Asking about lighting for 55 gallon reef set up

[Alofrisco]

Asking about lighting for 55 gallon reef set up..

I'm just starting out and maxed out all I can do with freshwater, ready to venture off now with the big boys. Over been reading for over a year and gained a lot of knowledge but its only good when applied, thats why im asking yall. For a 55 gallon I'm thinking 240 watts but my cost range is about 200$ and I'm thinking t5

 

[carey]

It all depends on what you want to keep. To keep a majority of corals then a 4 bulb t5 or a dual panel led would be my choice. You can get each led panel for about $150 on ebay, a little more than your budget but you will have no concerns about not having enough light. I have tried metal halides, t5's and led's and I lean towards the t5's or the led's. I have a single led panel over my 60g cube now and it is way more than enough light to penetrate the 24 inches deep it is. All the rest of my setups have t5's and I have never had an issue with keeping anything. You just have to budget in the bulbs that you will be replacing every year or so and it comes out cheaper to go with the led's as they are usually good for 5-7 years easy.

Hope that helps!

 

[Alofrisco]

it dose help thank you, but about watts per gallon. When watching mrsaltwatertanktv he did a study on the leds and the t5 won. The leds just where not doing what the t5 did. I was going to go with a 6 bulb t5, 12000k white, and I think 8000k blue. I think the watts where 350.