Lighting question for my frag tank please help!!

[buddah001]

My son and I built a frag tank. 40 g breeder. We are not planning on making any money just to have some fun and possibly get some corals fragged and watch them grow. I am very undecide on what lighting to go with. Right now it has a 192watt CFL fixture that I had laying around with a 10k and actinic bulb.I also have on there 3 T-12 90watt VHO bulbs 1-actininc,1-50/50,1-aquasun. We do have some corals in there right now. Couple of acros some monti some zoas and a large piece of tubinaria. The water has been stable with Calcium at 450,Alk at 11.2dkh and Mg at 1380. I drip lime water from a 10g tank and have a 15g fuge in the system also. I am very handy and love DIY projects and am very undecided on if I should go with T5 or Metal Halides. I have been searching this forum for weeks and have looked at countless threads. I like the look of T5's and the combo of different lights to bring different colors out is amazing. I am looking at more of making my own canopy out of acrylic. I will put plenty of cooling in the mix so MH's are still an option. But I am just not sure if after all of the expense that is involved with building this light system and then I am stuck with just the mh's and cant really change it up that much. To where as with the T5's you can mix and match all day long. But will the growth be there from them. Right now things are growing SLOWLY but I really want to bring that punch out with color and GROWTH. And since I have an Icecap430 ballast I really would only need one 660 ballast and I could squeeze 6 T5's into the canopy. With 6 bulbs 4 on the 660 and 2 on the 430 they should be bright enough to acomplish what I want correct? Like I said this just for pleasure not profit.

[JLopez]

well...the best set up would be a combo of mh's and t5's. i would do like two 150w mh's and 4 t5's. however, when your on a budget, the t5's would be the way to go. i have t5's on everything becuase first off, i always find them either on ebay or craigslist cheaper than mh's, and second they put out less heat. after 10 hours of having them turned on, i can grab a bulb for a few seconds without being burned, whereas with mh's, i touch the bulb with the tip of my finger and suddenly i have my hand in ice water for two hours. as for color, your only going to get that with a full spectrum of lighting, meaning the t5's would be your best bet. like you mentioned, you'll be able to mix and match bulbs which is always a plus. for growth, there is no beating mh's although, you will still get growth with t5's, it wont compare. however, if your not looking to make a profit and dont mind having to wait a little longer for a frag to grow, then t5's wouldnt be a bad idea. but, if you got the cheddar to dish out, mh's are the bomb.com. at www.hellolights.com they have lights very cheap. mh retrofit kits are especially cheap. last time i checked the 250w hqi retrofit was $135 plus shipping. check it out, maybe its in your price range to do mh's and t5's, especially if you already have a ballast you can run t5's on.