T5 vs MH

[joe&rae]

I am building a 75 to put my reef in, i have two options for lighting in my possession..

nova extream t5, 8x58, or two 175 watt halides??

What is better for the corals!!

 

[sgc0286]

Standard 75Gal? Is it t5HO or t5? If it is not HO I would definately go with the MH.

 

[joe&rae]

yes a standard 75 and they are t5ho

 

[harmy4993]

i can promise there will be a couple peopel who will swear you have to have mh to have the best looking coral and the healthiest coral. not true

its personal prefrence i think. im putting together a 75g also and am going with 6x54 t5. it was a hard choice thou. with mh you have a shimmer effect with the water that almost everyone likes. but you have alot more heat and less bulb option/combos then what you have with t5.

with t5 you have no shimmer effect( can be added with some led's) and less heat. you also have the ability to add diffrent bulb combos. you can add the 10k bulb for growth, the 20k bulb for color, the antic for color, the possiblitys are endless especially with an 8 bulb combo. also what i like about t5 is you have the same wattage coverage over the whole tank. what i mean by that is if you have 300 watts on the left side with 2 10k , 2 20k, 2 antics, a fugi purple and a blue plus on the left side you will have the same thing in the center and the right side. with mh you have one bulb covering 2 foot of your tank and if you use diffrent bulbs on each mh. it doesnt translate to the whole tank. only to that one 2 foot section.

 

[sgc0286]

Yeah, I wish I could run t5HO for all of the reasons harmy stated(mostly heat and energy) but my tank is too deep. I believe 75 gals are 21" deep so you are good to go with the t5.

 

[joe&rae]

In you opinion what combo would look the bes i have a little of all types of coral and plan to get a tang or two as well< I was suggested to do 2 antics 2 20k and 4 10 k or should i just leave the 4 antics and 4 10ks

 

[harmy4993]

id start off with the 4 10k and 4 antics and slowly change them out. i think my plan is to run 2 10k for growth. 1 20k, 1 fuji purple and 2 ati blue plus for color.. the fuji and blue plus work like an antic visually but provide more usuable light for growth so i wont be running antics at all when i finally get them changed.

 

[joe&rae]

ok new question, i put the t5 fixture in my hood and there is about a 1/4in gap on both sides of the light, the fans are pushing out the hot air but is that enough room for it to breath. Should i add 2 fans to the back of the hood to move more air through the hood to help!!

 

[sgc0286]

Are the fans on the top of the unit or the sides? Extra fans will help some, but if there is nowhere for the heat to escape it wont matter much.

 

[jeffwisely]

if the fans are on the sides and a dont have much i would add a fan or two it will help

 

[harmy4993]

only way to tell if you need more fans is to monitor the temp of your tank. if its going up higher then you want then add fans.

 

[thincat]

Just remember that the more fans you have the more evaporation you will have.

 

[cmor1701d]

Why not just go with LED's and get the shimmer effect, great coral growth, low heat, long life...