agreed one halide is fine on that tank :)

250 watt MH will use slightly more than 250 watt T5 if both are electronic ballasts, if the MH is a magnetic ballasts then the MH will draw between 300 and 400 watts.

as comented above about 200ish watts of T5 being the same as 500 wats of MH, I almost rolled on the floor laughing. there not even close. yes visualy they will apear simmular if they are on different tanks, except the T5 tank will have no shimmer and look flat, as far a PAR goes you cannot get enough T5's on a tank to equal the PAR of a good 250 watt set up.


Steve

Go for LED
 

LED would be the best, if you can afford it. They're dimmable and have no waste heat. Go for the Vertex or the AquaIllumination models. 80 watts per foot on both, so you'd be consuming 160 watts maximum (probably running around 50% output, so make that 80 watts).

Thanks for the feed back

or.... a new 250w halide from some random fellow reefer!!:twised:

I'm still having trouble trying to find where someone said 200w of t5's are the same as 500w of halides if it's in regards to my comment I said they can light the same tank not use the same power or par, but then again I'm still on my morning coffee maybe I'm missing something lol:)