T5 or MH ??

seaweed88 · Feb 13, 2011

I am in the process of hooking a 100 gallon horse trough to a 75 gallon frag tank. I am looking at coloring up and growing out SPS in this trough. I am torn between using 6 or 8 T5s over this trough or going with 250 watt metal halides. Are there any thoughts on which way to go??
Thanks for the help....

Surf&turf · Feb 13, 2011

I had T-5s over my 55 and just upgraded to a 90 with 4 T-5s and 2 DE MH 150's. I like the MH better, better color, faster growth.

seaweed88 · Feb 13, 2011

I had thought about going to 400 radium but I was concerned with heat and electricity usage.

Surf&turf · Feb 13, 2011

I think 400 watt MH would be a little overkill, but 250s should work. I will probably upgrade to 250s eventually.

butts182 · Feb 13, 2011

i just switched to T5 from MH and I regret it.

skinz78 · Feb 13, 2011

I would go with the 6 bulb T5 setup. Less electricity and you really have a lot more bulb options. I personally don't think MH give any better growth than T5.

seaweed88 · Feb 14, 2011

Would 2 - 250s be enough for a 53 inch tank?

btkrausen · Feb 14, 2011

I've always been a fan of MH myself, and have had pretty good success with them. I'm running T5s over my frag tank right now, and feel I don't get as good growth in there as under my halides.

gweston · Feb 15, 2011

I personally like the shimmer of MH. But T5's are great due to electricity savings plus you can mix/match color as you like. I think 400w are overkill except for the large SPS tanks. Plus you'll be sucking down huge amounts of electricity. Consider a balance maybe? 250w halides are great, but you could very well go with 150 or 175 halides, and supplement with an array of T5's. That way you get the best of both worlds. For my 125 long I am going with 3x 250w HQI supplemented with T5's (actinic/blues + pinks) for supplementation. I will use the T5's to transition morning/evening to simulate sunrise and sunset. Don't have to use actinics for T5's though. Easy enough to toss on some extra 10K daylight T5's to boost PAR over the halides too.

tangboy · Feb 15, 2011

I would agree with Gweston for the fact of having bulb options. If you just wanted to do one or the other, I would suggest several 250 MH... I like the 14k phoenix bulb myself

REEFCRAFT · Feb 15, 2011

Hang a 400w over it, blow a fan at it and call it a day.

dougers31 · Feb 15, 2011

If you had a pair of 250's I thnk you would be good. Should be easier to work around as well.

john90009 · Feb 15, 2011

I like halides but not in parabolic reflectors, if you are going with halides you have to get a great reflector or else ur gonan regret it and wont get good par in certain areas, this is the reason why i switched back to t-5 also that t-5 ran that much cooler that i dont have to run a fan on the tank int he summer since my house is poorly insulated and the room gets easily 82.

seaweed88 · Feb 15, 2011

I am thinking that the 250 watt would be the best choice. What do you think the power consumption would be between 2 250 watt vs 6 t5s?

john90009 · Feb 15, 2011

the power u will save is alot with 54 watt bulbs you will be alittle over just one 250 halide however when u run halides just remember the heat you get and how you will battle that with t-5 you et heat but nothing on that scale that you can vent away easily.

m and m · Feb 15, 2011

seaweed88 said:
I am thinking that the 250 watt would be the best choice. What do you think the power consumption would be between 2 250 watt vs 6 t5s?

There would be roughly 500W in MH to 300 in T5's, i have used t5's for curently 2+ years now and im switching to a sfiglio T5/MH combo. 4 T5 bulbs and either a 400w over my 95G cube.

RogerWilco357 · Feb 15, 2011

i have 2 250 ushio bulbs going on one tank with vho's and love the color and growth on my other tank I have 8 80watt t5 on an ATI PM and if i had to choose I would stay with my metal halides..the only down side is the heat and power consumption..but you want to play you have to pay..no way around it I guess next is the L.E.D's

seaweed88 · Feb 15, 2011

Another concern with T5s is how do SPS react when moved from a T5 tank to a MH tank. I have seen some problems when you grow Zoas in a T5 frag tank and then move them to a MH tank. Is this my imagination or is there an issue there?

seaweed88 · Feb 17, 2011

do you need the t5s if you are going to run a 1400 k MH bulb? I hear that the MH give you growth and the T5s will give you color. Can you explain this to me?

dougers31 · Feb 17, 2011

seaweed88 said:
do you need the t5s if you are going to run a 1400 k MH bulb? I hear that the MH give you growth and the T5s will give you color. Can you explain this to me?

I have not heard this myself. I have a 150w 14k phoenix bulb on mine and get growth and color.