Add MH or T5's to my existing PC setup?

Hey all I have a 75g with 4x65 PC from Coralife. I have just softies in there now. I'm looking to get a few SPS but not looking into clams. I want to add either a MH fixture or T5 setup. I'd like to keep the PC on there if possible. I was looking at the Odyssea MH setup with the IceCap ballasts. I know I know but my LFS is using 2 of those 250x2 48" Odyssea's over there coral tanks. They don't sell them there, they only sell the better items but I thought it was ironic that they talk about good lighting and all this over stuff and they use them over the tanks. Seems to be doing good from what I can see. I don't know what temp the bulbs are or what ballasts they are running though. The T5's I was looking at are the Current 4x65 model and the Odyssea one. I like the T5's because they won't produce as much heat as the MH. What do y'all think? Thanks.

 

A nice T5 set up would do well. The tank is not that deep (20 inches if memory serves). Look at the Teks on reefgeek.com for an idea of the cost. You could get away with the 6x54W, but I would go 8x54W in case you want to upgrade to 90g (same footprint) later on.

Metal halides would work very well also.

However. Big however. I would stay as far away from Odyssea as I possibly could. I have owned an Odyssea before. Not good. PC fixture. Poor, poor quality.

I don't know if Maristar makes a 2x175W. I see 2x250W but I would be a little retiscent of placing that over a 75g without further discussion from those who know more about MH than I.

 

I would also go T5 as it is a good upgrade for PC users or beginners for that matter. Not saying that it isn't for advanced hobbyists as well its just that I have seen too many newbees fry tanks with MH or cause some other issue from not properly knowing about lights and corals.
On a 75 a 6 or 8 lamp unit would be great. Downside about the 8 lamp Tek is that it will cover your tank completely and you will need to either take off the fixture or raise it to access your tank during maintenance.
The thing I don't care for about the Tek is the wiring. One switch turns off the first and last lamp and the other switch turns on/off the rest in the middle, but its not a deal breaker IME. If you really felt motivated you could gut the unit and rewire it, but depends on how motivated and if you fell like getting another ballast to replace the one that only fires the two lamps.
The T5s will definetly be enough light to grow pretty much anything in the tank.

MH on the otherhand is another good way to go, this way you have many different options as well, you can do pendants and retro t5, you can do a fixture that is either MH/T5 or MH/PC(I wouldn't do this) or heck you could, if you ran 20,000k lamps run just pendants.
The Maristar is a great fixture by SLS like John stated, pricey but nice. It only comes in 250w MH BUT if you are comfortable with it and are slow to acclimate you could easily run one on a 75 and if you upgrade to say a 120 you could still use it.
If you are going to run that fixture you will save a boat load if you make a retro...

Do you have a canopy?

 

Hello everyone, I'm back from the Caribbean....


I agree, and would ditch the PC's completely and go all t5 on a 75. You could do either t5 or mh with your pc, but I don't think you will get the desired results with keeping the PC's.

I would personally stay away from odyssea, but I know of a few folks that have used that brand of lights with no issues. It seems they did have some teething issues on early halide setups, but that appears to be sorted out. granted those issues were fires, but, I had to tell you because I thought it would be a disservice to you if I did not mention that.