Elos the Aquarium Company has some fixtures with M.H. and 4 t5 bulbs.Some nice pics in their website.

I have researched the crap out of this subject as well and there doesnt seem to be a clear winner... to answer your original question though i would say just get a new ballast instead of investing a ton on a totally new system.

You could get T5HO's in combination with MH like reefer rob has suggested just keep the single working MH you have and get a 4 bulb retro kit this is the best price i could find with free shipping in canada just be sure to select the right size.

Cheers,
Ken

Thanks very much... I cant wait until I have 1k to spend on some amazing light system lol. But for now I bought 4VHO with icecap ballast for the side of my tank that is missing a light and im gonna continue running my MH. Thanks for all the helpful suggestions everyone.

By the time you feel a real need to upgrade, there'll probably be something even better any ways. I feel with any kind of fast moving technology, the key to buying is procrastination. Leave it to the last minute :mrgreen:

And what about LED's?
 

I have a four foot PFO Solaris 20K LED system on my 90 gallon tank. If you're into leaving a smaller footprint on the planet, you might want to think about these.

I had DIY 400 watt metal halide lighting with a 10K and a 14K bulb. The LED lights are saving me a chunk each month on my utilities plus I'm adding way less top off water to the tank since much less evaporation ... fewer trips to get RO/DI water now. I was able to take off a fan on my sum, so energy savings and water conservation there, too. I imagine my air conditioning will run less in the summer now and it is way less hot in the basement the rest of the time. No chiller required.

Corals seem to be doing well under the LED lighting - I will be checking SPS growth closely beginning in April, but results will be mainly anecdotal.

I think metal halides have a nicer shimmer effect, but as long as you have ripples in the water, you will see most of that shimmer effect with LEDs.

The LED light bulbs may need to be replaced at about 10 years, so there appears to be a cost saving there. Programming the lights, having lunar lights and options such as cloud cover have been of interest to me.

The big downside of LEDs are the price, but if you think about the total cost of ownership, there are benefits to LEDs.

true i really was interested in the LED lights but I couldnt justify buying a set of lights for almost 4000 dollars.

Just to add more thoughts. I dont follow the colour thing, as I have seen some pretty brilliant coloured sps T-5 tanks. And I think they are as bright or brighter than some of the higher "K" halide bulbs we use.

I feel they are correct lighting for many set-ups but not all. I do agree with you on the purchase of good equipment from the start. Now by that, I would not use the multiple T-5 set up on a larger tank. However if oneswishes to run a whack of T-5,s over a large tank, it should provide enough light but I would say, halides are much more simple for that and provide as good, if not better light, in that situation.

My friend chucked his T-5,s from his 180 after a year of use and went back to 400w halides. {I can say he would not use them again but still loves VHO lighting}. I sold my 4ft.s and just used my 175w halides. I now say that was a mistake, as the T-5,s were better lighting and brighter than the 14K bulbs I was running.

As I had access to several 3ft. T-5 fixtures for my new 30g long, I sold the halides and went with them for this particular situation.

I'm still new to this game, but i can tell you that T5's have been working well for me. I dont have any basis of carparison to MH as i have never used them. I think one of the most important things with coral color and t5s is your bulb selection, that make all the difference from pastel to the bright neons we all desire. I went with the hagen glo fixtures and was pretty impressed with the brightness. All of my LPS and softies are thriving 12"-24" from the lights. My zoos a spreading like crazy, every day i am seeing new buds. I decided to try a birdnest frag a couple weeks ago (5" from top) and it's put on some thickness and new branches are sprouting. I would like to have some of that shimmer effect, but the heat from MH in my living room simply would not be comfortable during the summer.

I am going on 3 years with my T5-lit 120 gallon tank 48" x 24" x 24". It is an 8 x 54 Watt Tek Light.

It is a mixed softie/LPS/SPS tank.

The light is too bright for some softies eg. mushrooms will not grow.

The sps have done fine however I only have the easier sps for now Monti caps Monti digitata and horn coral. One Monti cap frag I got about two years ago was 1" size now it is about 10" across with multiple sworls and I have taken quite a few frags off it. I don't know how this would compare to growth under halides.

I am getting a calcium reactor in the next month or so and then I will try some harder sps.

That's good to hear as I am setting up a 90 gallon withe a 6 light Aquatinics SolarFlare fixture.