Well that's going to depend on who you ask :)

But personal opinion aside, what are you going to keep eventually? Where is the tank and will heat be an issue? If so, how will you deal with the heat issue? Is it a fixture or do you need to build a canopy/hood?

Specs
 

So it's in our basement and heat isn't an issue so far

In using a dual Ho T5 right now

I want to keep soft coral:

Leathers
Plate coral
Enenemies
GSP
Currently have Red blasto (growing successfully)
Bubble
Hammer coral

Mike

prob a bit extreme but your getting the right idea , on 4ft you would need 2 x halides. 250w at the most but 150w would do just fine too.

softies dont need a lot of light to survive but they will grow fast and do quite well under stronger lighting and then your also not limited to what you want to keep (your taste now could change in three years )

So Halides?
 

So you would go with Halides over the LED solution?

I think they are proven over time to be best from what I have read

Mike

I prefer MH over other types of lighting.

so do i , i went with t5 because of the small room and heat issues...... but that aside halides are def my choice light if i had it my way:)

in your case i'd probably go with halides as well.

if you do fancy 1W LED though maybe sell a few organs for something like this:

http://www.lani-led.de/index.php?id=5&L=1

Found a great source
 

I found a great place in Edmonton Alberta called T & T, hydrophonic

They have great prices and all sorts of lighting

I think I will go with a 6 bulb T5 HO light setup

For $240 that's the best I can find without dealing with the heat of Halide. It comes with 6 54W 6500K bulbs. I'll prob put my 2 10k I have now in

Any suggestions?

yes get rid of all the bulbs lol , google or make a post on here asking bulb combinations that people use and you'll find most are 10000k and higher:)

6500 is very very very yellow ;)

Plate, blasto, bubble, and hammers are not softies, but LPS. Anemone (if enememies :wink:) is not a coral. HTH. :biggrin:

Though I've never used T5HO, I have had experiences with 150w MH and LEDs (Hydra52) and have found the LEDs to be more productive with my corals. JME, YMMV. My new build I'm going back to LEDs, this time with Ecotech Radions.

I used to try to pinch pennies in the hobby but I changed my stance eventually as I want the best for my tank's inhabitants. Not to say you can't keep a tank with a small budget, in fact many are successful with the basics. I'd rather buy once cry once though. :lol: