Hallide or compact t5

I have yet to see new bulbs in the tank that I purchased. The bulbs in the tank when I bought it were 2 + yrs old. I am going to either A. purchase new power compacts at 10000k 36 watts 1 in actinic the other in daylight.(I can have 2 16inch power compacts in my current setup). Or the other option is to purchase a used metal hallide 250watt clip on k2 viper. My tank is a half circle 36 gallon reef tank. Which setup is going to make my corals look the best. Also if I go with the 250 watt MH will it bleach my rock and such?

 

well,how deep is the tank, the 250 prolly wont sense u want it 8inches or so abouve the water for heat issues. u prolly wont beable to keep high light demanding corals on the bottom once again depending on how deep it is,i would just buy a 250w hqi fixture like a hamilton or somthing, i think the hamilton cayman is on marinedepot.com for like 299@ for a 250w. i would not go compact becaue u will more than likley have nothing on the bottom depending on how deep the tank is give us specs,also what do u want to keep,u will pry only beable to keep softies,mabe a low lighting lps at the top with compacs

 

The MH will bleach your animals if you do not acclimate them to the light by cutting way back on the hours and slowly increasing them back to what they were.

 

From top of tank to top of sand is 21 inchs. I already have the compacts just wondering if I should buy new bulbs to get a better color. Or go with all new MH fixture. Found a used one about 50% off from a guy I know. I dont mind spending the money if the MH is alot better. But I am looking at 60 $ for 2 new compacts or 175 $ for the MH fixture.

About the MH. They are only 6500k is that why you are saying it wont reach the bottom? OR are you saying the 10,000k compacts wont reach.(photosynthetically I mean)

 

Also, some ill informing companies are trying to use the t5 term for compact fluorescents. A t5 bulb, is typically referred to as to mean a t5ho bulb. Yes, there are NO t5 bulbs, but other than the output, the t5ho bulbs look the same on the surface. While PC is 5/8" in diameter, same as a t5, or t5ho, the PC's are nothing like t5, NO or HO.

I would rather take t5 NO any day over PC's, and t5ho blow the NO's out of the water for light making.

PC's are good at wasting electricity and your money, but not much else. If you have small tank, I would rather light it with LED's now versus PC.

 

if you do end up buying new PC bulbs, get the UVL brand from reefgeek.com . they are the best ones Ive seen out there. I recommend using UVL 454nm bulbs to replace your actinics and UVL 14k 75.25 for your daylights. "note 454nm bulbs are not listed on website, but you can call them over phone to order them"

 

two throw in my two cents, i just upgraded to MH that my brother had on his 120 reef. he had to get rid of them because of the heat they produce and his ac isnt the best in the house he lives in but anyways i made a hood 10" off the tank with 4" fans on either side. There is 2 150w and doesn't move the temp of the water one bit. If you do get MH i would go with a 14k to 20k HQI bulb because a 10k or 12k would grow algae like crazy (plus the color is way better) another thing i love about MH is the shimmer affect it gives it. Like mentioned above you will have to get your corals use the to different light so they don't burn which is the biggest pain of MH IMO. I just went through it and it takes a week. start at a hour and a half and add anywhere to 30 mins to a hour each day. PC IMO are just a waste of time and don't give you the coral grow that MH can. Do you research and you'll find the MH are still the best option for keeping corals.

 

What kinds of corals can i have with a Current Pendulum 150w HQI? I was gonna go with Nova Extreme slr t5ho(w/ 2 12k daylights, 1 ATI aquablue, 1 ATI Blue Plus(what isthe diff b/w 54 & 80w bulbs?). But because I am sort of tight on money, was offered the HQI, listed above. Wondering which would be better..

 

If the T5's are going on your 55g, than you could only keep softies at the very top becuase what you explained was two bulbs and an atinics dont do much for corals besides show more of there colors. I would go with the MH because it is a higher output and could get hard corals. the difference is that one is most likely a HO and the other is a VHO or different bulb lengths.

 

Go metal halide, it sounds like you are getting a great deal on it and it would give you the most options as far as corals. Just do like everybody else said and carefully acclimate your tank inhabitants to the new light.