T5 lights for mushroom tank

[civickid]

I think i have decided to go with 8x80 watts t5 individual reflectors to light my 220 that will be a mushroom only tank. Maybe down the road a sps tank. Would this be enough light now and down the road for both to thrive even down at the bottom.

 

[triga22]

Yea

 

[civickid]

Would 1 system be good enough or should i get 2 of them. I should have enough room to get 2 on top of my tank. What do you think.

 

[chilwil84]

one will let you keep a lot of types of coral i would start with that and if you want to try sps in the future than look into another set

 

[grubsnaek]

na i think you would be good with just the one. cause they are very good lights. when going to SPS you can save enough and get a couple MH retro's and your straight.

 

[larryndana]

what about going with MH from the beginning?

 

[puffer32]

I use a combo of both. I use to have just T5's but really glad i combined them.

 

[isistius]

the 8x80 is more than eunf for shrooms. for sps, i would double it. my bro (saltnoob) went with a 14x39 fixture for his tank during his upgrade process. looks sweet.

 

[wangotango]

Originally Posted by Isistius
the 8x80 is more than eunf for shrooms. for sps, i would double it. my bro (saltnoob) went with a 14x39 fixture for his tank during his upgrade process. looks sweet.
i agree. you can have a great sps and clam reef with T5 (most europeans do), but you will need more than 8 bulbs.
-Justin

 

[civickid]

I have seen some tanks on the site with T5 and it looks too white to me. If i got 8x80 watters. How many of them should be 10k and vise versa. I like the look of 15k halides maybe even 20k. I was thinking 5 actinic and 3 10k. But i dont know if it will be too dark. I just like the way some corals glow under the more blue lights like listed above.

 

[chilwil84]

4 or 5 aqua blue or blue plus ati's, 1 ge 6500k for added par and some low end of the spectrum colors, and 2 or 3 uvi 10 k
gives a blue color but not 20k blue