T5

all depends on what you're keeping in the tank man. PC's on a small tank like that with good bulbs usually do great, going to a dual daylight and a dual acintic may save you some cash and be a better option really

Or you may want to look at something more like Aquarium Lighting for Nano Reef Aquariums: Viper HQI Metal Halide Clamp Lamp
That would give you the ability to keep all the way up to clams in the tank and have 0 lighting issues but some softies tend to not respond as well to MH

 

ok, would it be a good idea to have both the viper and the pc on the tank?

 

ok I think its time I step in here and say something about T5HO's since I use them on my coral growout tanks...

T5HO vs Metal Halide
1 watt of T5HO has 32,000 Lumens(intensity)
1 watt of MH has 20,000 Lumens

The downside to T5HO's is the light penertration. If you plan on having a SPS dominant tank, then you need to keep the distance from the light to corals less then 20"s. If you have leathers or other moderate light demanding corals, then its ok to have them at 24" from the light. Mushrooms and other low light corals can be as far as 36" from the light.

Individual reflectors are overrated, I am speaking from FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE, not from something I read online or from what some moron told me. If your tank is less then 20"s tall, there is no need for individual reflectors.

Watt for watt on on most tanks, T5HO is the way to go in my personal experience. 95% of the people who run down T5HO's have never had them.

For whoever said at 10"s of depth there was zero on their light meter, check this tank out... Tank of the Month

 

Here is another grower who ONLY uses T5HO

Coral Maternity in Portugal

 

I've never dogged T5HO's I use them on one of my tanks as well, just stating what a buddy and I found on one of the light fixtures he has, was brand new bulbs but in a 1.5yr old setup so maybe it's got a shitty ballast or something but it did have 0 useable light at 10" why, I dont know but thats what we got.

We did test a simular setup with T5's that were running at 80 watt on 54 watt bulbs and they actually had similar %'s with MH's on light penetration

Like I said above also though. It all depends on what your putting in the tank too, Why spend the $ on T5's or MH's if PC's will work just fine and he already owns a PC setup that just needs bulbs

 

pc are not that great. I know people have been using them for a while. But the color and grow you get from t5 is top notch. Come one bulbs for 20.00$ Why spend 60.00$ on pc. They just aren't that bright. I think that t5 is that best thing that ever happened to reef lighting. Get the nova you won't be dissappointed.

 

PC's are good if your corals are less then 12"s away the light, but good luck having the corals maintain bright colors. Ive personally experienced that as well.

Heres the proof about PC's. I was using a 4x65w coralife fixture, 2xactinics, 2x12,000K
This pic is when I first got it.


This pic is about 3 months later.


As you can tell, the color has faded a lot.