lighting for 55 gallon

ok i was wondering what is good lighting for a 55 gallon tank for sps coral.
can i have a clam with 4bulb 4ft t5ho. and how many MH will i need. what watt will i need to?

 

bump

 

You can have some SPS and Clams with T5s but usually they need to be placed higher in the tank depending on you tank depth. If your wanting to go mostly SPS and clams, you as well as the corals would be much happier with metal halide. With that being said, I'm don't know a lot about MH so someone else will have to chime in for that.

 

alright cool heres some karma.

 

bumps

 

You can do quite well with the t5ho you have. If you want MH you will need 2 x 175 minimum and 2x 250 if you want SPS dominant (down near the sand). MH will create a great deal of heat and you may need to purchase a chiller to keep the temperature in check.

 

I say go with two 150w MH and a 2 bulb T5 fixture with actinics, run the T5 like 10-12 hrs a day and the MH 8-10. This will create a dawn dusk effect as well as make the colors really pop. The heat can be kept in check with a couple of cheap clip fans as long as you keep the MH about 10 inches off the water surface. Check out saltycritter.com for a retrokit theyre pretty reasonable i got my 3 250s with ballasts, bulbs and reflectors for right at about 500, theyre Hamilton. Also I recommend 14k bulbs right in the sweet spot of growth and coral colarization. Heres a couple of pics of my setup in a custom canopy with 4 clip fans. These were taken before I added the T5 fixture which sits on legs on the middle plastic braces

 

but the only problem is that a MH with t-5 fixture is expansive. a 4 t-5 HO fixture i found is 109. the MH with t-5 HOs is 320. big deference.

 

bump

 

You want to keep clams and SPS? You better plan on spending at least $350 for a decent light fixture. Cheap isn't going to cut it. The Nova Extreme Pro T5 HO has 6 bulbs and will do a good job for you without the excessive heat of a MH. It's not a high-end light fixture, but it will do the job nicely. You will have to spend way more than $109. Sorry, but that's just a fact. Go with that $109 dollar setup, you better plan on a FOWLR.