Imporntant! Lighting q!

[Bear]

I am having trouble with my current MH lighting set up as of now b/c of the heat that it throws. The chiller is on too often and the tank is making the room warm.

I am read a number of things on T5's and I still dont really know much.

If I were to replace this Mh set up on a 112 gallon tank with T5's, how much wattage from thes T5's would I need to keep SPS like acorpora?

As of now it looks like the tank might be going for PC's or VHO, but I have already been told that T5's are better. Looking at the wattages on these lights makes me worry because they do not compare to the PC or VHO.

The tank is around 2 ft deep.

how would something like this work
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_...ents_by_IceCap
or this if it could fit
http://www.reefgeek.com/lighting/T5_...ents_by_IceCap

[leveldrummer]

t5's do put out much more par/watt, so less wattage would be fine, but i would still try to put as many bulbs across the top, and try to get individual reflectors, you should be able to keep sps and such just fine with a good setup.

[Bear]

u think the set ups above would be fine?, at another forum I have been told that it is too much light and that perhaps a 6x54 would be better

[leveldrummer]

i think the 8-80 might be a little over kill, but it really depends on what you want to keep, if your looking for an all sps tank with acros growing on the bottom, i would do it, but im sure the 6x80 would be plenty, the 6x65 should be good too, but you would want to keep all of your high light demanding corals on the top half of the tank. im not a lighting expert either, just giving an opinion.

[fishfingers]

You can never get to much light :P! 6 t5's would be ok but I always like to have plenty of lighting, that way your not restricted to where you keep your corals in the tank. IMO, 8 would be better, with individual reflectors like leveldrummer mentioned. To give you an idea, on my four foot im going to use 6 t5's and a 150w halide (which ill eventually be upgrading to two 150w's). This tank is only 20" deep but I still don't consider it anywhere near overkill.

[Damon]

And you can always turn off a cpl of bulbs if you wire it correctly, or only run some during peak hours.

[Fishfirst]

I think your metal halide setup would work better if you just add some fans over the surface of the water... I'd try that first before investing in new lights.

[Bear]

there are fans blowing already

[Fishnewb1]

Go T-5, your electric bill will love you... The bulbs dont burn out as fast, or heat up your tank. For sps i like fishfingers idea because of the deepness of your tank would benefit from the HQI. T-5's dont have nearly as good penatration to the bottom.

But a upside is for the top half of your tank it will have very good light because of the T-5 water penatration.

The only problem is with those deep tanks where the smaller wavelength have problems and cant travel as far but would still do great for lps.

[leveldrummer]

if you have fans blowing, is it hot under the canopy? can you touch the reflectors or are they too hot? if they are hot, your fans arent working so well, if they are cool, the heat might be comming from a pump somewhere in your sump or a powerhead thats roasting, and different ligts wont help.