Lighting Help!

[Abiroad]

Okay, I haven posted in a while so here are my current specs

55gal reef tank

I recently had an incident with a hydor heater exploding and taking out pretty much ALL of my coral and a cleaner shrimp. Here is what is left.

Coral-

cabbage coral
maybe some kenya frags that may survive.
everything else fried.

Fish-

2 p. clowns
watchman goby
pj cardinal
6 line wrasse
bi-color chromis

Inverts-

hermits/snails
sand sifting star
brittle star
fighting conch
electric blue hermit

bioball sump. currently running makeshift diy leds

Sea horse tank 12g jbj cube

Cycled and waiting for ponies!!


on to my questions!!!

My 55g which is looking dismal after the heater incident. I had a 24" marine land reef ready LED and a diy system of led flood lights.
The flood lights blew with the heater because it blew my breaker, so i am in the market for new lighting. I want to go the t5 route and this is what i am thinking.

48" 216W T5 HO Aquarium Light Hood LCD Timer Coral Reef 4x54 Fluorescent Actinic | eBay

thoughts? suggestions ??

 

[Abiroad]

or this one
48" Nova Extreme T5HO High Output Aquarium Fixture Saltwater Light Lamps New | eBay

 

[Abiroad]

or this

48" Aquarium T5 HO Light 216W LED Reef Fish w Timer CE | eBay

 

[tonedogz]

If I were you I'd go with the taotronic led's and you won't have to buy a bulb for ten years. There about $300 for two units and when you factor in the cost of your t5 unit and the cost of the bulb it comes to about the same price plus the cost of changing those bulbs every 6 to 8 months. The corals will do much better also.

 

[Abiroad]

bah that is a large chunk of change now, but i didnt really consider the bulb factor. I will look into them.

 

[tonedogz]

Don't forget those bulbs are about 25 apiece so thats $100 every six months and they won't grow corals like the led's plus they give off alot of heat.

 

[Abiroad]

I ended up getting an Odysea ( boo hiss i know) pc set up. Say what you will... it was the right price and all my corals are perking right up after the heater incident and living in the dark so long.