T5 lighting

[Reefer Rob]

One thing you will get with T5s is a very even distibution of light, since the whole top of your tank is covered with tubes. Very little shadowing in the tank, and the corals receive light on all sides, more similar to what would happen in nature. To duplicate this with a single point light you would need to move it across the top of the tank during the course of the day to simulate the movement of the sun.

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by Chin_Lee

Has any aquarist ever been able to successfully debate the pros of having multiple T5's that are equivalent in wattages comparable to that of metal halides?
I just cannot see the logic of having to buy 8 T5 bulbs to get 800 watts of lighting when you can achieve the same or better lighting with 3x250W or 3x150 MH bulbs?

Iwan has a lot more light over his tank than he needs.

Also, Europeans replace their bulbs well before they start to have even the slightest change in performance. Kinda like how the Japanese replace their car engines at extremely low mileage (something like 50,000 km's if I recall correctly). A lot of people, namely Americans, run their bulbs for 12-14 months with very little decline in performance. Me, my Infiniti has over 180, 000 kms on it and I don't plan to throw it out anytime soon...