Reef lighting pc or vho??

[tkramer17]

I have a 55 gallon saltwater aquarium right now with abotu 50 pounds of lr and some fish and inverts, all of my water level have been stable and i am interested in taking the next step, i want to be able to keep most corals and maybe a photsynthetic clam like a t. maximai don't know much about vho, i am currently looking at 2 different power compacts 1) the jbj 4x65 w or 2) the custom sea life 4x65 with moonlite. are these lights a good direction to go for the stuff i named, if you need more tank specs just let me know. thank you ~T

 

[Len]

There's a third option: T-5's. These are brand new and are extremely efficient. Sunlight Supply manufacturers them and they are definitely the best fluorescents, bar none. I highly recommend them. I believe various of our sponsors them them, (IIRC Coral Reef Aquarium & Pet Warehouse definitely have them). List of sponsors can be found at www.reefs.org/sponsor.html . There's three pages, so make sure to check them all out for the best prices.

 

[tkramer17]

abotu how much do these t-5's run, and what are the benefits of them over pc or vho lighting, with the pcs i am looking at i will get about just under 5 watts per gallon how do the t-5's compare to this? is there anywhere that i can do some reading on the type of lights i can do? i currently have a regular flourecent that is running like 10000k(?? does that sound righ ??) the only thing i have in there remotely close to a coral is a polyp and its, well i should say they are doign very well.

 

[Len]

The advantages of T-5's is they're more efficient, so per watt you get a lot more light. Having seen them, I'd say that a 70 watt T-5 is comparable to a 110W VHO (off a Icecap ballast). The "watts per gallon" rule of thumb really is not a good measure since it negates just about every variable, from tank depth light quality to lighting's efficiency (for example, you wouldn't say 250W of incandescent over a 25 gallon is great because it's 10wpg ). T-5s are the best fluorescents bar none IMHO.

For your tank, a 4 bulb 4' fixture should be sufficient for most corals and runs about $250. Better yet, a 6 bulb 4' fixture will be very bright (about $340). There's also a 8 lap 4' fixture (over $400) that is amazingly bright. I suggest you buy the brightest setup you can because eventually, you'll want to get more corals .... just ask any reefkeeper here Saves money buying "right" the first time around.

BTW, a 10000K bulb isn't too high. I use 10000K metal halides supplemented with actinics.

Coral Reef Aquarium carries Sunlight T-5's (click on the T-5 Teklight on the bottom of their homepage for more info).

 

[das75]

what are the T-5 like for heat output from the bulbs?

 

[tkramer17]

Thanks alot len i will look into it, they sound great, maybe one of my LFS have a setup like it that i can check out... the only problem i might have with that is mounting, the power compacts i was looking at just slid onto the tank would i have to hang these t-5s from the cieling or buy some type of canopy for them?