What Lighting?

[Myka]

My target is the most vibrant SPS colors I can achieve just taking lighting into consideration. From what I understand, the bright SPS colors are what the coral uses to protect itself from the sun's rays...? So, the brighter the light (among other parameters) the more vibrant the colors...?

Now, considering my tank is 36"x18"x24" making it a 65 gallon, I was thinking because of the 36" length it would be best to use T5 lighting. If i\I use Metal Halide I will only use ONE BULB. So, taking the length into consideration...what should I use?

~ 7 - T5s?
~ 250W HQI pendant
~ 400W HQI pendant (not a lot of bulb choice with this one)

Or use SE bulbs and overdrive them with HQI ballasts? What will give me the highest PAR?

[DanG]

HO T5's will give you a huge range of options for bulbs as well as a very high level of penetration if you go with a set that has individual M shaped reflectors. Most will come in even number bulb configurations, so either 6 or 8 is what you're looking at.
If it's not individual reflectors, then MH would be a better option.

[Myka]

Yes, if I went with T5s I would go with individual reflectors. The Sunlight Supply Tek T5 6-bulb, or this other brand that J&L Aquatics has just started carrying that I can't remember the name of...they come in odd numbered bulbs. I do like the variance of the bulbs, and I have seen some AMAZINGLY colored SPS under intense T5 lighting.

I am running Giesemann T5 bulbs right now, and have found that they have yellowed A LOT. They are now just 5 months old. I'm not happy with the Giesemanns. Currently, my fixture is just a Hagen brand GLO T5 fixture, but it does the trick.

[fishoholic]

From personal experience if you want good colours and great growth from your corals go with MH. I would think a 250w MH HQI Hamilton bulb would do nicely. All I know is that our zoos (that we have) and the sps corals (that we had, sold them) would not grow under T5's. The light was so poor for the sps they started to die off, again just our experience. Ended up moving them to the tank with MH and not only did they start coming back but they got lots of new growth. Our lps corals and most softies and our anemone have done great under the T5's. I do find that (personally) I like the look of the MH better, I find it's more of a blue light whereas the t5's seem a little bit more yellow. Although we have had other people over to our house and they like the look of our corals under our T5's better then our MH, so really I find it's more of a personal preference.

[StirCrazy]

Is there a reason you only want to use 1 bulb? It will work, but two bulbs on a 36" tank will give you a real nice coverage. I would go with 250 watt, in the bulb of your choice to provide the color you are looking for. Personally I love the AB 10K bulbs but they are hard to find around here. T5s are Ok, but spend the money and go MH with T5's to supplement the color.

Steve

[Myka]

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

Is there a reason you only want to use 1 bulb? It will work, but two bulbs on a 36" tank will give you a real nice coverage. I would go with 250 watt, in the bulb of your choice to provide the color you are looking for. Personally I love the AB 10K bulbs but they are hard to find around here. T5s are Ok, but spend the money and go MH with T5's to supplement the color.

Steve

The cost of a single MH setup with bulb is cheaper than a 6 bulb T5 fixture with bulbs. I also will not spend more than $500 including bulb(s). I can't justify spending more than that on my "hobby". I refuse to buy 2 MH for my 65 because of the simple fact that it is a 36" tank. Since each halide lights a 24x24" patch I see it as a waste of light (and the reduce, reuse, and recycle part of me doesn't like to waste electricity either lol). This is why I figured that if I went with halide maybe I should go with a 400W HQI, and I may get a bit better coverage, but I have only been able to find one bulb around here and it is a 20K...I don't want to run a 20K. But right now I am leaning towards a T5 fixture.

Originally Posted by fishoholic

From personal experience if you want good colours and great growth from your corals go with MH. I would think a 250w MH HQI Hamilton bulb would do nicely. All I know is that our zoos (that we have) and the sps corals (that we had, sold them) would not grow under T5's. The light was so poor for the sps they started to die off, again just our experience. Ended up moving them to the tank with MH and not only did they start coming back but they got lots of new growth. Our lps corals and most softies and our anemone have done great under the T5's. I do find that (personally) I like the look of the MH better, I find it's more of a blue light whereas the t5's seem more yellow.

That is funny...I grow SPS under my current T5 lighting and it does quite well, especially considering I only have 2.4 W per gallon of T5. T5s come in all sorts of Kelvin as do MH. These Giesemann T5 bulbs are the first ones that I have had trouble with them yellowing with age. This may be because I am running a Midday (6000K) and a single Pure Actinic. It didn't look yellow when they were new though as the Pure Actinic is very blue.

[tang daddy]

IMO 400w mh for my old 65g was enough light to grow sps it all depends on what kind of sps you are trying to grow if digi and monti t5 is good. If you look at the euro tanks they all run t5 but keep in mind that they run 8-10 t5 at 84w ea that's comparable to us running 2x250 or 2x400 with t5 supplementation I currently run 1000w for a 120g and find it suffiecient also if you run t5 for your tank and wish to have sps thrive then you need awesome flow and to feed the sps with ultralith or similiar types aswell as prodibio.

[DanG]

If you're unhappy with the giesmann bulbs, check ATI or URI bulbs. They're the ones I'm using and they have great colour output and I've had them for a bit more than 6 months without any hint of yellow.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

I love the KZ (Korallen-Zucht) T5 bulbs. I added just one Fiji Purple and it made a real difference. That's the true genius of T5

[Pan]

I thought the genius of T5 was there energy savings and money savings

If i every go for more lighting than the MH pendant for the big tank I am going to buy T5, but I am going for a spotlighted type thing in a big tank, wish to see how it works out.