Lighting

[lorenz0]

The best thing you will ever learn about lighting is take that whole watt per gal rule and throw it out the window. Its not that actual watts the lights put out but the par. a 2x39 t5 set-up with a decent reflector with put out way more par than the PC lighting with 96watts. I think your lighting will be a bit low but for what you want with mushrooms, you should be ok.

[sphelps]

You should be able to get a Nova Extreme 36" four bulb fixture shipped to your door for under $300.

I would definitely skip the PCs and go with a 4 bulb T5 fixture, even 2 bulbs would be enough for most stuff you want but 4 would be better.

[skabooya]

sphelps: During the initial planning of this tank the nova 4x39 T5 was what i was going to go with and shipped to my door would have been under $300 but now the prices have gone up and the cheapest i have found it is $315.61 not including taxes and shipping. So now because of this i am looking for new lighting options and other ways to reduce my costs for my salty tank. Its very difficult and because of such ive been entertaining the idea of going fw again which doesnt make me happy.

I found a thread on another forum that used 2x96 PC and they were able to keep softies and some lps. I remember when the options were PC's or MH and slowly t5's came into the picture and now LED's are making there way in. Its kinda funny.

I agree lorenzo that 2x39 T5 will be quite low and i probably wont be happy with it. I wish i found a thread where i could see examples of tanks with low lighting and see what they have in them... maybe i should just go fowlr?? I dunno anymore.

[Trigger Man]

I would keep looking for used t5's if new is not possible. Yes before it was mh and PCs, but with the reflectors that allow for higher par ratings, as well as the money you'll save in electricity, the T5's have been the way to go when deciding between PC and T5s.

[lorenz0]

here is a picture of my first 20gal under 65watt Coralife PC. I used to run pc and it wasn't bad. The one thing i noticed with the lower PC is my soft corals were extremely happy but I am sure if I was running a 2 bulb T5 i would have gotten better results.

My one issue with reccomending a lower light fixture is there will always be some coral that you will want which will require more light. so it is best to start with that straight off the bat.

[StirCrazy]

take a look at the hagen power glo HO T5s, I did a PAR test on them compared to PC and the out put was 50% more for the same length. I have them on my freshwater tank and I am impressed.

Steve

[skabooya]

lorenzo: WOW. all that under only 65watts of PC??? I was told a few years ago that i would need a min of 130watts PC over my 20 to grow any softies. But with 65 yours look really good. Or is it 2x65???

Makes me consider the 2 t5 bulbs even more.

Honestly i dont really like many of the lps and esp sps. The only lps i would even consider getting would be maybe an acan, hammer, frogspawn, elegance, blasto... thats pretty much it. Ive never really liked them (lps, sps).
I much much much prefer pretty rics, zoas and shrooms and cloves as well as xenia. And i LOVE inverts. Tube worms, crabs, snails, shrimp sooo coool.

I do know that with 4x39 i could grow nearly everything including some sps but i dont want that at all. I just want a low matenance colourful tank with softies, probably some macroalgae and inverts... and a couple of fish.

So is 2x39T5 really bad (78watts) over my 36" tank (12"deep, 15"wide) to grow softies well with good colour or would i need more light. I think this might be the boundary lighting scheme. A fixture like this i could totally afford.

[banditpowdercoat]

I know it's out of your price range right now, but the Sunlight supply, TEK light fixture is awesome. I am extremely happy with mine. Looks great, works even better.

[sphelps]

Still cheap on ebay