T5 or halides

[reefer96]

Im building a 150g (72H x 18W x 27T) and I will be going mostly sps, I was originally thinking about Outer Orbit 3-250w hqi with the T5 actinics, however after seeing that awesome TOTM on T5 HO's its got me wandering about going with 2 36in 6 bulb T5 units. What would you guys/gals do? suggestions/opions please.
thanks.

[gabe3d]

If you asked this question two or three weeks from now I can easily answer you.

Currently, I'm running 3 x 250W SE with 2 x 80W T5. Though I have nothing to complain about i just went ahead and ordered six more T5s to try out for fun. Though the bulbs are 1ft shorter, it won't matter too much in my experience. I used to run a 48'' Tek fixture on a 60'' tank. This will be better since I'm going to stagger the lights. My current tank is 72 x 24 x 30. I'll check back on this thread later on and tell you my experience, if you still need it at that time. :)

[reefer96]

gabe3d

I would like your imput in a few weeks, as I am not going to purchase anything for a few more months unfortunately.
thanks

[gabe3d]

Alright, I just got T5s and this week and will get around to installing them this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes. I settled with the following
3 x Icecap 660
9 x 60'' T5 with Icecap reflectors

Gabe

[jazzmanb]

i have a hard time without shimmers...i love the color you could get with t5, but the shimmers of hallides add life to the tank...they really do,in my opinion anywho..

[hahnmeister]

Go with 5' bulbs rather than two rows of 3'. The 5' bulbs are really 6' bulbs when you consider the wattage per foot ratio compared to the other bulbs, and the 6" left at each end wont get noticed really.

I think its a great way to go... 6x5' T5s, using dual Icecap660 ballasts and Tek2 reflectors... that would rock. I think you would compete with the output of halides, easily.

[tankgeeks]

any other opinions!? im wondering the exact same thing.

[kdblove_99]

I love halides. I have never run T5's. But for me personally when i see and own a reef tank i want to see the shimmer.

I love the shimmer

[Racing1]

Shimmer, Shimmer, Shimmer.....

Just gotta have the Shimmer With a reef tank.......

Halides rock....

[luckyarbuc]

I started with PC and when I was ready to upgrade I had a couple of people tell me that T5's were as good as MH's. Based on this advice I ran T5's for a year, and added several corals including SPS, I also added clams. Under the T5's everything did okay and I thought it look okay as well. I moved to a new 240 a few months ago and used the MH's that came with the set up and there is no comparison. I had my old 120 and my new 240 set up side by side, one with T5's and one with MH's. The T5's looked yellow and had no shimmer. My 240 has 4, 250 watt 10K bulbs and four actinic T'5s for the blue light. My new set up looks like a starfire tank compared to my old 120, and everything in the tank is growing at a much faster rate. Save the T5's to use as actinic but go with MH's for your daylight

In my opinion MH's are the only way to go!!!!

[ReefWreak]

In my experience, I've only run the Nova T5s on my 120, and they were garbage, so I upgraded to 2x250w 10k XM with 440w of VHO superactinic. I get sick growth out of it and really nice coloration. I'm looking to go with 10k reeflux for more color.

Locally there are a few reefers with T5 tanks, and I've been to their houses and watched their tanks for long periods of time, very intently, because although I ran halides, I've always gone back and forth with the idea of switching to T5s because of their efficiency. My concensus was that the T5 tanks can get much better coloration with better par, say a 20k comparison color, but yet have as much PAR as a 14 or 10k halide bulb (ignore wattage here, since it's a shotty comparison at best anyway). I absolutely love the blue colors that you can get your tank looking like with some blue+ bulbs, while still having a few daylights for growth. The colors are really great, the brightness and intensity are there, but the lights just feel kind of bleh to me. Very.... Washed in blue, but not real. I don't quite know how to explain it... But the T5 feels very synthetic, where when I look into my tank, with the 10ks on, it looks like the ocean (especially with actinics off). But the ocean isn't what you want if you're looking for the 20k blue tank.

All I know is that I'm happy with my halides, my friends locally with T5s arn't very happy. Maybe it's just their experiences, maybe they should try out different combinations, who knows.

And I believe that there is a general concensus that for actinic supplement, VHO is the way to go.

[barjam]

I ran T5s for a year and a half and recently upgraded to metal halide. My personal opinion is that T5s do not look very good and I would not, under any circumstances, go back.

[gabe3d]

At the end of the day it's more about preference than anything else. It's proven that T5s are just as good as MH for growth but for color and over all appearance it's all subjective. I used to run T5s for close to two years and was really happy with them, MH I've ran for three years and tried close to 15 different bulbs with VHO and T5s Actinic but could not get the color that I liked which i got from the T5s.

