T5 lighting enough for a 90g
 

I am going to be picking up a 90g tank later today and need to starting looking for lights. Will an 8x54w T5 fixture work on a 24" deep tank that is going to keep SPS and LPS or will there not be enough penatration? My other option would be to go with a 2x250w MH fixture with supplimental T5's. Any thoughts or what works on your 90g tank? Thanks.:biggrin:

Has anybody with a 90g switched from MH to T5's or the other way around? Anyone running a 90g SPS dominated tank with T5's? If so how many bulbs?

an 8 bulb HOT5 would be more than enough.....as long as you dont plan on putting your sps in the sand:wink:

You will get lots of opinions on this subject! Personally, I'm a diehard metal halide fan. :D

On my 90 I have 2x250w DE halides w/ 2x39w T5HO supplementals. The T5s are from a 3' tank I used to have, they are just temporarily (for the last year LOL) placed on top of the tank until I manage to set up the 48" Tek Retrofit I bought 8 months ago. :redface:

Anyway, I used to be an LPS collector, and swore I would never go back to prissy, finicky SPS. Well, my fixture is too much light for most of my LPS to show their best colors so the SPS have been moving in in plague proportions. All my LPS are on the sand or off to the side away from the halides. Having said that, I know lots of people with 250w halides that have LPS near the top. Go figure. Everything else aside, mine have best coloration with less light than SPS want. My Hammers and Frogs I gave up on and moved into a tank lit by T5s.

Get a powermodule :D You'll be fine with 6bulbs.
I'm ditching the MH and getting a PW in july :mrgreen:

I'm sure you would definitely see a lot more growth with MH lighting. I have a 6 bulb over my 90G and grow sps just fine. Another thing with T5 is you can choose a bulb mixture to suit your tanks needs.

Maybe because you have a tek, I've seen tanks with powermodules and the growth is as great or better than with MH and the colors are just amazing. That's why I'm ditching my MH :)

I do want to keep both SPS and LPS, I hadn't realized that MH may be too much for the LPS even low in the tank. I have a couple of SPS frags I got about a month ago under T5 lights (about 13" under light source) and my digi has already sread to the rock I glued it to with lots of new growth. My milli started to lose its polyps at first but has since revived and has started to grow out as well.

If your on the fence with t5s feel free to come over. Running a 180 gallon sps tank with a 8x80 watt t5 power module can grow sps on the sand. You just have to commit to changing your bulbs twice a year.

You do have to give up the pretty shimmer if you decide to go with T5s, and if you use different colored bulbs you will be able to see stripes of color running the length of the tank (call me anal, but that drives me bonkers). Meh, T5 shmee 5. :p