Cheapest lighting cost for SPS coral

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by imisky

imo OD NO florescent will not do the job for SPS, i at least havent seen anyone who has kept SPS in the long term with OD florescent lighting. the bulb cost is significantly lower than T5 but you get less to chose from as well and not as well made reflectors for them than compared to the ones made for T5s unless you have a metal sheet bender which can replicate the degrees on the reflectors made for T5s. the only thing thats cheaper about this is the ballast price. With this setup it would be hard to keep SPS colorful as spectrum plays a big part in pigment development in SPS

You don't need a huge bulb selection to get colorful SPS. The main intensity could be produced from GE 6500K bulbs and supplemented with something else. Some colors would look better than others but that's typical no matter which way you go with the color spectrum. You don't need to spend a fortune to get good color but you have to admit that the cheapest light source won't produce the best coral color. 6 NO bulbs would cost you less than $20, 6 T5s would cost over $100.
I've heard of people keeping SPS under such lighting and it sounds completely reasonable. I've kept SPS under T5 without individual reflectors before so I don't think they would be an absolute necessity, a simple reflective housing could be sufficient.
You'll have a hard time finding pictures of any SPS tanks using "cheap" lighting, the fact is the lights aren't that expensive compared to everything else so most don't skimp the point they have the cheapest possible light.