What Lighting?

[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.