final lighting decision! hopfully - help me choose!

[soondubu]

down to these two lights! what do you think?
have narrowed it down to mh system, and from the same seller on ----. costs about the same.
any advantage of hqi vs mogul for the mh bulbs?
t5 better than vho or pc?
2 X 250 watt hqi metal halide with 4 X 54 watt T5 HO bulbs
vs
2x150 watt HQI mh, with 2x65 watt pc actinic bulbs and 2x36 watt pc 10000K
goal is anemone for the clowns and some colorful corals.
tank is 18" deep.

 

[entice59]

ive have t5's and i have PCs on another tank. I would go for the t5's, they have a better blue then the PC's the blue plus bulbs is what you should be using along with the MH.
not too sure about the VHO's since i never had it nor have i seen it in a tank in person.
Theres always a debate on which is better VHO's or T5's.
If your goal is nice corals, make sure your water is perfect for anemones and good enough for corals.

 

[powdertoastman]

ive never used either VHO's or t5's. so i cant tell you what is better. but one thing to remember is t5's are still somewhat new to this hobby, and no one knows what the long term result will be. while VHO's have been used for a long time now. we run duel 400w MH with a single 175w MH in the middle on our 150, and duel 48" NO 20k's for blue and i think it looks great. if you want alot of higher light SPS's, i would go with MH, but if your not going to do SPS, i would go with VHO or t5's if you like them. all depends on what you want to keep in your tank.