What kind of lighting should i go with?

[Tom18202]

Hey im setting up my 90g now and im looking to set it up with a little of everything corals fish and what not as opposed to my last 55g of fish only. So i was curious what kind of lighting would i need metal halide or T5 or it doesn't matter. And which brand lighting you recommend. Thanks

 

[kotu100]

its all mainly personal preferance. T5's dont really give the shimmer of MH, but they cast less shadows. T5 bulbs need to be replaced more often than MH's. other than that it really all comes down to what you're gonna be keeping for corals, and what you like style-wise.

 

[pvh]

T5 bulbs need to be replaced more often than MH's.

Are you sure about that? I think you have it reverse here.

 

[kotu100]

Are you sure about that? I think you have it reverse here.

sorry, more bulbs to replace, not more often...

 

[pvh]

Don't forget about the big heat issue that MH put out compare to T5. Yes, you'll have to replace more bulbs but the cost of running a chiller/AC to keep the tank cool and also the risk of overheat IMO is far more expensive than running T5.

 

[brokereefer]

yes and no i keep my tank in a rather smaller room i run the ac on at 70 on energy saver and my mh 250 x2 @ 9 hours a day and my tank doesnt go above 79 i put on fan running towards the tank becuase i like my reef running at 78 and my electricity bill isnt that bad at all i saw a difference of maybe 15 dollars a month from switching from t5's
but like everyone says it what your looking for do you like the shimmering affect ???? i dont have any shaded spots only where i made caves also the mh's are about 5 inches from the water

 

[pvh]

yes and no i keep my tank in a rather smaller room i run the ac on at 70 on energy saver and my mh 250 x2 @ 9 hours a day and my tank doesnt go above 79 i put on fan running towards the tank becuase i like my reef running at 78 and my electricity bill isnt that bad at all i saw a difference of maybe 15 dollars a month from switching from t5's
but like everyone says it what your looking for do you like the shimmering affect ???? i dont have any shaded spots only where i made caves also the mh's are about 5 inches from the water

It haven't been a month yet from the switch to the new light and you already got the saw the different in the bill? I'm still waiting for my bill to see the different.

 

[brokereefer]

its been like 3 weeks for me my bill arrived thursday so im going on this on about 24 days out of the month to be exact before thqat i had 2x175 mh for about another month so yeah thats about right $15.00 a month more running the ac and 2x250 mh lol

 

[pvh]

oh yeah I forgot you have a smaller room than mine to keep cool. I can't wait to see the different for mine.

 

[jbishop]

Once you have that shimmer its hard to go back. The heat can be an issue with MH but that's what i run.

 

[Tom18202]

Thanks for everyone imput, still gonna have to decide might end up with T% just cause even though its only about 15 dollars like u said my gf would prob flip if i did something to raise the electricity bill but i still have some time to figure it out

 

[alpha0r]

Check out the LumenBright III reflectors. You mount them really high ~18" so they transfer a lot less heat to the tank.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2008-06/review/index.php

 

[Moe_K]

moved to the current forum.

 

[Tom18202]

Thanks for the site,
sorry about posting in the wrong spot

 

[SteveDola]

250w of mh will heat the same as 250w of T5. you just need to use a means to take the heat away so it doesnt heat up the tank. I run t5s and love em but if I were going with a 25" deep tank Id have some reservations especially if you want to keep clams or sps on the sand bed unless you were to overdrive them.