T5 lighting enough for a 90g

[Albertan22]

Originally Posted by Myka

You do have to give up the pretty shimmer if you decide to go with T5s, and if you use different colored bulbs you will be able to see stripes of color running the length of the tank (call me anal, but that drives me bonkers). Meh, T5 shmee 5.

Now, now... I've never seen a T5 lit tank in which you can see stripes of colours running through the tank.

I'm a big T5 fan, though I've never had MH on my tank. I've had pretty decent growth on many of my corals even with a middle of the line Tek fixture, and with an 8 bulb fixture find that many areas of my tank are actually too bright for LPS corals. My tank is 24" deep (120g) and I've got a brain on my sandbed that has to be placed in shadow to keep it from shriveling up.

For me the choice revolved around versatility in the colours you can produce in your tank through bulb selection, heat levels, and most importantly in my decision, power consumption. I didn't want to have to run a second circuit just for my tank, and I didn't want my power bill to go through the roof either. My entire tank actually only draws about 850 watts, which is less than some reefers lighting systems I do however envy the shimmer that other people's MH lit tanks have.