MH or T5?

zanoshanox

zanoshanox

Active Member
I have a 65 AGA w/ overflow. I'm going to get my new lights soon, I am thinking of maybe the tek 6 bulb t-5 fixture, or a coralife 2x150 14w MH fixture. I wanna do clams anemones, SPS. I can get a used coralife fixture for about 250.00. Where as the tek fixture would run me about 330. Anybody got ideas/oppinions/good bad? I know a lot of ppl aren't sold on t-5's yet but i know you can do SPS under them, it's been proven. Which will give me the most light on such a tall tank? (18 inch i believe)
 
thereefkeeper

thereefkeeper

Member
I have a tank with T5s but I do not keep coral in this tank. Haven't tries, so it does not mean it will not work, but this tank is FOWLR. The Reefs all have MH and do well. JMO
 
wangotango

wangotango

Active Member
im a big fan of T5 myself. the T5 will be cheaper to run, and will probably give you equal if not better par than the 150 setup (there have been tests). you can keep anything you want under the T5, but keep sps and more light demanding clams like croceas towards the top.
-Justin
 
myreef05

myreef05

Member
To me MH were never an issue. The heat generated along with the cost of running them and cost to purchase was enough to sell me on T5's.
 
gmford1979

gmford1979

Member
with MH, you may run into a problem of heating the water too much. if so, you'll have to get a chiller which will run you around $400. just about everything does good under T5's. like Wango said, just keep the light demanding up towards the top.
also, i have heard nothing good about Coralife lights. everybody that i know on here says they are cheaply made, flimsy, and have had electrical problems. go with either the Tek or Nova. if you can wait, the Current USA Nova Extreme is coming out with a new T5 light in late April that has individual reflectors.
 
J

jesses89

Guest
i actually just got the nova extreme light fixture today... how do they work?
 
puffer32

puffer32

Active Member
Originally Posted by Jesses89
i actually just got the nova extreme light fixture today... how do they work?
They work fine in my 55. I have 4x54 watt bulbs. But i did alittle experiment and found they actually heated up my water more then my Current MH 2x150 fixture/ I made sure my house temp was the same and used both for a week. The T's made the temp go to 86, the MH kept steady at 82. And my clam seems happier under the MH and so does the monticap. I plan on switching to the T'5 again and seeing what happens.
I had 8, 54 watts of T5 NE on my 150, and i switched to 2x250 MH with 4 T5's 54 watts with individual reflectors and everything is looking so much healthier, and the water temp is about the same as with the T's. Maybe its the HQI bulbs instead of the older type of MH making the temp stay down.
 
gmford1979

gmford1979

Member
Originally Posted by puffer32
They work fine in my 55. I have 4x54 watt bulbs. But i did alittle experiment and found they actually heated up my water more then my Current MH 2x150 fixture/ I made sure my house temp was the same and used both for a week. The T's made the temp go to 86, the MH kept steady at 82. And my clam seems happier under the MH and so does the monticap. I plan on switching to the T'5 again and seeing what happens.
I had 8, 54 watts of T5 NE on my 150, and i switched to 2x250 MH with 4 T5's 54 watts with individual reflectors and everything is looking so much healthier, and the water temp is about the same as with the T's. Maybe its the HQI bulbs instead of the older type of MH making the temp stay down.

really??? i have never heard of anyone having more temp rise from T5 than MH. thats odd
 
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