whats your opinion ?

winyfrog

winyfrog

Yep!
okay I am going to be upgrading my lighting on my 180, its official I want to keep more sps.

right now I run 4 t12 vho 110 watts each, they will grow sps but those corals are inches from the surface, therefore you just can't enjoy the corals as much. I miss my old sps tank. I was originally only going to grow softies and lps in this tank.

should I add in t5s or should I reconfigure my entire lighting and add in a 250 MH.? I am so undesided........aaarg
 
well, personally i'm kinda in the same situation, i want to go to more light demanding livestock, and so i'm faced with the same lighting decisions...

I chose(well, i have chosen, i just havent saved up enough allowance to start getting parts yet) to go full t5. I think that for the heat issues, the amount of light, and overall efficiencies, that t5 is better in the long run for my needs.

something else that i considered, is that the MH bulbs get so hot, any splash could cause it to bust. with the t5's i think that there is less risk of it happening. dont know that for sure, but its my theory...

also how long is a 180? 6 feet? so your gonna need like 3 MH's then, right?
thats a lot of heat.... and lots of power on the electric bill.....
 
Considering the depth of a 180 (24"), I would go with 250w MH and never have to worry about what you can keep or where you can place it.

Also, there is a common misconception that T5HO's run cooler than MH's. If you used 300w of T5HO, they put out the same amount of heat as 300w of MH. A watt puts of the same amount of heat regardless where it comes from. A 100w fan puts out the same amount of heat as a 100w hair drier.
 
I agree, mh get very hot and expensive over all...but, if you can keep your water temp constant then yeah, go ahead and get the mh because then you could place sps's anywhere in the tank like you want to do. If you don't want a sky high electric bill, or if you think you're gonna have heat issue, then t5's will be a better choice...with those, the color combinations are endless...just look into getting a 8 bulb fixture with ind reflectors...you get about the same par as mh, but less wattage and energy and heat.
 
ccCapt said:
Considering the depth of a 180 (24"), I would go with 250w MH and never have to worry about what you can keep or where you can place it.

Also, there is a common misconception that T5HO's run cooler than MH's. If you used 300w of T5HO, they put out the same amount of heat as 300w of MH. A watt puts of the same amount of heat regardless where it comes from. A 100w fan puts out the same amount of heat as a 100w hair drier.
Click to expand...

ok, i cant argue about the MH's and a deeper tank, i'm not experienced in that area, but what i will argue is "300w of T5HO, they put out the same amount of heat as 300w of MH"

before i start, just how deep do you want to go, cause if you want to go all the way down to conservation of energy, and the fact that in your example of the fan, that by mechanically moving the air, then you are imparting some frictional heat, we're gonna be here for a while....
remember that some of the energy is converted to kenetic enerty and not heat...
 
after reading that thread, i would like to retract my previous statement. i can no longer say weather t5's or MH's give off more heat.. but i still feel that the T5's are safer..

even if they did give off the same amount of heat, the MH is still gonna have higher temps, (same amount of heat with a smaller surface area = hotter surface temps)...

then there is the restrike issue with MH's(i live where the power blinks several times a day, so this would be an issue)

not to mention that just tuching a MH bulb (from what i understand) can damage it, and touching a long tube wont....

with a multi bulb t5 system, you can pick which spectrums are located in specific places(say if you wanted your actinics centered rather than near the front or back)

The MH's do give more of a ripple to the light....

dark areas between MH's
 
umm project my fixture has a nice piece of glass the protects it from water and stupid reefers (me) I would go with a mh/t5 combo. I have seen mh/pc combos also but dont have one so could give you a opion on that.
 
The biggest difference between MH and T-5s,is how much usuable light you get in the per watt.I dont know the exact par ratings and wouldnt even know where to find them,but I used to keep SPS in the bottom half of my old 75 with no light related issues.Granted it was a 432 watt fixture though.
But I to would go with a MH/T-5 combo.
 
Yote was that fixture t5s? or MH?

I already run 4 t12 (vho) bulbs are don't want to replace them I will still use them only with the combination of T5 or MH. I will take a picture tonight and post for you how they are set up right now, I am using a retro kit so I can move things around. My tank is built in therefore I have quite a bit of area to work with.

I'm not afraid of the electric bill I won't see to much of a change with everything else that I have running at my house. (hubbies 120 has 400watt MH and a 96 w pc actinic, my frog tank runs 2-96 watt pc, my pond has 2 barracuda pumps and a large UV sterilizer, and I have a hot tub) so 1 or 2 250 watt MH won't make a big difference. I know if I run only one 250 that I will be more limited, but 2 would be fine. I think 3 would be awesome but not necessary.

I am just indecisive I have allways run MH to grow my SPS and am concerned for the coloring of my SPS will it be the same under T5's and what is the growth rate? does any one know with sps under t5's.
 
dont you want 1 mh for every 2ft of tank? i would just diy some mh kits ask cccapt he has the template to make lumaric style reflecters
 
I guess my actual question is what is the growth and color for SPS grown under T5's. with what wattage?

If I go with MH in a 6 foot tank 2 will be more then enough. I also have reflectors etc. I just don't want to change my entire lighting configuration which is what I would need to do if I go with halides. If I go with T5's I can just add them in between my T12's.
 
winyfrog said:
Yote was that fixture t5s? or MH?

I already run 4 t12 (vho) bulbs are don't want to replace them I will still use them only with the combination of T5 or MH. I will take a picture tonight and post for you how they are set up right now, I am using a retro kit so I can move things around. My tank is built in therefore I have quite a bit of area to work with.

I'm not afraid of the electric bill I won't see to much of a change with everything else that I have running at my house. (hubbies 120 has 400watt MH and a 96 w pc actinic, my frog tank runs 2-96 watt pc, my pond has 2 barracuda pumps and a large UV sterilizer, and I have a hot tub) so 1 or 2 250 watt MH won't make a big difference. I know if I run only one 250 that I will be more limited, but 2 would be fine. I think 3 would be awesome but not necessary.

I am just indecisive I have allways run MH to grow my SPS and am concerned for the coloring of my SPS will it be the same under T5's and what is the growth rate? does any one know with sps under t5's.
Click to expand...

Thats fixture was the 8 54 watt bulb Nova Extreme T-5s.
Had great growth on my SPS with em along with great colors.But thing with T-5s,is you can configure the bulbs to get any color temp you want.
 
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