Narrowed to 2 Lights, Help me decide

I have narrowed it down to two types of lighting for the frag tank.

Its a standard 55 gallon (48x13x20) frag tank.

A 4x54Watt T-5 setup thats 48" Long.

OR

A 2x250 Metal Halide unit thats 48" Long.


The T-5's are half the price of the Halides.

Which would you get for a frag tank, and why?

I don't have a whole lot of SPS being fragged just yet ... but want to keep myself available to do so.

I can always build an eggcrate rack to suspend the sps higher.

 

2x250w 10k mh for frag tank to speed growth also i pick them because i hate buying things twice i always want more out of my equipment therefore i have 2xt5 atinic and 1x250w 10k mh

 

Boy tough choice... I PERSONALLY would go T5, as I really like the pros on them and feel they outweigh cons.. I think it also has more versatility and you will be running WAY less wattage and would be accomplishing similar results. In my eyes the 250s would be overkill you could get away with 175s if you want.

The only downside I would foresee with T5 is depending on the type of frags you are planning on growing, if you are going to be growing favids leave them on the bottom.. For some reason I have seen T5 more than MH affect favids negatively.
SPS will do fantastic with the T5 no doubt, and you will save money long term. BUT conversly the MH will grow the SPS like crazy also.... SO in the end of the day its a coin toss for you, you need to weigh your pros and cons and see what would work best for you..

Oh forgot to ask.. what are the fixtures in question?

 

Mh due to the fact it is a frag tank. You must be using th tank to grow and sell and like said above the mh seem to make corals grow faster.

 

I have never had T5 lighting before so I cant express my opinion or any facts for that matter, but I will say this. If your frag-tank would have been shallower, I would have said to go with the T5's. Being that its 20" deep and assuming that you will want to use all available "real estate", I personally would go with the MH. Just my 2 cents


Luna

 

I don't think there is any proof that MH would grow corals faster than T5... What matters in growth speed is water quality, food source and amount of PAR... regardless of the light type if you meet these requirements the corals will grow fast. I can use many T5 lit tanks as examples. Granted I am not saying MH won't work I am saying T5 will. MH will work well, but you will also be drawing almost 2x the wattage.

T5s will easily penetrate 20" Mine penetrate 24" easily as well..
T5s coverage is more even and "blanket" like... MH is more "chaotic" so if anything T5 would be easier for a frag tank as far as "real estate" is concerned you can be pretty sure that your "levels" in the tank will all have similar PAR values and light coverage.

 

I would go T5s in a 55g.....even in a frag tank.