T5s vs MH

[Rikko]

High output T5s with good parabolic aluminum reflectors will put off a stink load of light (stink load???). If you cover the whole tank with them (the reflectors themselves are about 3" wide, so you can only fit 3 or 4 anyways), you'll get quite a lot of light, and for something as shallow as a 10 gallon I could see even tridacnids faring well.

MH is the old glory horse but this is one instance where I wouldn't recommend them, simply because the heat produced will probably give you a nightmarish degree of evaporation in such a small tank. The light output would be great, but if you need to top up 2 gallons a day....

I bought my reflectors from Reefgeek (I think they are ATI reflectors) and couldn't be happier. They clip right onto the bulbs which makes them a breeze to clean. I'm running 4 bulbs off a Workhorse 7 ballast that I mounted behind the tank, though a lot of people report that the Icecap ballasts drive the bulbs hard enough to get AMAZING light output. I don't really want to worry about cooling them at all (I have a simple PC fan blowing down the length of them) so I stuck with the Workhorse.







(Ok, I lied. I didn't get an Icecap because I'm too cheap to shell out that kind of $$$)