[Packer Lakerfan4]

What is the difference between metal halides and t-5 lighting and which one is better for full reef tanks?

[glampka]

Depends on the type of tank you have & personal preferences. If your tank is deep go with the MH. MH do give off a lot of heat so that could be a problem. T-5 are a type of fluorescent. If you elect to get them be sure to get the one with individual reflectors rather than the one with one big reflector. The individual reflectors return far more light to the tank.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

What are the measurements on the tank?

[Jareth]

Its a lot of individual choice. MH gives shimmer lines and is hotter. T5 doesnt draw as much energy, can be cheaper, and I've heard you have to be careful with the bulbs.

Im choosing T5 due to monthly cost & my tank. My tank has a center brace, and a MH would be blocked by that. Plus you can create shimmer lines other ways.

[pogodzib]

Jareth - Usually you would still want to use MH on deep tanks to aid in light penetration down to the bottom of your tank. What size of tank do you have that there is a bar in the middle of the tank that the MH would end up over. Usually, you want 1 MH bulb for every 2' of tank length and the cross braces are usually set up so that there is 2' between braces.

[Packer Lakerfan4]

well i was asking for my new tank it will be either a 150 or 180 gallon i havent decided yet depends on how good my tax return is i currently have a 150 gallon Tall tank that is FOWLR but all the fish are reef safe and everything from that tank will be going into the new one I will be keeping all types of corals

[Jareth]

46 bowfronts are 36" wide with a 2" center brace.
At least all the bowfronts I've seen.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

With t-5 ho and vho you will have the capability to mix and match bulbs until you get exactly the look you want.If you have 4,6 or 8 bulbs you can do some serious mixing.

[pogodzib]

The 36" long tanks are the tough tanks for lighting with MH bulbs. They are too short to justify 2 bulbs and too long for 1 bulb.

For a standard, 6' long 150 or 180 gal tank, you can use T5HO lighting or MH and get very good results, although IMO, you be pushing the limits with the 29" tall, 150 gal tank. I think 24" is the max depth you'd want to use the T5HO bulbs on, even if you get the best units available. The cheaper T5HO units aren't nearly as good, so you wouldn't want those over a 24"+ deep tank. You'll need to decide if you want the shimmer that MH lights produce with the possibility of heat becoming an issue or if you want T5HO, with teh possibility of some corals not growing/coloring up as well when placed low in the tank. I love my MH/VHO combination over my tank, but if you're going to go with T5HO, I'd stick with only T5HO and not deal with VHOs.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

Wow brian,whats wrong with t-5 VHO? I think they are the perfect replacement for mh with enough light to grow clams down to 29 inch's.

[pogodzib]

They don't make T5VHO bulbs that I am aware of, only T5NO, T5HO, and standard (T12) VHO. With the VHO bulbs being wider, it is tougher to pack them in over a tank and get less light directed into the tank than the T5HO with individual reflectors.

[NATIVEVAMAN]

UVL/URI whatever its name is makes a 10,12,14k and an actinic for T-5 vho.They have thicker glass and longer filiments to handle the wattage.A 36 inch bulb actually runs at 60 watts,its not over driven.

[pogodzib]

OK, I see that there are a couple places that are selling T5 V-HO bulbs now. I figured that they would be coming out with them sometime, but I haven't seen them around. I just read that they can be ran on either a HO ballast or ran on an Icecap ballast at a higher wattage, which seems kind of strange to me. Some people have been over driving their T5HO bulbs, so now they must have decided they can capitalize on that fact (or cheapen up their standard T5HO bulbs so they can't be over driven).