150w T5's fixture or 150 Metal halide

[nemodad]

Hi Everyone,

Just started a 38 gallon and have 32lb of totoka rock, my plan is to have 2 percula clowns and skunk shrimp,eventually add some corals and i don't want to be too limited on what i can choose.

My issue is should i invest in this Aquaticlife t5 fixture
http://www.aquaticlife.com/t5ho/index.html

or this coralife Metal halide
http://www.oceanicsystems.com/produc...tank-mount.php

I like the T5 fixture because it has the bulit in timer and LED's but i know once it's bought, that the max light i will have.

The Metal halide however is small enought that i can eventually add a second one for a total of 300w.

Would really like to hear your suggestions.

Thanks

[Sebae again]

I had a 38 with 4 t5 bulbs and it did great. I had softies ,LPS and clams no problem. With the 38 you will need 2 off the Coralife 150 and if you went to a larger tank one day,you would probably want 250 watt halides or equivalent.

[ScubaSteve]

First of all, Welcome the Canreef, man! We'll be both your support group and enablers from now on, so welcome to the family.

Ok, just my opinion onj these lights but... neither. Here's why:

The metal halide, while nice and bright, is going to need some sort of actinic supplimentation unless you go to a really high colour temperature bulb, in which case growth is likely to be slow (depending on what you are wanting to keep). A 150W 20,000K bulb over 38 gallons would look great but wouldn't really cut the mustard in terms of actual output. So to get around this you will need actinic lighting and trying to set up actinic flourescents with the clip-on halide is a real pain in the arse. Trying to get two of those units over the tank would be an equal or greater pain. And on top of all that, you lose the actinic option which is actually quite nice for the evening.

Of the two options, I'd say the flourescent fixture is the better bet as you can fiddle with bulb combinations until you find something that works for you. That being said, don't be hung up on the built in timers; go to walmart and pick up a programmable plug timer for $20 (I think the manufacturer is Woods... I can get back to you on that though) and it is significantly more advanced than what you would get built in to the fixtures. Take a look around for flourescent fixtures; there's a lot of options there, though I'd recommend performance over features beacuse if you end up getting into something like SPS or clams you'll wish you have that performance.

I'm really not trying to be mean here or anything, man, so sorry if I'm sounding like a jerk.

From one guy who's start from the beginning to another, of all advice I could give to you from everything I've learned is: Do it once and do it right. What I mean by that is, get a good mental image of where you want to go and start now in planning to get there. Find local people who do this stuff and go look at their tanks and ask questions... it's worth more than gold!.

Doing upgrades along the way ends up being WAY more expensive in the long run. I know forking out the $$$ in the beginning hurts but it works out in your favour in the end. Trust me, I learned the hard way. Take a look around here, your local clubs and craigslist for used gear; you can get some high end stuff for a pretty good deal. I ended up finding one of these for a steal (except in a 24" model). These are a much nicer set up than the clip-ons (which I also considered at one point.

I know you're just planning on two percs and some cleaner's at the moments but just you wait... Have you ever seen someone addicted to drugs? Ya, reefing ain't too far off...

[nemodad]

Thanks for the advice guys.

ScubaSteve, Your not being a Jerk at all! lol

I appreciate the honesty and i agree with you that i should do it right the first time. I learned that lesson when i tried starting off a few years ago with a 10 gallon nano... That was a diaster, fish kept dying till i just gave up.

The Aquaticlife has a cool feature that allows you to control the on/off period for each light, Actinics, 10k and LED's, so not sure that can be done with an external Timer unless there is a power cord for each light.

Are there any other flourescent fixtures you would suggest?

[reefwars]

Love t5s hate aquatic life as a brand name why not go both get a combo light you could find one on here second hand for fairly cheap. I would have to agree with Steve in those two I'd take the t5 I run a 33with just a halide but it's a high end bulb 20000k the brightest I've ever seen for color and is quite costly(price of s fixture lol)I would seriously consider paying good money for a quality light than selling it layer fir 1/3 the cost just to upgrade anyways, everyone does it myself included and like Steve said it will cost you way more

welcome to canreef!!! cheers

[nemodad]

Man... can't seem to find anything used...
I like the coralife MH/Actinics combo but i can't afford the 600$ new.

Wife is gonna shoot me, just spent like 225$ on live rock and 110 on a RO filter. lol it is an addiction!!