[oct2274]

I run both and personally I think i might just go to all T5. The only thing I'll miss is the shimmer lines but I can deal I think. The people that say that T5HO colors aren't as good never asked or didn't try enough bulb combinations. And someone saying that the T5 tank looked yellow? I have no idea what bulbs they were using but that is very strange. If you can't decide, get both like me :)

[gabe3d]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11451301#post11451301 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by oct2274
I run both and personally I think i might just go to all T5. The only thing I'll miss is the shimmer lines but I can deal I think. The people that say that T5HO colors aren't as good never asked or didn't try enough bulb combinations. And someone saying that the T5 tank looked yellow? I have no idea what bulbs they were using but that is very strange. If you can't decide, get both like me :)

Agreed, there are endless combination you can run to dial in the look you really want. Unlike MH you are stuck with one single bulb and perhaps the actinic supplementation to change the color scheme. There can't be such a thing as a T5 setup that is too much of one color, unless if you have no clue as to what bulbs are in your setup.

[StrategicReef]

I started the hobby with 70W, 150W, then 250 MH.

Now changed to all overdriven T5 now and I can say they are very good and even better than the 250W, same light intensity all across the tank, and don't have to worry about shadows, right now just using some cheap bulbs not even the ATI bulbs, and although it's not blue enough, but I can alway swap out that 6500K sun bulb for something higher temp to tune the colors..
Some SPS turned a bit white in a few days upon switching and later I found out it was actually new growth..

My tank is shallow only 20" and I am not sure how it will work for deeper tank like 27-30". The clams on the bottom of my tank is fine as I can just see their mantel is lit up a little brighter than the 250W MH did. From what I heard the individual reflectors makes the big difference.

Yes I had to give up the shimmer.. not too hard to get used to and all the photos I am drooling over on the forum are taken without shimmer either (pumps off).. I look at the long term effect however, it barely heats up the water at all, the fixture is cool to touch (Aquactinics using 100% icecap parts). This means less watts to run the chiller in summer. I don't use heat at home and I noticed the house is alot colder during light hours now once the MH has been replaced by T5.

[barjam]

And someone saying that the T5 tank looked yellow?

T5 daylight bulbs are very peaky and have huge green (and sometimes yellow) peaks that were hard for me to factor out. If I wanted a blue look it was easy but a good crisp white look without green/yellow was impossible for me.

I don't use heat at home and I noticed the house is alot colder during light hours now once the MH has been replaced by T5.

Are you running less watts than before? 250w of T5 puts out the same heat as 250 watts of MH (perhaps not all in the water but for sure into the room).

Oddly enough my tank temperatures went down upgrading from a 4x54 fixture to a 2x250 mh 2x54 setup. Seems the large fixture was trapping the heat better than my new more open pendant design.

[hahnmeister]

I have experienced the same... halides running cooler than T5s that is... watt for watt. The T5s cover more area so they leave less for cooling, and this 'pocket' can really heat things up. The thing is, with either system, adding a good active cooling system will take care of the problem in almost every case.

[StrategicReef]

I was having a 250W and 150W side by side and there was alot of heat and temperature rise in the tank after about 6 hours.

My T5 fixture is 6x54W overdriven to about 85W so is actually about 500W or so... but the fixture case is barely warm to touch.
But then it is controlled by 2 icecap fans that changes speed accordingly to regulate the internal temperature. I'd say my T-5's lit tank definitely heat up the water less..

Maybe it's the premise that you would usually have the T5 close to the tank.. Mine is suspended 3/4" off the rim of the tank it's almost like a cover. Given this height I wouldn't be able to put a fan array to blow across the lens and water surface like I have with MH.

[db_triggerfish]

my tank is only one week old using 6 x 54w T5 overdriven with icecap, right now my tank only has a couple of corals no sps so just using only 2 of 6 bulbs (1 procolor and 1 Fuji Purple) most of the time, then i turn off those to bulbs and turn on 4 bulbs on the other ballast for 2 hours, then i turn on all six bulbs for 2 more hours. I love MH but T5 give me 3 different color temp. with 2 on blueish, with 4 on much more red, with all 6 on very, very bright in the 12k color range. more bright than most MH tanks i have seen and no shallows. I still feel T5 and MH the best combo, so the down the line i may upgrade to it.

[gabe3d]

Here is a comparison between MH + T5 and T5 alone. The T5 only picture is close to how it looks like but I'll need to create a better white balance profile for the new lights.

T5 Only
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/gabe3d/Aquarium/210/071230_tank1.jpg

MH and T5
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/gabe3d/Aquarium/210/tank_070830_1.jpg