T5HO vs MH! Ahhhhhhh the confusion!
 

Alright once again I am posting something regarding lighting :redface:

So I got my permission from required source to upgrade my lighting. Currently running coralife 30" 2T5HO fixture over my 12" high 20 long gallon. Colors don't just pop in my tank. Everything looks so less colorful. And not to forget about all the beautiful brownaporas I have :neutral:

So I am stuck between quad fixture T5HO and MH.

T5HO = bulb replacement cost is high
MH = heat issue over a shallow tank and putting 10" over the tank will get too much spills (or am I wrong?)

I am willing to buy anyone of those as long as I get great coloration of my corals. They are growing good and I have no complain about that other than just the color. I don't have A.C. in the room and the room temperature stays 75-77F.

Shoot the suggestions/opinions :D

I would go t5 on that tank.

Thanks :D

Yah I was also thinking that too. Putting a MH over 10" from water surface is just too much I presume.

Which T5s do you recommend? I am a coralife fixture fan (they are cheap :mrgreen:) but ATIs have great variety of bulbs but their fixture worth like 2 months of my grocery shopping :|

I have the growth; all I want is the colorrrrrrrr (oh and the growth too :mrgreen:)

As long as your happy with it who cares. Really I bought a fixture off eBay. Put decent bulbs in it a couple months later. Worked fine. He'll still working on my brothers tank. When ballast burn out you can replace them with your choice

Since you've given up on sps you may get a little more time out of the bulbs too

I would go LED's lol
But I agree t5's over that tank would be great.
I prefer geismann lights but I've heard atis are good as well.
It depends on how many bulbs you are running but I found a Fiji purple brought out the colors along with an actinic or two.

*I just re read and saw you were looking at fixtures, I would get whatever you like I find in t5's the bulbs made the difference the fixture and ballast meant zero, **

Thanks for the suggestions :D I see all the high end T5s are mosly 24" and 36". I don't know why 30" is so unpopular and has only bulbs from coralife :S I would really like to run 10k, acticnic, fiji purple, red or something with some quad fixture but the bulb size gets my options really limited :(

Disclaimer: LED is totally out of question. I don't want to sell my kidney to get one. JK :lol: They are just way out of my budget. I mean WAY WAY out of my budget. Electricity bill is not my concern since my landlord pays it and I prefer to save $20 each month for new light instead of putting in $400 at once :P But I wish Radions had 0% INTEREST STUDENT LOAD FOR LED program :razz:

The size is my limiting factor. Most of the great bulbs are only 24" and 36" :(

Whats a corallife fixture cost?

What about supplementing with LEDs? I have 2t5hos and vertex illuminux on my tank. I just checked pricing and you should be able to pick up at a reasonable price. This gives my tank the shimmer and I get great coral growth. Then you are still only changing 2 bulbs, no heat issues and not breaking the bank.

I think I can score a quad fixture below $100.