72 T5 lighting or two 36 T5

[sree]

Hi,

I have the 72" 125g tank. Planning to keep the hardy soft corals only wiht T5. I am thinking about 360 to 400W will be good for this. Looks like its harder to find the longer 72" T5s. What do you think about going with two 36" T5s instead?

 

[raisedonnintendo]

Sree;513497 wrote: Hi,

I have the 72" 125g tank. Planning to keep the hardy soft corals only wiht T5. I am thinking about 360 to 400W will be good for this. Looks like its harder to find the longer 72" T5s. What do you think about going with two 36" T5s instead?

What's don't mean much n depending on what softies u could prob use cheaper t8. I've seen mushrooms grow with no lights over a tank. Just what's on n the room. But you could do two shorter t5 that will work. I'd do two dual cfl n back n two dual t5 n front. U could stage the lights then to make an artifical sunrise. Turn the t5 on midday. U could prob do hard corals then to if u want

 

[texhorns98]

It will be hard to find the longer bulbs, for sure. Depending on the mounting (hood, fixture, canopy) you could run two 36" and be fine. If you REALLY only plan on softies (how many of us started off that way?) then T8 would be sufficient. I, however, would plan on you wanting the cool frogspawn one day and go with T5s!

 

[mufret]

There aren't any 72" T5 bulbs (the longest T5 bulb manufactred is 60") so even the 72" fixtures that are available use two banks of 36" bulbs. 8 of the 39w bulbs should give you plenty of light and give you the ability tomix and match bulbs to get the color you want as well as give you plenty of light for corals.

 

[texhorns98]

Woops! Shows you how much I know...

I knew I hadn't ever seen bulbs that long, so I was kind of right...a little.

 

[jead85]

I say you just go halides now. You may not want sps and clams now. But you will!!

 

[sree]

mufret;513563 wrote: There aren't any 72" T5 bulbs (the longest T5 bulb manufactred is 60") so even the 72" fixtures that are available use two banks of 36" bulbs. 8 of the 39w bulbs should give you plenty of light and give you the ability tomix and match bulbs to get the color you want as well as give you plenty of light for corals.

Thanks.. I was thinking of the same. With 8 bulbs, the total wattage would be 312W. Is that enough for this 125g tank? Most of the reefers here seems to keep around 4W/gallon. This would mean I need about 500w?

I saw only one 72" T5 fixture on ebay. What do you think of this unit?

 

[texhorns98]

That fixture is a T5 normal output one. I'm not sure if the bulbs you would find around a LFS would work since they are 39W for the 36" ones.

 

[mufret]

Not sure I'd go with that one. Besides stating it uses 35w bulbs, it also doesn't say it has individual reflectors. That's very important when looking at T5's.

 

[sree]

Thanks a lot for the advice..
How about the current nova extreme pro t5ho 468W? Will this be sufficient to handle any kind of corals? Or would I have to upgrade at some time later?

 

[texhorns98]

Sree;514289 wrote: Thanks a lot for the advice..
How about the current nova extreme pro t5ho 468W? Will this be sufficient to handle any kind of corals? Or would I have to upgrade at some time later?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Current-Nova-Extreme-PRO-72-T5HO-Light-468-Watts-/380175885339?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58843fa41b">http://cgi.ebay.com/Current-Nova-Extreme-PRO-72-T5HO-Light-468-Watts-/380175885339?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item58843fa41b</a>[/QUOTE]

IMO, you could keep pretty much anything you'd like with those lights!

 

[sree]

Thanks. Looking at the specs, I see that the only cons is the lack of lunar leds. Is this a big deal? The other option is the Aquaticlife 12 lamp T5HO with 468W for the same price.. This comes with the lunar led. It looks like the current nova has more favorable review in the net. What do you think? Are the moonlights worth it?

 

[texhorns98]

I like having the lunar lights, but I don't believe your system will care either way. You can always add lunars later.

 

[acroholic]

Moving to reef discussion.