this is when my tank crashed due to a crapy heater I figured I would take something good out of it and did PAR readings at various stages of clarity. Had to get something good out of loosing over 7K replacment value in corals :cry: Also glass tops only make a differance of about 3% for 1/4" glass. acrylic would be less.

Steve

What fails to be mentioned many times when asking a question such as this thread, is the variety of T-5 fixtures.

Notice many of those, {not all mind you}, bulbs in that thread are over driven. Plus some of the fixtures are top end units. Thats a lot of difference when comparing what they will grow and depth penetration.

My 6 bulbs fixture is very good, IMO, but when it was on my 90, I think it may have not been enough for sps corals, except for higher up. But then its half the cost of the other units and with bulbs to boot. :lol: Try explaining that to lowballers when selling a unit like that. Sheez.

Anyways, I would not hesitate to use my unit on a 16in. high tank for sps corals. If I was doing a 24in deep tank and wished to run T-5,s I would use one of the high end fixtures, esp. the models that run the bulbs @ 80w or build my own and use the Icecap do it yourself kits. My friend has a 120g full blown sps tank that and it rivals any halide lit tank I have seen.

In defense of halides though, have a look at some of them in our featured section. Some blow your mind sps tanks there. When I look at my friend Mikes 5ft. tank running his three 250,s both 12K Reeflux and a centered 20k, there is no doubt in my mind thats part of the reason for the nice growth and outstanding colors in all his sps

So this basically says, more than one way to run the tank, just buy the correct product for your own needs.

My tank is 27" deep and I run a mixture of M/H & T5 and really like the combo. 5x 250w 14k, 2x 150w 20k & 12x 54w T5 bulb mix. It's the best of both worlds. Lot's of colour, growth and still get the MH shimmer.:biggrin:

Another point about the MH is: are they HQI or single end moguls because between the two of them there is little comparison IMO. HQI all the way!

ahh, here is another one I can dispell, :mrgreen: it isn't the DE bulb that is better than the SE, b ut rather the HQI ballast that is better. A SE bulb on a HQI Ballast has both more par and coverage than a DE bulb on the same bulb.

Steve

T5 is only adequate for tanks 12" or less in depth. Anything greater than that depth and growth rate for SPS will be less than 1mm per month when using T5s.

Additionally, PAR values measured by meters such as the Apogee Quantum meter measure false high PAR values for actinic fluorescent lamps so the measured T5 PAR values are misreported (over inflated).

My tank is approx 30" deep and I am running T5s (8 tubes) and before this, i had MH lights (750 w). My soft corals and anemones are responding just fine to my T5s and I don't have to worry about crazy electricity bills.

I should note that most of my corals are closer to the top (about 2 feet away from light)

So your saying all those in the thread I linked are wrong??

*ding ding ding* and in this corner
:fencing::laser::fish::boxing: