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View Full Version : Confused between T5 and MH. Please help!


vortex6
08/05/2006, 10:04 AM
I'm needing to light my 180 gallon tank. It's 72" x 24" x 24". I plan on keeping pretty much everything in it. Softies, LPS, SPS, clams. The part I'm confused about is they say you need so many watts per gallon but I also hear that T5s are much friendlier on your electric bill. Since I'm needing around 1000 watts wouldn't I need 1k in either MH or T5 or do I not need as many watts running T5? Are T5s the same as household lamps where they put out 60w of light but only consume 15w? If this is the case is there a site I can actually see how much power they use?

What would you guys recommend I use for lighting? I have a canopy that sits about 6" off the water so if I go MH I would have to ditch that but that is not a problem if that is the better option. I'll be using a DSB so I will need something that will penetrate 20". I had 1 recommendation made to me to go with 8 36" T5s running on Icecap 660s but that just doesn't seem like enough light to me. My canopy has 2 36" sections across the top so that was the reason for 36" instead of 72". I could modify it to be 1 piece if needed.

The shimmering effect of MH sounds really cool but at the same time I would like to have something where all the light is directed as much as possible into the tank where it doesn't light up the entire room. I don't want to look across the room and be blinded by lights.

I'd love to hear some recommendations and I'm sure I'll have lots of questions too. Thanks.

danskim
08/05/2006, 10:34 AM
Forget the watts/gallon.
Your lighting will depend on what you want to keep.
That said, I would get 8x80w (each bulb is 5 feet) with a staggered bulb configuration.
Go for a Tek or Icecap retrofit.

Sk8r
08/05/2006, 10:50 AM
You cannot have great success keeping softies [except mushrooms] with stonies [lps, sps]. Softies emit toxins that inhibit the growth of stonies, and stonies in general require light that will damage softies. Both kinds of reef can be beautiful and look like the "Tank of the Month" pictures. They just have different life requirements.

If you want mh, get some light pine and waterproof it well, and bend or cut stand-matching formica in a 9 inch band [you can sometimes bribe Lowes to cut it for you, for a price] that will be rimmed with more coated light pine, on the inside. Set your mh on that canopy, which is totally open, and which you can cut for hoses, etc. This arrangement supports the lights at the right height, prevents glare from escaping into the room, and keeps fish from jumping out onto the carpet.

If you keep softies only, your t-5's will suffice---and would suffice if you want to keep only lps stonies, some of which have to be shaded [notably bubble] from mh intensity. If you want to keep acroporas [the colored, branching sticks and nested plates] stylophora, and pocilloporas, you'll need mh.

In my 52gallon, 36" bowed wedge, I have one 250 mh 10000k, backed by 2 actinics for color balance [my Ushio 10000 has a yellow bias that can make things look sickly if I don't have the actinic blue cast in there]. This adequately covers the area of my tank. For your 72" long, you'll need a fixture that runs the length of your tank, and contains either 2 or 3 bulbs, maybe 175s, maybe 250's. I'm not about to try to calc that for somebody else.

Your best bet in that regard would be one of those nice light kits that has a glassed in bottom [trust me, you don't want fish-splash hitting a bare bulb---suicide.] And that sits up on stilts. You could modify the rig I gave above to accommodate that.

Don't forget when counting your costs that you have ballasts, one for the actinics and one for the mh.