Lighting FOWLR

[rodi]

Need thoughts on lighting for 65g FOWLR lighting. Im sure it has been covered on here but I am having trouble finding exactly what I need. I would like a light to add nice growth to LR and to provide nice aesthetic light, I may add an anenome later down the road too. Lets stick without the anenome for now

 

[small triggers]

2 questions,
How wide is the tank?
and How much money do you want to spend?
You can find a really cheap T5HO (depending on the tank width) around $65 that will later on let you sustain an anemone (though I have 2 T5HO fixtures)

 

[rodi]

I believe the tank is 36 inches wide. The budget is rather limited, 100 to 150 tops im thinking. Thanks

 

[bigtankbigfish]

considering you dont have a reef an dont want to spend a fortune I would forget Metal Halide right away. THats overkill for a FOWLR. I was in a similar situation to u 3 weeks ago. I have a 75 fowlr and wanted to add an anemone so I looked on Craigslist for a few weeks when I found a nice T5 setup with 6 54 watt bulbs for 200 bucks. My tank is 10x brighter now and I can basically keep any moderate to easy level anemone I want.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_n7PaXBvAg
thats my tank with the new T5, the reason my tank doesnt "pop" out as super bright is because I have black sand so it doesnt light up like the white would in most tanks..